Thimbleanna – Page 116 – My little online diary.

Whew!

39 Comments / September 9, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat

What a whirlwind weekend we had here! I felt like I won the lottery on Saturday morning (well, I did really) — THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments of congratulations! I can’t tell you how very excited I am to have won Kellie’s beautiful Lilly Pilly quilt — Kellie is such a warm and generous person (and fabulous Mum) and I’m beyond thrilled that I’ll be able to see her beautiful quilting in the flesh. THANK YOU Kellie. From the bottom of my heart…Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! Kellie’s patterns are starting to come to the U.S. and I can’t wait until she’ll be coming here to teach classes — it WILL happen someday, won’t it Kellie??? So … I have nothing crafty to show, yet again, but gee … I have a good excuse, don’t you think? It’s been hard to concentrate!

I did manage to do a bit of big stitch quilting with pearl cotton, but it’s been slow-going. And SweetiePie was here on Sunday night and Monday. We had a wonderful time quilting together — she on her project and I on mine. MeMum even graced us with her presence for a few hours on Monday. SweetiePie and I talked a lot about Lilly Pilly (Eeek!) We’ve decided that when I finally get the boys rooms cleaned out and re-done, it would be the perfect centerpiece of a Grandbaby room … robin’s egg blue walls (for the boys) and the gorgeous pink Lilly Pilly (for the girls). Wouldn’t that be fun?

SweetiePie and I also talked a lot about yoyos. We went to our friend’s house so that SweetiePie could see the Ethan Allen yoyo quilt (I’m trying to get her hooked!) This time I examined the EA quilt — the yoyos are just a bit bigger than the ones I’m making with the large-size clover maker and there are just over 2500 yoyos in the king-sized quilt. Holy Cow! Needless to say, I won’t be making a king-size version. ;-) When we came home, SweetiePie decided to experiment with bigger yoyos. Pretty big, huh?

Yeah, it’s not very practical to have them that big, but the quilt would sure go together a lot faster, no?

And just so you have a little something to think about this week, here’s a picture of my September guy from my Extreme Ironing calendar at work. (Shhh, don’t tell, we can’t have cameras at work, so I had to take this with my cell phone.)

Just Because. There’s nothing hotter than a man wielding an iron. Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Penny has put a poll on the Flea Market Fancy Freaks blog to ask what colorway you would prefer if Free Spirit were to reprint the fabric. Also, there are almost 500 signatures on the petition to bring Flea Market Fancy back — if you haven’t signed it yet, run over and do so now!

It’s the Weekend!

70 Comments / September 5, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Yipee!!! Here in the U.S., it’s a three-day, holiday weekend. And lookie — my weekend started off with a big surprise in my mailbox:

Isn’t that the cutest ribbon? And just perfect for the surprise inside — Frannie’s Favorite Recipes. Frannie is Marsha’s (from CuteStuffInside) daughter. (Read here for an adorable post about Frannie and her BFF.) Look at that Cah-Ute cover — I can hardly stand it! And the best part — it’s full of recipes for just my kind of food — cookies and cupcakes! (How did you know Frannie?) I’ve been looking for a good chocolate cupcake recipe and I can’t wait to try yours. Thank You SO Much Frannie. You’re a sweetheart. I’ll always cherish my new recipe book and the oh-so-sweet note you left inside!

Thanks for all the fun comments on my yoyo post. I probably should have explained the cause of this new obsession. Remember when I embroidered the monogram for my friend’s daughter’s bedroom? Shortly after that post, I delivered the monogram to my friend and she showed me the progress on her daughter’s room. Holy Crap! It’s just gorgeous. Hot. Pink. Walls. and beautiful black Ethan Allen furniture. And the pièce de résistance was this Ethan Allen yoyo quilt. The minute I laid eyes on it, I grew weak in the knees and started to hyperventilate.

In the days following that visit, that yoyo quilt was all I could think about. There were e-mails and discussions with Brigette and Ms. Barefoot (my yoyo quilt idol). Could I make one? What colors? Finally Brigette convinced me that red and white was the way to go — for a first yoyo quilt. So, that’s the plan — we’re making a red and white yoyo quilt. Hopefully, it will be done before I expire, and if it is, I could see a second yoyo quilt. And then a third. ‘Cause wouldn’t it be fun to try them in a bunch of different color combinations?

Now, on to the weekend. TheEmptyNestChild is hoping for a big escape and a grand adventure. I hope you have a great weekend too!

XOXO,
Anna

{Edited to add: OHMYGOSH! My weekend can end right now — look how lucky I’ve been! Breathe In. Breathe Out. This is going to take a whole stackful of paper bags for breathing!!!)

