Thimbleanna – Page 17 – My little online diary.

The Dog Days

13 Comments / August 9, 2017 August 9, 2017 / Around the House, Chat, Quilting, Sewing

Well, I think I was on a little break again, only I didn’t take a trip this time LOL. I keep hoping something exciting will happen around here so that I’ll have something to blog about. But then I tell myself that these boring Dog Days are good. Very Good.

After a really busy May and June, July has been slow and wonderful. Our weather has been beautiful. Stunning, actually. The hot muggy summer days have been replaced by cool, perfect temps. I’m missing most of it while I’m locked away at work during the day, but I’m sure enjoying it when I get home in the evenings. We’ve had quite a bit of rain this summer and I think that’s why my flowers are doing so well. I’ve been slowly replacing a “vegetable” patch with a flower garden and it’s finally starting to look fairly decent. My favorite flowers are these pretty phlox. I have my gardener extraordinaire friend Pam to thank for these lovelies — I’d never really paid any attention to this variety of phlox until I saw her beautiful phlox when SweetiePie and I visited with her a few years ago.

My garden will never be as beautiful as Pam’s, but if these flowers look like this every year, I’ll be a happy camper. My little garden has taken a lot of experimentation — it’s hard to figure out what the rabbits won’t eat. So far, so good on the phlox. The asters and sweet william haven’t fared so well though — they’re mowed down regularly by the bunnies. Nasty Wabbits. These pretty little coreopsis are doing well too — I didn’t think I’d like this flower because they’re so little and wispy, but I love them!

In addition to little bits of gardening and pulling weeds, there have been lots of routine boring jobs around the house. We’ve cleaned a few closets and done some long overdue painting. And I’ve managed to sneak in a little sewing. I made myself a shirt from the Rifle Paper Co. fabric that I used to have in my little shop. The pattern is Simplicity 1279 — I took my time, enjoyed the process and I’m really happy with the results — it fits just right.

I also finished up a little throw quilt just for me and the tv. A year or so ago, I saw this adorable deer fabric at Hawthorne Threads (I was going to link to the fabric but I don’t see it listed anymore) and I HAD to have it. I LOVE deer. Among my best childhood memories are watching Bambi at the movie theater and sobbing while I read The Yearling, one of my very favorite books. Now I have a little quilt and I can cuddle some deer!

For the rest of the fabrics, I raided my little etsy shop and used the japanese dots for a border, some cuddle for the backing, and that fun japanese stripe for the binding. I think that stripe is just perfect — it matches those cute little black deer noses. The quilting is just some random machine quilting — easy peasy.

So, that’s it for an update — just wanted to check in. I hope you’re having a great summer!

XOXO,
Anna

Back from Break …

24 Comments / July 16, 2017 July 16, 2017 / Family, Holidays

Well Hey Hey! I’m back from our super fun trip out west. It was supposed to be all business (moving TheFirstChild and his cute little family to Utah for a year), but we had lots and lots of fun instead. The move went great — MyDadLovesMeBestSister, MeMum and I (along with Winston) drove the kids’ cars out without a hitch. No traffic, no construction, no mess! Winston was in my car the whole time and he was the perfect travel companion.

After the kids were pretty much moved in, we played. A Lot. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Horseback riding in the mountains (the mountains don’t look very big, but that’s because we’re already waaaay up there ;-D ) —

Checking out teeny little cemeteries for my ancestors. In all the times I’d been to the little town where my grandfather grew up, I’d never been to the cemetery. I found lots of ancestors — as far back as my g-g-g-g-g-grandmother who was born in 1780. I Love these old pioneer cemeteries — it’s so interesting to see the really old ones that don’t even have grass anymore. So many stories to tell.

A ridiculously fun 4th of July in MeMum and BigDaddy’s hometown. My very favorite place to be on the 4th — they have the perfect small-town gathering with activities ALL day long — starting with a pancake breakfast in the park and ending with fireworks at dusk. This little doll couldn’t have been more cute —

Three-legged races —

Potato Sack Races (MAN DOWN LOL!!!) —

Egg Toss —

Watermelon Bust —

Greased Pole — it used to be only the boys who loved to do it, but the girls are all in now too. That pole is VERY slippery — the objective is to grab the greasy flags at the top. Look at all those spotters there to protect the girls in case they slip and fall —

And just all-round fun ALL day with family that we don’t see very often. Being the only small child around, our little FinallyAGirl was very popular —

There was more fun after the 4th too. It was SUPER hot in the valley, so we escaped to the mountains and hiked to not-so-secret Cecret Lake (where we actually saw a skier on those glaciers — in July!) —

Saw the largest flying US flag, hanging in Pleasant Grove canyon —

And the day before I came home, we did a 5k in lavender fields (luckily we took cell-phone pictures because my camera settings were WAY off and the pictures didn’t turn out — ooops!) —

And now it’s back to real life. Going back to work was Hard. And Depressing. Thank goodness I can sew and quilt and spend too much time on the internet for distraction LOL.

