To All My Imaginary Friends…
XOXO,
Anna
Holidays
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I hope you’re all having (or have had) a good day! I had a quick over-night visit with TheFirstChild and SweetiePie last night and took them their Valentines. I gave SweetiePie the Cutie Pie Pennie Pocket I made and I made Valentine Boxers for TheFirstChild (and his brother too.)
Like last year, SweetiePie did the boxer modeling for me, and like last year’s boxers, the fabric was primarily black, with a valentine print. I think I like the pin-up girls better for boxers, but these conversation hearts were fun too.
I know the day is over for many of you, but Valentine Bunny and I just wanted to wish all of you, very dear and kind readers, a Happy Valentine’s Day! I must run now and deliver a few pennie pockets to my valentines. And then I’ll be making dinner for my special ValentineManoftheHouse (who just brought me a dozen pretty red roses and ran into BigDaddy buying some for MeMum while he was at the store — too funny!)
On the menu: Steak Au Poivre, Potatoes Savoyarde, Oven Roasted Asparagus and Creme Brulee (omitting the grand marnier).
Yum and Smooches!
XOXO,
Anna
Oh, That Monica.
Once upon a time, THE Happy Zombie posted a pattern for some little Pennie Pockets. Pretty soon, they started popping up all over, because this is what happens in ZombieLand. Monica pours the kool-aid and we all drink it. I knew, as soon as I had my first sip that I’d been had. I started hallucinating and equations were flashing before my eyes:
Pennie Pockets + Hearts from Needlebooks + Crochet from Valentine Cards =
Monica’s pattern is so easy and fun and fast. I changed the little triangle on the front and used wool felt so that it would be easier to do the crochet along the edge. I punched holes every 1/2 inch and just started crocheting. I think it took longer to do the machine embroidered little hearts than it did to do the crochet.
I’m lucky enough to have an embroidery machine, but if you don’t have one, you could just as easily do some hand embroidered hearts. There are some really cute Pennie Pockets in the Pennie Pocket flickr pool that have hand embroidered names on them.
These little pockets are addictive too. I had lots of fun trying them in lots of different fabrics and colors, with different combinations of those conversation hearts. (Btw, if you do have an embroidery machine, those hearts are available at Embroidery Library.)
Now, what to fill them with???
XOXO,
Anna
The Christmas Quilts
Wow — little cupcake bunny is sure feeling the love — Thank You! I’m thinking maybe there will have to be a two-bunny giveaway. Don’t forget, if you want a chance to win a bunny, leave a comment on my blogaversary post by tomorrow (Wednesday) night, midnight eastern standard time and I’ll throw your name in the hat.
I didn’t make very many Christmas gifts this year, but I did manage to make some Christmas quilts.
I’d been thinking about making Christmas quilts for my family for several years, so last year, when CrazyMom posted her Christmas quilt for a friend, I knew it was just the ticket. I filed that idea away and this fall, I shamelessly copied her. I made four quilt tops: 1) MeMum and BigDaddy, 2) MyDadLovesMeBestSister and CrazyBIL, 3) TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, and 4) one for us. I only got three of them quilted and bound, so I’ll finish the one for us soon. (Ha! I’m getting quite a stack of UFOs from when I make a gift and make one for me at the same time — somehow I never have time to finish mine LOL!)
The pattern is the Happy Hour pattern from Atkinson Designs. It’s a fairly quick pattern — especially if you’re only making one. I’m kind of surprised that I like this pattern, as I’m a fairly traditional quilter. But, I do love it — maybe my tastes are changing a little?
I don’t know if my giftees have noticed yet, but I sloppily quilted “Merry Christmas 2008” into the quilting. Have I ever told you that I really don’t like stippling? Yeah, I really don’t like stippling. Someday, maybe Santa will bring me a fancy longarm to put an end to my suffering. In the meantime, I can’t really think of any quilting method that’s as quick as stippling when you need a bevy of gifts.