Help! I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!

50 Comments / September 2, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Quilting

I’ve been bitten.

They’re addictive and they’re everywhere I look.

Even Anne at Bunny Hill is making them. She’s been bitten too.

Look Anne…I even have a Williams-Sonoma jar full of yoyos, just like yours!

Ok, you have three jars, and I only have one, but don’t you think I should get extra credit since my yoyos are made from your gorgeous Chelsea Manor fabric? (Which…ahem…{cough}{cough}is the cutest redwork collection around {imho}!)

XOXO,
Anna

Recipe O’ Rain

47 Comments / August 29, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Well, how’s the weekend going? It’s slow and lovely here. I was off of work yesterday and it Rained. All. Day. It was a beautiful, steady downpour — just perfect for quilting or knitting. I spent the day holed up in the dungeon sewing and came up for air long enough to take a few pictures of the raindrops on our pretty Rose of Sharon.

It seems to be slow out there in blogland too. I’m sad to see more blogs being lost to twitter and facebook, which are just too busy for me. I’m much happier with the slower pace of blogs. Oh well, it’s good to have so many choices, right?

Since my sewing wasn’t productive enough to have any show and tell, it’s time for a recipe. My little recipe section provides me with a repository of recipes I don’t want to lose. I have a stack of recipe clippings that need to be cleaned out (which pales by comparison to MeMum’s I might add), and it’s much easier to find them if they’re on the internet. More than once, I’ve been in the kitchen and pulled up a recipe on my blackberry — very convenient! So — here’s a recipe for Corn and Blueberry Salsa. MyDadLovesMeBestSister brought it to our last family get-together and we all loved it.

Corn and Blueberry Salsa

1 1/2 c. cooked and cooled fresh or frozen yellow corn kernels
1/3 cup chopped red sweet pepper
1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or thinly sliced green onions
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Combine corn, sweet pepper, chives, basil, maple, syrup, lemon juice and salt. Add blueberries and toss gently to combine.

Easy Peasy. We enjoyed this salsa over grilled salmon (apologies to you non-fish lovers), but I’m sure there are many other ways you might like it. Happy Weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Random Chit-Chat

33 Comments / August 25, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Sewing

Thanks for all the birthday love for MeMum and TheFirstChild! BigBoy’s present from SweetiePie was a skydiving adventure with her and four of his friends. They sat around the air field all day on Saturday, but the weather was bad so, they decided to try again on Sunday morning. At 10:57 a.m. on Sunday I sent SweetiePie this text message: “Well? Are we having any luck?” At 12:13 p.m. she replied with “We just landed!!! That was F—ing amazing! Will call in a bit!” SweetiePie never swears, so to get a “F” and three dashes means it was pretty darn incredible!

Remember when Toni sent me some Vegemite? Well I finally got around to trying it. Just like everyone said — with toast and some butter. The good news is I didn’t hate it. The bad news is I didn’t love it. It must be an acquired taste and I probably didn’t love it because I expect something sweet on my toast. It was definitely fun to try it out though — thanks again Toni!

The Very Cool Penny has decided enough is enough. She wants Free Spirit Fabrics to start printing their Flea Market Fancy line again, so she’s started a blog that will act as a petition of sorts and a place to share the Flea Market Fancy love. So, if you’re a Flea Market Fancy Lover, run over to the new Flea Market Fancy Freaks blog, sign up and share the Love with us!

Did you know that The Vintage Workshop has a new blog? I love their clipart for craft projects. If I were smart, I’d wait until September 1st to tell you about them so that you won’t know about their very cool fabric giveaway. But you know I love you, so there ya go.

The Little Red Hen posted an interesting way to quilt fabric with the decorative stitches on her machine. I decided to give it a whirl on some potholders that I made for a friend, and I LOVED it! I used a simple wavy stitch and I’ll definitely be quilting that way again. (Embroidery design from embroidery library.)

Shutter Sisters had an interesting post about Aha Moments the other day, probably just as I was having a huge Aha Moment of my own. But not in a good way. Fortunately, I have my beloved Hester and I can retreat to the dungeon to do a lot of little mending.

And last but by no means least, Don’t Look Now (haha), but ….well, Kellie is having a FANTASTIC giveaway. RUN over there and sign up!!!

Whew! That’s it — thanks for hanging in there. Hope you’re having a good week!

XOXO,
Anna

Oh, p.s. — my e-mailbox filled up on Monday night, so I missed responding to a few of your comments from the last post. Sorry — I’ll catch you next time!