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Goldilocks and the Three Bears

20 Comments / February 20, 2017 February 20, 2017 / Quilting, Store

Just checking in around here because it’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted. How are things going out there? Not much excitment around here — which, I suppose is good. Even Valentine’s Day was pretty uneventful this year. I can’t believe I just said that either — how can Valentine’s Day be over already?

It’s mostly just work, eat, sleep, repeat around here, but we have had a little fun. We visited our cute little FinallyAGirl yesterday. She’s growing like a weed and cute as a button. No pictures though — we were too busy just playing with the baby. The weather has been amazing the past few days too — we’ve set record high temps and the kitty cats are loving all the fresh air at their screen door.

The other fun has been the arrival of the Goldilocks fabric by Jill Howarth. I first saw this line at quilt market — I think a year and a half ago — It was a LONG wait for it to finally be released.

I was so excited to get this fabric that I got the whole line for my little etsy shop — oops! Here’s the feature print — isn’t it cute? I LOVE those adorable bears.

I’ve been having fun playing with it and I’ve started a little applique project. I think it would have been easier to just cut the bears out of the feature fabric and applique them, but where’s the fun in that?

I plan to add some embroidery to the little bears too — to show some of the finer details that would be really hard to do with applique. We’ll see if this project goes according to plan LOL.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with a finished project. In the meantime, have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

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A Sewing Weekend

25 Comments / July 24, 2016 July 24, 2016 / Chat, Sewing, Store

Happy Sunday! Now that it’s over haha. And, it’s even Monday for some of you. I’m late as usual ;-D.

Oh well, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was great, even though it’s hot outside. Not much happening here — it was nice and quiet, so I escaped summer’s heat and spent a lot of time sewing in the dungeon. I finally finished piecing the second Little Red Riding Hood quilt top for my Grandma room. The pieces have been on my little portable design wall for several months, and every time I’d walk by, half of them would fall on the floor. I’m so excited to have that project finished! I’ll hand quilt this second quilt just like the last one, but I’m in no hurry — maybe I’ll put it on the frame sometime this winter.

After finishing the quilt top, I started playing with a new little quilt for FinallyAGirl. Pink!, of course. When I told TheManoftheHouse what I was working on, he said “Doesn’t she have enough quilts already?” Silly Man. Probably, but that’s not the point. Each one of MY babies will have a little hand-quilted baby quilt from their Grandma — you know, one that’s more traditional, and maybe a little keepsake. I made a few blocks to test out the pattern and then proceeded to cut lots of little pieces.

I’m really excited about it — it should be a fun little project. I’m going to take my time and enjoy the process. Here’s the scrap-pile of yumminess so far. ;-D

I also finished some of my little vinyl project bags. Some of the fun prints from the Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements collection have arrived and I couldn’t help myself. You might remember how much I love a good map fabric, and I thought these fabrics would be perfect for project bags. I cut these a little bigger than the ones in my instructions too — 11 x 14 instead of 10 x 12. It’s fun to have different sizes.

I LOVE them. I even used recycled vinyl because I couldn’t find my vinyl stash (er, one piece LOL). Of course, I found it after I had these little bags sewn together. For probably more years than some of you have been alive (!), I’ve been saving those fancy vinyl zippered bags that new mattress pads and comforters come in — do you know the kind I mean? I was thrilled to be able to cut one up and recycle it! Two of my bags have already claimed projects — a new start on some socks and a little something for a certain little baby girl which is almost done and ready to be blocked.

So, that was the weekend here. Pretty boring for most, but exciting for a quilter! Off to bed now — have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna

Baby Bibs

22 Comments / July 17, 2016 July 17, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Store

Ok, I gave you a break from baby stuff with the little backpacks on my last post, so, now I’ll make you suffer again LOL. Really, it will slow down after this because I haven’t been working on any more baby stuff.

I made FinallyAGirl a few bibs before she was born. I love to make bibs — you can do almost anything with them. When TheFirstChild was born, someone gave me two really cute little homemade bibs and I loved them so much that I traced around them to get a pattern that I’ve been using for many years. I was going to say that I used my embroidery machine on a few of these bibs, but, as it turns out, I used it on all of them. First up — some elephants that I’ve used before on terrycloth with a simple bias binding.

Next, simple cotton with a ric rac edge. SweetiePie loves polka dots and monograms. I think this one might be her favorite.

She also love pompoms. This little bib is like the tied quilt that we made at the baby shower. I don’t think those pompoms will last very long, but they’ll be easy to cut off if they start to look ratty. ;-D

And this last little bib is my favorite. A little pink plaid ruffle, some big stitches, and a Peter Rabbit embroidery. I know it looks like Mama Bunny is putting Peter to Bed, but she’s actually feeding him. Poor little Peter must be sick. I Love Peter Rabbit!

Now it’s back to regular programming. I’ve been working on a new shirt and I need to get started on FinallyAGirl’s quilt (I keep saying I’m going to get started!) It’s also that fun time of the year when market purchases start to trickle into quilt shops. These fun crochet-edged double bias tapes arrived last week. They’re SO cute and I’m looking forward to using them on clothes and quilts.

Have a great week — it’s supposed to be blisteringly hot here by the end of the week … Think SNOW LOL!
XOXO,
Anna

Happy Spring!