I backed all the quilts in flannel ’cause I love the weight and comfy factor that flannel adds to a quilt. SweetiePie got the polka dot background ’cause she’s a polkie girl. The other two got flannel with Christmas wishes on them. Our quilt will be a combo of the two backings, and since I’m short on both of them, I’ll probably have to take the flannel shirt off of TheManoftheHouse’s back and throw that in too, ala Fons and Porter.
I would say, if you don’t know CrazyMom, you should run over and visit her. But who am I kidding? EVERYone knows CrazyMom! She’s Crazy. Her quilt output is A-MAZING!
And to you, dear CrazyMom (do you like how I talk about you as if you’re not in the room LOL?) — Thank you SO much for your daily inspiration! You might have days when you wonder if all this quilting and blogging is worth it, but all you have to do is look around blogland and see your footprint. Everybody loves you, CrazyMom…especially Me!
XOXO,
Anna
A New Year…
I’ve been having fun slowly catching up with all of your New Year’s posts. Lots of inspiring stuff out there with lots of resolution-making! I gave up making New Year’s Resolutions a few years ago when I realized at the end of the year that I’d accomplished very little of what I’d set out to do. So, this year, I just hope to get a few UFOs done. Everything else is what I say every year, so I’ll say it to myself this year and save myself the embarrassment of failure.
I can’t believe the new year is here already, and sadly, the end of my two week break. Boy, that sure went by fast. The good: Lots of fun family gatherings with games and goofing off. (The cousins got a Wii Fit — what a hoot!) The bad: Too much cleaning and cooking. The good about cleaning: The dungeon disaster from all the Christmas sewing has been conquered. The bad about cleaning: There’s a hefty pile of UFOs waiting for me on my tidy work table. And just so that good cleaning can outweigh bad: I did the yearly thimble polishing which resulted in a new winter blog banner. Yay!
One of the New Year’s posts that caught my eye is Nanette’s post to remember Christmas ideas for Christmas 2009. She and Cheryl are making lists of their ideas and plan to start in September to execute those ideas in order to be better prepared for Christmas next year. I think that’s a great idea — I never get everything done that I’d like to do for Christmas. One of the things that I did this year, that I’d like to remember for next year was to wrap presents with the receiver’s picture on the package.
It started out as an attempt to avoid having curling ribbon on the packages as TheEmptyNestChild eats curling ribbon (which, you may remember, results in very expensive surgeries to remove those ribbons). I printed everyone’s picture and ran them through my little sticker machine. I really wish I’d done this when the kids were little — we used to have the kids pass out the gifts when we opened them and having pictures there would have made it so much easier. Anyway, go check out Nanette’s post — she’s listed some great ideas for next Christmas!
Do you remember the hats that I knit(ted?) before Christmas to send to Jean for donation to the homeless in NYC? Well, Jean gave away a ton of prizes to those who participated and I won this beautiful shawl that she made! It arrived during the mayhem of the holidays so I didn’t manage to get any pictures of it until today. It’s absolutely beautiful! I’ve never knit anything with such a fine yarn.
When SweetiePie was here this afternoon, she very kindly agreed to model the shawl so I could get some pictures. You really should click on the second picture to see the beautiful detail and precision of the stitches. Thank you SO much Jean — I just love it. It’s just perfect — it will go with everything and while I would normally reserve it for something very dressy, just look how pretty that gray looks with the denim of SweetiePie’s jeans! If you haven’t visited Jean’s blog, you should, especially if you’re a knitter or love beautiful pictures (she recently posted some gorgeous sheepy pics.) Jean was one of the first blogs I found a few years ago and she’s still one of my favorites!
(Oh, and pardon SweetiePie’s goofy pose in that third picture. She gave that pose some fancy European modeling name that I’ve forgotten — it looks more like an Arnold Schwartzenegger Girly Man pose to me!)
I hope you all have a good week! I’m not looking forward to going back to work, but returning to the routine will probably be good. (Yeah, if you believe that…) And don’t forget, if you’re interested in a chance at a bunny, leave a comment on my blogaversary post!
XOXO,
Anna