Have a Great Week!
XOXO,
Anna

Baby Sewing

23 Comments / June 23, 2017 June 23, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing

Thank You for all the birthday love for our little FinallyAGirl. We sure had a fun birthday weekend and I wish we could do it all again! Sadly, the little family is moving to Utah this week — they’re in the middle of the move as we speak. The U-Haul full of goods is somewhere in Wyoming, FinallyAGirl and her Mummy are flying today, and the Girls Roadtrip Car Brigade (that’s MyDadLovesMeBestSister, MeMum and I) will be leaving soon. I LOVE a good Roadtrip, so I can’t wait!

As I mentioned in my last post, I made some clothes for FinallyAGirl for her first birthday. In the rush of getting everything done, there wasn’t time to get any pictures of her actually IN her new clothes, but I’ll be working on that in the next week or two. In the meantime, here’s all my fun sewing:

I made two little dresses/tops and two rompers. Here’s the first dress — a little ruffly, girly sundress. The pattern is Elyse by Bonnie Blue Designs and the fabrics are Sarah Jane’s Summer Garden Bloom and the Japanese honeycomb dots in pink.

This is a super easy pattern — although, with all those ruffles, not particularly quick. I do love a cute little ruffle-butt though!

For the other little dress, I wanted something fairly simple-looking. I had a white linen blend in my stash and I teamed it up with the Spechler Vogel Pima Cotton Classic 1/32″ Check in Red from my little etsy shop.

I embroidered these little red and blue flowers at the pleats and then gave them a tiny button center. (The instructions for these flowers are contained in the Blair romper pattern mentioned below.)

The pattern is Butterick 3405 and I had to make a little Purl Soho sunbonnet to match. FinallyAGirl will be living in the land of sunshine-all-the-time, so she’ll need a little face/eye protection. We LOVE those Purl Soho bonnets!

SweetiePie will probably not thank me for having buttons all the way down the back — FinallyAGirl is a wiggly little baby — she doesn’t have time for dressing as it interferes with play time! Hopefully a little flag ribbon and stamp at the side seams will make up for it ;-D.

After dresses, I made two little rompers — we LOVE babies in rompers ! The first little romper came from a free pattern that was included with the Summer 2016 issue of Classic Sewing Magazine. It’s called the Blair Romper and I very unimaginatively used the same fabric that they used in the magazine – Liberty of London Phoebe in pink and aqua. There are four white flower buttons at the shoulders, but I had to wait to put them on until I had a rough idea of where to place them. FinallyAGirl will have a little growing room in this bubble.

I’ve saved my favorite for last ;-DDDD. This little bubble is from a downloadable Australian pattern (of course!) — the Rose Bud Romper by Felicity Sewing Patterns. I LOVE this cute pattern and the instructions were very detailed and easy to follow. The straps are just pinned to the hanger in this picture, but they’ll actually be tied into cute bows on the baby’s shoulders. The fabric is Liberty of London Felicite in Pink and Blue.

Another sunbonnet and ruffle-butt! I can’t wait to see FinallyAGirl wearing this little outfit.

So, Grandma got a little carried away this time. Can you tell that after only boys, I’m having a great time sewing for a little girl LOL??? Ok — must run — lots to do! Have a wonderful weekend!!!
XOXO,
Anna

A Birthday Party

22 Comments / June 19, 2017 June 19, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby

Ya Know. {Sigh.} These gaps between posting seem to be getting looonger! And I keep thinking things will slow down a little more. Really, I keep telling myself, they will. We’ve been in a swirl of activity with the kids this month as they get ready for their big move out west AND the big one-year-old birthday — this week!

You may remember last summer I posted this picture of our little cherub shortly after she was born.

And this weekend, we took a follow-up picture. Our little princess has GROWN! And how different it was to take her picture now. It was a hurried affair trying to keep her happy — she didn’t like being up on that pile of “matresses”. We were in such a hurry that we forgot to make the bed properly LOL!

We had a little family birthday party for her this weekend too. LOTS of pink and lots of fun.

I was in Columbus, Ohio last weekend and I found these darling birthday party hats. When I saw they were made to look like Liberty fabric, of course, we had to have them.

Aren’t they cute???

