Thimbleanna – Page 148 – My little online diary.

Black and White Trees

41 Comments / March 1, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Quilting

Wow! You are all awesome! I had great fun reading all of the six word memoirs that you left in my comments. You’re a very clever group — thank you so much for taking the time to leave me some inspirational reading.

I have no idea where this last week went. I think it’s been five lost days. I was gone all week for work travel, so there hasn’t been much crafty inspiration going on around here. (Although, courtesy of the O’Hare air traffic controllers, I had enough airport time to finish the messed up monkey sock pictured in my previous post and start the second sock — I heart you, ATC!)

Anyhoo, I thought I’d show you some pictures of one of MeMum’s quilts. These are pictures that I took to put in the blurb book that I made her for Christmas. MeMum is a fantastic quilter, and if you only know one thing about MeMum, it’s that she’s a perfectionist. Pretty little hand-quilted stitches and perfect points.

She made this quilt for MyDadLovesMeBestSister, quite a few years ago. Each tree is made with a different black and white fabric. Three of the trees have one dark red triangle, so technically, the quilt isn’t entirely black and white. MeMum made this quilt back when black and white fabrics were pretty hard to find and it’s sort of a family joke now, ’cause whenever we go into a quilt shop and see a great collection of black and white fabrics, she always says “You have no idea how hard I had to search to find so many different black and white fabrics.”

There is a really pretty quilted feather edge running all along the outer borders. When MeMum marked the quilt, she flipped the template some odd way and one long border was backwards. She didn’t notice it until she had that whole edge quilted. All those hours of beautiful quilting — if it were me, I would have said — “Look, it’s just like the intentional mistakes left in the Amish quilts!” But not MeMum — she unpicked that entire border and re-quilted it. See what I mean? I told you she’s a perfectionist!

Eventually, I’ll make a section on my projects pages for MeMum’s quilts. I’m woefully behind in updating those extra tabs up there. In the meantime, you’ll probably be seeing a few more of her quilts in blog entries.

XOXO,
Anna

The Six Word Memoir

42 Comments / February 26, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Chat

At my January book group meeting (speaking of which, this month we read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Loved. It. Ahem.) one of the girls started talking about six word memoirs. She’s a high school English teacher and she said she’d given her students an assignment to write a six word memoir. She said, for example, Hemingway once wrote his 6 word memoir — “For Sale: baby shoes, never used.” Wow. Think about that. What a story those six little words could tell. We had a very lively discussion about six word memoirs and I made a note that this would be a fun blog topic. And then I promptly forgot about it.

So, imagine my surprise when KBG tagged me to write a six word memoir. (She wrote a great one, by the way.) So, I started thinking about it again. What would my six word memoir be? I thought of several, depending on my mood and couldn’t choose just one.

Here’s one, for those days I’m sick of working:

Wasted Life. Stuck behind a desk.

Or, how ’bout my activities:

Work. Sew. Read. Cook. Knit. Repeat.

Or maybe the real me:

Loves to sew. Adores her family.

Then this afternoon, I got to thinking about it. I googled six word memoirs. A ton of links came up and among all that reading, it appears that a new book containing six word memoirs entitled Not Quite What I Was Planning is about to be published. Very interesting!

So, how ’bout you? Can you write YOUR six word memoir? Give it a shot. And after you’ve tried it, check out this link that contains some fun ones (don’t peek or you’ll be influenced!) Among my favorites (’cause a few sneaky peeks won’t hurt you LOL):

An embroidered sampler, with some unpicking.

Hasn’t been a Jane Austen Romance.

Laughed out loud, cried in silence.

(This picture is for Jewels. Proving that, Yes, I Can
screw up a monkey sock and have to rip back 8 rows because
I tried to knit while talking. Or talk while knitting.)

Now, the rules for the six word memoir meme say that I need to tag someone. That’s always been the HARD part about memes and awards. I have so many of you out there that I’m attached to and I can’t ever pick. I hate that part — it just feels too much like picking someone for the grade school dodge ball team and I was always the one who didn’t get picked. And if I can’t tag others, then I don’t feel it’s fair for me to accept tags. Junie Moon just posted on this topic this afternoon and I’ve decided to join her in her “Please, No Tag Awards” movement. I hope you won’t misunderstand me — I enjoy doing memes — if I see one out there that I like (like this one, for example) I’ll probably just horn in and do it. I love reading others memes — they’re often a good way to get to know each other. I’m just not crazy about the tagging part of it. So…’nuff said, I hope that all made sense and that I didn’t step on any toes.

Just a few more items…

You knitters out there should check out this cool little sweater that Cami has made. I saw this in progress in January — it has the coolest little twisted stitch all along the button band!

I feel it my duty to issue a blogland warning. Danger Will Robinson! SOMEone who lives in a yellow farmhouse is trying to kill us. As evidence, I refer you to this smore’s dessert (ok, I know I asked for it, but I didn’t know it would be that good.) And now, she’s posted these cookies. I made them over the weekend and Holeeee Cow, are they ever fabulous. But don’t click on my links. I mean it. Don’t do it. I don’t want to be responsible — just because my diet (what diet?) is down the drain, doesn’t mean yours must be.

Now, scurry along and work on your six word memoirs. I’d love to see what you come up with!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Anyone else having trouble with bloglines? I’m getting notified about a day late about posts. It’s driving me nuts!

The Valentine Swap

23 Comments / February 23, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Sewing

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments about TheSecondChild’s exciting adventure to Australia! We’ve had a quick call to let us know he arrived safely in Brisbane. I think he’s in a good program and probably as soon as they got all those E.T.’s gathered together, they gave them each 60 seconds and told them to phone home. I just hope my little monster isn’t exhibiting any of his alien behavior yet!
(Note to Jeanette: If you haven’t received your swap gift yet, read no further!)

My fun Valentine Swap gift from Jeanette arrived all the way from Norway yesterday. She sent me a lovely set of dishtowels, some woolen pot holders and a fun little tetra bag. Look at all the wonderful hearts on everything and all of the hand stitched blanket stitching on those potholders. I don’t know how she knew I needed potholders, but I’m nearly desperate, as the ones I have are very grungy looking. And, I can always find a good use for small bags — this one will be just perfect for my camera cords and batteries that have been wandering around looking for a home. Thank you, Thank you Jeanette, I heart it all!!!

Jeanette is away on vacation, so I’m taking a chance that when she gets home, she’ll open her mail before she rushes off to read my blog LOL! It took me a long time to decide what to make for Jeanette, but one day I read on her blog that she liked Nancy Halvorsen and Voila! I just happen to have True Friends embroidery designs by Nancy Halvorsen for my embroidery machine. And since I carry a little sewing bag (thank you quilty peep Gurney!) around everywhere, I decided to make something similar for Jeanette*. I included the scissors, thread and needles and some Nancy Halvorsen fat quarters that I forgot to include in the picture. I hope Jeanette can use a little sewing kit since she does a lot of hand embroidery. Thank you very, very much Mrs. Pocket for hosting this fun swap!

I’ve had a fun morning in the dungeon. I cut out a pantsuit (pantsuit??? does anyone even use that word anymore?) that’s been aging in the stash for several years. My work wardrobe is getting pretty threadbare, so I thought I’d try and whip something out this weekend. (Notice how my pincushion (thanks Jade!) coordinates with my fabric LOL!)

The pants are done, but sadly, I’ve decided that the jacket will hang better if it’s lined, and since I have no lining, it won’t get done this weekend. Hopefully, I can find a nice lining fabric this week. I really should be working on the little gift bags for the wedding shower, but why work ahead? It will be so much more fun to stay up sewing all night the night before the shower. You’re all with me, right?

I hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend.
XOXO,
Anna

*The little bag pattern is from Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tilda.

Up, Up and Away

28 Comments / February 20, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Chat, Family

{Sniff}{Sniff} This morning, we packed up TheSecondChild and shipped him off to Australia for a semester abroad. How exciting is that? Oh to be young again! I really wanted to slip into his suitcase, but sadly, the pre-wedding diet just hasn’t been quite up to par. I’ll miss my little Sweetpea.

As I type, he’s sitting in Los Angeles waiting to catch his midnight flight to Brisbane, where he’ll have four days of partying orientation. Then he’ll be off to Sydney where he’ll be going to school for the next 4 1/2 months. He just called and he’s found four other students (all girls no less — that’s my boy LOL), and, poor babies, they had to spend their afternoon at the Santa Monica Pier. What a life!

A few months ago after all the Australia arrangements had been made and we were discussing the excitement of it all, TheFirstChild said “Uh … Mom? Will the best man be at my wedding?” DOH! What a stunning lack of planning that was. Needless to say, we’ll be interrupting his semester of fun hard work with a trip home in May for the wedding. (There goes my plane ticket down under.)

So, you sweet Sydney bloggers, if you happen to see my little heathen cherub wandering around the city, slap him upside the head and tell him to go back to his flat and study give him a big hug from his mom.

A few odds and ends:

If you’ve always wanted to make a Dear Jane quilt but never quite got it together, help has arrived! Anina is hosting a Dear Jane along. I freely admit to being a big wimp about it, not to mention just a bit overloaded at the moment, so I’m sending you over there to be my proxy. I do love that quilt — go sign up!
I wrote up the little pattern for my crocheted valentine cards and you can find it here. I hope it makes sense, I’m not a pattern writer!
Lookie here what Sharon sent me!

She showed these little gift bags on her blog one day, so I happened to mention how perfect they’d be for the bridal shower. She’s such a sweetheart that she made me a sample, so I could see if it would work out, before I bought the pattern! It’s perfect and soooo cute. That Zombie Genius Monica designed this cool little bag. It’s called the Wash Tub Ditty Bag and if you can’t find the pattern at your local shop, you can find it at Kris’s quilt shop. You’ll be amazed at how easy they are to construct — just what I need for some quick party favors. Thanks heaps Sharon and Monica!

It’s a clear, beautiful, cold night here, so I’m off to check out the eclipse!

XOXO,
Anna

Irish Hiking

25 Comments / February 19, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Knitting

Wow! You guys are the best commenters ever! Thank you very much for all your wonderful comments on my “I Am” post. I hope lots of you will consider writing about where you’re from — I love reading those posts. I even had a non-blogger e-mail me her awesome story — how cool it that? (Hi Anna!)

A few months ago, Carolyn posted her beautiful version of the Irish Hiking scarf. And then Junie Moon did too. Well, that was it — I LOVE cables, so I had to make one for myself.

I used a yummy soft yarn called Serendipity by Dancing Fibers. It’s 60% superfine alpaca and 40% merino wool. The color is SDS208–dark red. I didn’t really think I was a scarf-y person, but I’ve really enjoyed it this winter. It’s co-o-old and windy out there! TheEmptyNestChild seems to think it’s his napping shrug.

Blog reading has been frustrating for me these past few weeks as I’m seeing lots of inspiring quilts out there and I don’t have time to make them. I’m itching to do some quilting but I think I’ll be limited to fairly small gifts/projects as we enter the wedding/shower season. And, it’s busy, busy here this week because we’re packing TheSecondChild up for a semester abroad. Several of you asked me for a pattern for my little crocheted valentines and I promise, as soon as he’s out the door this week, I’ll get that pattern posted.

XOXO,
Anna