Thimbleanna

Just Checking In

How is your week going?  Things are very slow around here — I think I might be in vacation letdown.  I have a lot of projects I’d love to start, but the house is still a mess from lack of cleaning.  I’m trying to clean one room each night after work — that’s the slow way to do it, but hopefully it will mean I won’t have to spend all weekend cleaning.

I have been reading a little (Precious Bane, which I’m loving — thanks for the recommendation Molly!) and knitting a very little bit.  Here are the socks I’m working on.

Daisy Socks

It seems like they’ve been on the needles forever.  I hung them on my Gerbera Daisies because I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put them.  Those daisies don’t look particularly happy, do they?

Daisy Socks

I also forgot to show you a smock apron that I made before vacation and took to my Aunt Annie.  I couldn’t show you before we left as I’m not sure if she reads my blog.

Annie Apron

When we were out there a few years ago, I noticed that Aunt Annie likes her smock aprons, so I took one of them and traced out the pattern on some craft paper.  It was very easy to make — 2 basic pieces, yoke seams on the front and back and then just put pre-packaged binding around all the raw edges.  I love a no-fuss pattern like that!

Annie Apron

Well…not much else to report.  Our weather has been beautiful — it’s a perfect 70 degrees outside with a beautiful full moon.  And when you start talking about the weather, you’ve run out of things to say and it’s time to sign off.  Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

Ms. Bitty Bit Wilson

A few months ago, Ms Bitty Bit posted that she used to write tole painting books back in the day.  The opening line in her post was “This is soooo funny…”.  Only she didn’t know just how funny it was, ’cause I actually have several of her books in my old collection and I NEVER would have made the connection between THAT Ms Bitty Bit and the blogging Ms Bitty Bit that we know and love today if she hadn’t posted about it.

So, given that bit of shared history, along with our blogging friendship, I knew I’d HAVE to meet Ms Bitty Bit on my recent trip to Utah.  OhMyGosh!  It was fabulous!!!  We had a wonderful time.  (I’ll back up for a minute here to tell you that my Aunt Annie and I were on a little two-day shop hop — we visited the shops in Bountiful/Brigham City/Logan on the first day and on the second day, we visited a few in the SLC/Provo area.)

Ms. Bitty Bit met us just as we were finishing up at Thimbles and Threads on the second day.  It was lunchtime and since Aunt Annie and I had never been to Pine Needles, Kim suggested we go over there and eat at the restaurant.  What a great suggestion — we loved Pine Needles and Gardner Village.  And our lunch was yummy.  I can’t wait until we can go back!  After lunch, it was on to Broadbent’s in Lehi where we got this shot for my Wilson collection!

Meeting Kim

We had a great time.  Kim is just as charming, kind and FUN as I knew she’d be.  And, can I just say, the woman is a celebrity?  The ladies at the quilt shops all knew her and her blog — too fun!  There was fabric purchased and I’d show you, but where fabric purchases are concerned, I’ve had to go into the witness protection program, if you know what I mean.  (Oh, come on, if you’d OD’d on all those fantastic quilt shops in one place, you’d sneak it into the house too!)

Anyhoo, after the purchasing of fabrics, I had our star autograph my tole painting books while I played the paparazzi photographer.  I was so sorry after this that we had to rush off — our day was WAY too short.  (We didn’t even have time to go to Material Girls — I’ve heard so much about it and I wanted to go.  And my favorite shop, Whimsy Cottage wasn’t open when we were there early that morning, so we missed that too.)

Meeting Kim

I was so touched that Kim would take a whole afternoon out of her busy schedule to spend with us.  AND, just look what she gave me!  My meager picture just doesn’t do her fabulous gift bag justice — that bag was chock full of goodies — CHOCOLATE and a delicious ear of carmel corn (which were both consumed on the long drive home (btw, Kim if you have any info on that carmel corn — I forgot to write the company name down before I threw the wrapper away in the middle of Kansas ;-) — I LOVED that stuff!)), this adorable bag made for her Moda Bakeshop Tutorial (how lucky is that?), the cute little teddy bear with the friendship embroidery, a stack of very pretty Moda snippets (they fell down into that bag), AND she thoughtfully made some very pretty handmade earrings for me, Aunt Annie AND SweetiePie!  (I love that little bag — it reminds me of a retro sundress.)

Meeting Kim

THANK YOU SO MUCH Ms. Bitty Bit!  I loved my gift bag, but even more, I so enjoyed finally meeting you.  Aunt Annie kept telling me what a nice friend I have — I feel so lucky!  Next time — and Yes there will be a next time — we’ll meet for longer — maybe with some sewing involved?  I can’t wait!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  Remember that darling little quilt Toni sent me?  Well, Ms. Red Boot is giving a quilt pattern away — run over there and sign up.  I was reading this post, and thought — Ooooh, that’s an adorable pattern I need to sign up.  Well, hahaha, then I remembered that she sent me that pattern when she sent my little quilt.  It’s a super pattern — I hope you win!

I’m Ba-a-a-ack…

…and even though it was a long vacation, it wasn’t long enough.

Las Vegas was HOT(How DO you kids in the southwest survive it?)

Vegas

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was GORGEOUS.

North Rim

Zion National Park was SUPER delicious.

Zion

Bryce National Park was HAZY(A forest fire had half of the park closed.)

Bryce

The family was FUN(I don’t think that frozen t-shirt game will ever get old.)

Family

Arches National Park was SWELTERING for our hike.  (But it was fun anyway.)

Arches

And now July has slipped away.  I’ve missed you guys — I would ask what you’ve been doing, but it’s clear you’ve been blogging.  My google reader doesn’t count past 1,000 posts and it took me a few days of clearing to get below 1,000.  I’m trying to catch up with everyone, but I’ve had to do some skipping.  (Guaranteed skippage happened if you’re a blog that makes me click through to read your post.  Sorry. )

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments while I was gone.  I’ve had to call a truce on comment answering and will try to start up again this weekend.  Next time, I’ll be back with a tale of a fantastic blog meet-up that some of you already know about. Have a good weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Roadtrip 2009

Hmmm. Vegemite — apparently, you either love it or you hate it. Thanks for all the advice — I’m very anxious to test it out. I’ll give you a full report when it happens. ;-)

In the meantime, remember these pillowcases?

Roadtrip

It’s time, once again to bring them out.  The kids and I are leaving in the morning to head “out west”.  WooHoo!  Ah Loves Me A Roadtrip!  SweetiePie has never been west of Colorado Springs and I’m really excited to be able to go out there with her.  We’ll be visiting family, hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park, and visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  (Not to mention the quilt shops and a few other things.)

So, I’m leaving you with pictures of our coneflowers this year.  We had a gorgeous bumper crop (which prompted a banner change, in case you hadn’t noticed).

Conflowers

I want to remember them and I’m hoping they’ll still be here when we get back.

Coneflowers

Behave yourselves while I’m gone and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

My First Quilt & More

Camille and Carrie are hosting a “My First Quilt” show, so I thought it only fair to burn your retinas with a little 1980’s pink and blue. Oh wait, it was “mauve” and “country blue” back then, wasn’t it?

Basket Quilt

This was my first quilt. It was 1987 and I was on the verge of birthing TheSecondChild, so being on maternity leave and having unlimited access to the master quilter (MeMum), we decided that I should learn how to quilt.  We had a new little house and I made this quilt to hang in our entry hall.

Basket Quilt

Camille also asked what we have learned between our first quilt and our last quilt. I’ve learned that I wish I could get back to hand-quilting. It’s always been my favorite. My quilts now seem to be easier and quicker. It would be nice to go back to more detailed blocks and hand quilting.

Basket Quilt

I’m also supposed to show you my most recent quilt.  Here it is:

Toni Gift

Oh, I’m KIDDING! My most recent quilts were those t-shirt quilts and seeing them once is enough. THIS  ADORABLE little quilt came all the way from Australia from Toni of The Red Boot Quilt Co. Isn’t it the sweetest thing?

Toni Gift

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I love the happy, bright colors and the big fat flowers. And Toni’s work is PERFECT. Perrrr-Fect!  It’s just beautiful. Look at those pretty stitches!  And look at all the other goodies Toni sent. Three (THREE!) of her patterns– they all have flowers on them.  Eeeek, they’re so cute!  And, I LOVE TimTams Toni — how did you know? We had them here at Target for about 5 seconds and now they don’t carry them anymore. I’m going to HIDE savor every single cookie. They’re my favorite combination — chocolate and carmel. Yum, Yum!

Toni Gift

But wait!  There’s more!  Vegemite.  I haven’t dared try it yet — TheSecondChild said he tried it in Sydney and didn’t like it.  I’m not going to let that prejudice me though — Toni gave me a tip for eating it.  If any of you other Australians have any great tips for becoming a Vegemite lover, I’m all ears!  It can’t be all bad, can it — look at that gorgeous packaging!!!

Toni Gift

Toni!  Thank you, THANK YOU so much for your generosity!  I already have the perfect place picked out in my little sunroom where I’m going to hang your cute quilt.  I can’t wait.  What a wonderful gift — you’ve made my day.  And if the rest of you haven’t visited Toni, run over there.  She’s on a little blog break, but there’s lots of great stuff to see and I promise, you won’t be sorry!

XOXO,
Anna