We had a traditional little birthday party — but without the games haha. We ate lunch and then had cake and ice cream. We had a little smash cake for FinallyAGirl, but, having never had any sugar, she wasn’t really sure about the whole cake and frosting thing. (It didn’t help either, that she’d just had a very large lunch and wasn’t hungry at all.) I think the sugar confusion was enough at one point for her to see if maybe those cute balloons might taste really good too LOL!

We had lots of fun and it was so sweet for our family members to give up part of their Father’s Day to join us. We took lots of pictures (because that’s what you do to get a few that you love. ;-) )

I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed. We adore our little FinallyAGirl — she’s such a sweet little cutie and she knows just how to melt her Grammy’s heart — which she did rather effectively several times this weekend. What a fun, wonderful year we’ve had (and I’m betting even her sleep deprived parents would say the same thing! ;-D )

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. This Grandma did some sewing for her little cherub and when I get some pictures organized, I’ll post all about it.

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Spring 2017 Quilt Market

18 Comments / May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017 / Quilt Market Report

Did ya miss me? Haha. This might possibly be the latest I’ve ever written about a spring market trip. Quilt Market was followed by my cute nephew’s college graduation, work, work, work, and then helping TheFirstChild and his little family with the first part of their move across the country this summer. The second and final part will happen in a few weeks. So, it’s been too busy to stop and think about market. Thank goodness for three-day weekends!

I was lucky enough to have my long-time blog friend, CrazyMom for a roommate this time around! We had lots of fun and it was great getting to know her a little better. She was at market promoting her beautiful new book, No Scrap Left Behind. She brought many of the quilts from her book for her schoolhouse presentation, so, naturally, we had to sleep under a different quilt every night. CrazyMom was so sweet and she let me sleep under my favorites. It took BIG willpower not to put that red Irish Chain in my suitcase too! (And how darling is that cute little nine-patch???)

So that’s it! The highlight of market! ;-D

Just Kidding. We had lots of fun visiting all the booths and seeing all the new fabrics. I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but here are a few, in no particular order:

CrazyMom and I love this quilt on the left side of A Quilting Life’s booth.

American Jane – again, the quilt on the left!

I always LOVE Brenda Riddle’s sweet lines — beautiful colors, as always.

Annie Brady is a new designer and her Big Sky collection is really cute. She has a print that has tree trunks (a similar print was popular a few years ago) and I’m looking forward to getting some for applique backgrounds.

I was really looking forward to seeing Kristyne again — we met six years ago at spring quilt market. Her new line is so sweet — and perfect for all of you Happy Quilt Along-ers!

Franny and Jane (love all the blue!)

Jen Kingwell’s booth is always so interesting. We spent a lot of time looking at the blocks in all those quilts!

This is Sue Daley’s booth in the Riley Blake area. CrazyMom and I loved that little clamshell quilt hanging on the end of the booth.

And I LOVE this adorable little mini Gelati quilt. I’d love to have an entire quilt out of this pattern, but oh, what a TON of work!

We had a laugh when we arrived at Amy Smart’s fun booth. There they were — CrazyMom and CrazyGingham both dressed in Gingham LOL! Don’t they look cute — and perfect with Amy’s new line, Gingham Girls.

Shannon Fabrics had a ton of double gauze — along with their beautiful, squishy cuddle fabric. I liked these displays of toddler clothes.

Need a new necklace?

Self-explanatory ;-).

I was really looking forward to seeing this adorable little bird fabric by Kari of New Leaf Stitches and it didn’t disappoint. I LOVE these cute birds and I MUST get some!

Here’s another fabric that I loved — it’s by the same person who illustrated the P.S. I Love You book. Coming to an etsy shop near you soon LOL!

Cotton and Steel had these cute squirrels — I mentioned on Instagram that this fabric could justify every time you drop a current project and start a new one. SQUIRRELLLLLLL!!!

CrazyMom and I spent quite a bit of time in the Ella Blue booth with those Crazy Aussies. And let me tell you — that’s a LOT of Crazy. Jody is the Crazy RingLeader and she suggested that we pose for a picture so the shark could eat the other little sea animals. Naturally, Jody was the shark!

And finally, just a picture of a cool quilt I noticed at market. This little quilt was hanging in an antique booth and the owner said there are 9,216 colored squares — each measuring about 1/2″. Add in the white squares and you have over 18,000 squares! All hand pieced and beautiful. I walked past the booth again, about 45 minutes after I talked to the owner the first time and the quilt was gone. Unsurprisingly, it sold right away.

So, that’s it for spring market from this year. It’s always fun and I always come home with so many ideas. Hardly any of which I’ll ever have time to execute LOL!

XOXO,
Anna

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