27 Comments / March 20, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Store

Yipee! It’s the first day of spring! We love the first day of spring here in ThimbleannaLand because it’s the day our beloved little SecondChild was born and we LOVE him to pieces. (Except, we wish he lived closer {sniff}{sniff})

I’m hoping Spring will bring lots of energy around here and help me get some projects done. I have several on-the-go, but progress appears to be at a snail’s pace. We did complete one big project this week. On Friday, TheManoftheHouse and I went to visit TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, and SweetiePie and I made curtains for the new baby’s room. She’s almost ready for the baby — just a few baby showers and 12 weeks to go!

Here’s the nursery before curtains …

And after. I love that happy pop of pink!

SweetiePie has done such a beautiful job on this little room and she’s given a lot of thought to every little detail. I should have taken more pictures! There’s another window with the same pink curtains to the left of the picture (behind the glider) and some adorable little book shelves (that used to be spice racks — SweetiePie is SO clever!) The C on the wall is a hint as to the baby’s probable name. I was thinking they’d have an “F” on the wall — I’m happily naming her FinallyAGirl because, FINALLY, we have a girl on the way! I checked the family tree, and going back along the male side of the family, there hasn’t been a surviving girl for 150 years — the last one was born in 1865. So, needless to say, it’s going to be all about the PINK around here for awhile!

In other news, while I’ve been working on random projects, lots of fabric has arrived here in ThimbleannaLand. A few random bolts — the top two are from Sweetwater’s Mama Said Sew Volume II. I love the super cute little flowers and, of course, I had to have the text fabric. All my favorite Quilt Shops LOL! Then, there is a PINK bolt — just because. It’s from one of my all time favorite fabric collections — Fresh Cut by Basic Gray for Moda. And, the bottom bolt is just a great neutral, also by Basic Gray.

Then, a few little Easter chicks helped me welcome a few bolts from Blend Fabrics. This is Born Wild by Ana Davis. I love these sweet animal prints and I think they’ll make wonderful baby gifts.

And, finally, for more baby gifts, three new double gauze plaids. Baby Swaddles coming right up!

All these prints are available in my etsy shop and hopefully soon, I’ll be sewing with all of them. FinallyAGirl will be here before we know it!

XOXO,
Anna

Just Checking In …

17 Comments / December 6, 2015 December 6, 2015 / Chat, Store

Wow — I need to post just to move that turkey down the page! I can’t believe how quickly Thanksgiving came and went. We went to Dallas to visit TheSecondChild. We had lots of fun — in spite of six days of non-stop rain. Seriously — it rained the whole time we were there — I don’t think we saw the sun once. (And people think it rains too much in Scotland — at least we saw the sun there!) Since TheSecondChild has a teeny little apartment kitchen, I decided it would be too hard to make a big fancy turkey dinner with all of it’s extras. Instead, we opted for TheSecondChild’s favorite meal — he loves our traditional New Year’s Day dinner, but he never makes it home for New Year’s anymore, so I thought it would be fun to treat him. We make a Standing Rib Roast and Twice-Baked Potatoes. Much easier than turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and etc. It made for a different Thanksgiving dinner, but it sure was good!

So, now we’re back — right in the middle of that busy, busy time of year. I compose blog posts all the time in my head, but it’s been so hard to get the time to actually post now. Especially during the week — I did get a new blog header up though — I’m trying to be better about it this year!

I spent the weekend cracking down on the decorating around here. We usually have two trees — one fake and one real. The real one won’t go up until around the 15th, but I worked on the fake tree and the outside decorations today. And bonus, I count the fake tree as part of my outside decorations, since it can be seen from the front window. Otherwise, the outside decorations are pretty simple — a garland around the front door, two little trees on either side of the door, and Martha Stewart’s glittered bells in lieu of a wreath.

A few other little areas were decorated too, but mostly cleaning up sewing stuff I had lying around and playing with a few ornaments that will go on the real tree. It doesn’t sound like much, but it took a long time and was a lot of work. How are you guys all doing? Are you on track with all your holiday plans? I’ve got a plan for everything and most spare minutes are allocated. No fun sewing or knitting this year, but we’ll definitely be squeezing the gingerbread competition in there. All the kids will be home this year, so it should be lots of fun to see what everyone dreams up!

There are also some new goodies in my little etsy shop — you know, in case you need a gift, or have some Christmas money to spend on yourself! ;-D I’ve listed my very favorite little scissors — they’re Dovo scissors and I love them. The top ones are pretty little embroidery scissors and the bottom ones are my go-to scissors when I’m doing applique. Mine got a lot of use when I was working on The Aunts’ Quilt.

Lots of low-volume fabrics have also arrived. Top to bottom, they are:

Library Gardens by Amy Sinibaldi
Happily Ever After by Amy Sinibaldi
Stamped by Amy Sinibaldi (Yay — Amy Sinibaldi — aren’t they all beautiful?)
Bees & Bits Spring by Bari J. (Bees, people — BEES!)
Floral Dums Punch by Art Gallery Fabrics In-House Studio (Ohmygosh — I LOVE these cute flowers!)
Modern Background Fabric by Zen Chic

The top five fabrics are also available in a half-yard bundle — for speedy ordering ;-D.

And, finally, for you travel-lovers out there, the fun Japanese fabric shown below. It’s called Tour Round the World by Suzuko Koseki for Yuwa fabrics. The images are pretty big on this fabric (each shot in the collage below is about 20″ wide) and the repeat is about 1 1/4 yards. Perfect for big travel accessories or a back on a quilt to remember a fun trip!

Ok, this little break is over. Paperwork to do before I can go to bed. Have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna