Thimbleanna – Page 20 – My little online diary.

A Random Little Catch-Up

24 Comments / December 4, 2016 December 4, 2016 / Liberty Love, Sewing

Oh. My. Gosh. What happened to the last month??? It’s been so busy here that I’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone post.

TheManoftheHouse made it through his second knee replacement and is almost back to normal. The Halloween surgery and weeks that followed sucked most of November out of me. Then there was Thanksgiving — I thought several times about posting, but something always interrupted my plan. Everyone was here this year and we had lots of fun — FinallyAGirl stole the show with her Uncle and the cousins. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I got a new assignment at work that means longer hours and has been awful — hopefully it will end soon. Last week was pretty rough, so SweetiePie and FinallyAGirl have come to cheer us up and help. It’s been wonderful having them here — SweetiePie has worked her little tail off — cooking dinner every night and she even tackled the pile of fabric that I had sitting around waiting to be pre-washed and folded so it could be added to my stash. She’s a gem and we’re so lucky to have her!

While they’ve been here, I made a little sleep sack for FinallyAGirl. I put a machine embroidery sentiment on the bottom of the sack in hopes that it would help her sleep a little better at night ;-D.

I used McCall’s 7219 for the pattern, Baby Pink Cuddle fabric for the outside and the cute Darling Little Dickens sheep for the lining.

And here’s our little peach modeling the goods — luckily there’s still a bit of growing room too.

In other news, after years of taking pictures of the moon that turned out looking like a tiny white dot, I finally learned how to get a picture that actually looks like the moon during the last super moon. Major zooming in, both with the camera and the computer happened ;-D.

And finally, I have lots of new goodies in my little etsy shop —
Beautiful new Liberty fabrics (with a restock of the beloved Betsy in Gray):

A few prints from the super cute Collette line by Blend Fabrics (oh, the fussy cutting opportunities!):

Some low-volume prints, and just so you can treat yourself at Christmas (;-D!), some beautiful new Dovo scissors (sadly, my favorite 5-inch scissors are sold out already):

Now I’m off to try and get in the Christmas spirit. (Maybe I’ll actually get a new blog header made!) It’s not going to be easy this year — everyone will be somewhere else! I’m not a fan of these every-other-year holidays — at. all!

XOXO,
Anna

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Making Luna Lapin

28 Comments / November 9, 2016 November 9, 2016 / Sewing

I was so excited when the nice people at Sew and So asked me to review the new book by Sarah Peel. The book is Making Luna Lapin and it’s the very sweet story of a little rabbit named Luna who is quiet, kind, and more than anything, loves to sew. A rabbit who loves to sew? How could I say no?

Sara starts the book by telling you the Story of Luna Lapin. Then you go on a few adventures with her … the story of the lost scarf, the story of the Christmas wish, and the story of the birthday bash. The stories are all very sweet and fun to read. And then … best of all … Sarah has included patterns for you to make your very own Luna along with 20 accessories to dress Luna and her brother Alfie.

As reviewers of the book, we were invited to make as little, or as much from the book that we wanted. I wanted to make it all!

I really wanted to make the super cute chair that Luna is sitting in, in the picture above, but I decided to make an actual Luna bunny and a few of her favorite clothes. I mean, wait. I spent my lunch hours hand sewing Luna and then she made her own clothes. Because, you know … she loves to sew. (My poor little Luna is looking a little cross-eyed — I need to re-position those eyes so they’re not set so closely!)

Naturally, Luna LOVES Liberty fabric, so after I lined her ears and feet with Liberty, she made herself a dress, following the instructions in the book. The instructions are clear and very well illustrated (~~I did have~~ Luna had a little bit of trouble understanding the bow instructions, but she worked it out.)

And THEN. Then, Luna made this A.dorable little pink coat. That coat KILLS me! I LOVE it so much — I want a pink Pea Coat in my jumbo size! (Maybe Luna would make me one!) I also want one for my sweet little FinallyAGirl so she and Luna and I can be triplets. (I think you know who is going to be the new owner of Sweet Luna, don’t you???)

Anyway, I Luna really wanted to make more of the accessories too — there are the cutest little boots and shoes in the book, but after lining her feet with beautiful Liberty fabric, I Luna just couldn’t see covering those pads up. Oh well … maybe for a cousin who doesn’t have such pretty feet. ;-D

Thank you so much to Sew and So for inviting me to participate in this blog hop. If you’re interested in the book, you can see a trailer with more sneak peeks by clicking on the little book icon here:

You can also read more reviews of the book and see more of the fun projects (like those cute shoes!) from the book by visiting the following blogs in the blog hop schedule:

Monday 31st October – SewandSo
Tuesday 1st November – Meet Sarah Peel
Wednesday 2nd November – Sew of Course
Thursday 3rd November – Melanie Sews and Other Stuff
Friday 4th November – Poppy in Stitches

Monday 7th November – Carina Crafts
Tuesday 8th November – Bendigolioness
Wednesday 9th November – Bit of Tea and Honey
Thursday 10th November – ME!

And then, after all that reading and previewing, you can buy the book HERE. (Currently, the link is for an e-book, and the link for the hardcover should be up soon. But still, $15 for the e-book is a great deal for all those cute little patterns. I’d buy it just for that little Pink Pea Coat!!!)

XOXO,
Anna

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Quilt Market Report

15 Comments / November 3, 2016 November 3, 2016 / Quilt Market Report

Well, it’s taken me a little longer than it should have to get back here and show you a few of my quilt market pictures. I was only in Houston for two days — my flight was canceled out of our lovely but small-market airport, and since it was the last flight of the day I was stuck until the next morning. And since I had planned on spending an overnight with TheSecondChild on my way to market, I had to push everything back a day.

And THEN, I had to rush home on Sunday because TheManoftheHouse had his second knee replaced on Monday. So, very. quick. trip. and very busy week. But — Lots of Fun! It’s late, so I’ll just keep my words to a minimum and show you the few pictures that I took. (There are more on my Instagram page, if you haven’t had enough of quilt market pictures yet ;-D.)

I’m guessing this may have been the most photographed wall of market.

Cori Dantini for Blend Fabrics is always a favorite.

Another super cute Blend Fabric — a few of the prints from this Paris line will be in my etsy shop hopefully sometime this month.

Fiberworks is always a fun booth — her quilts are so interesting.

The Free Spirit booth was gorgeous — like wandering through a mini quilt show. The quilt on the left is a Fiberworks pattern.

This is one of Jen Kingwell’s new patterns — I LOVE it!

Ooooh Look! A Gaggle of Aussies! Or would that be an Assortment of Aussies??? An Assemblage? Accumulation? Aggregation???? All I know is that they’re all crazy. And a ton of fun!

Next to quilt market were the quilts on display for the Annual International Quilt Show. I took very few pictures, but here are three of my favorites.

This little guy REALLY wants to play ball.

Someday. On my bucket list. (Bad, Bad blogger — I forgot to snap pics of the descriptions of these two quilts. We had so little time – I only had one day for both market AND the quilt show — this was the last hour of the day.)

And, I showed this one on my instagram feed — I love this quilt by Rahna Summerlin. Apparently the judges do too — it won in Paducah and also took first place in the traditional pieced category in this show.

So, that’s it. It’s hard to believe it’s all over — it went by so quickly. Now back to work — fall is such a busy time. Even more so with TheManoftheHouse incapacitated and my frequent visits to see MeMum. And the leaves. ALL the leaves. So. Many. Leaves. I’m just glad we’re having a prolonged fall this year. More time for The. Leaves.

XOXO,
Anna

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Six on Saturday

19 Comments / October 22, 2016 October 22, 2016 / Chat, Five on Friday

1. Well hey — what’s going on out there??? Is it just me, or has it been extra quiet on the internet lately? Could be me — I’ve had my head down and needle up a lot — working … working … on FinallyAGirl’s little quilt. I quilt on it almost every night after work and I’m really enjoying the process. In spite of all the work, I’m just barely half way finished — hand quilting is a LOT of work!

2. Have you seen these adorable apothecary jar labels? They’re used in a really clever Halloween idea — by collecting a bunch of old jars, you can create a fun/creepy Halloween display of potions and brews. If you click on the link, there are lots of free labels to download and it’s a fun article to read — if, for nothing else, to find out how the author filled her jars to look like snake venom, vampire’s blood, and coffin nails just to name a few.

3. TheFirstChild sent me this fun picture the other day. How cool is this poster? You can get a free download of this (can be printed up to 20 x 30) and lots of others at jpl.nasa.gov. I think space travel is so interesting and I love to think of all the possibilities our grandchildren and great-grandchildren might see in their lifetimes!

4. I’ve had another little project I’ve been working on this week. I’m using felt and Liberty and it’s been a take-a-long project for me to work on at lunch time each day. Someday I’ll be finished LOL.

5. Warning: Politics for item#5 LOL. Are you c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y sick of this election in the US yet? As one of my friends at work says — “I’m going to vote on Nov. 8th and then come to work and gnaw my arms off.” I sure wish we could be proud of our next president. I hear a lot of people talk about how excited they are that their little girls will be able to see our First Woman President, but it makes me really sad that the title won’t belong to someone more worthy. No matter who wins, I don’t think our children will be looking up to anyone. On a lighter note, SweetiePie sent me these two pictures last week:

6. WooHoo! It’s Quilt Market next weekend! I’m really excited because I’ll be seeing the little sprite on the left in the picture below. I miss the days when she had a quilt market booth, but I’ll take a visit any way I can get it.

Have a great week — quilt market report when I return!

XOXO,
Anna

Blue Socks

16 Comments / October 7, 2016 October 10, 2016 / Knitting, Socks

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my Aunts’ Quilt — it’s always fun to have a quilt finish! I’ve pressed The Aunts’ (or rather, the back of the Aunts’) into service again to show off my latest sock finish:

I worked on these little socks randomly here and there, and just whenever, and finally they’re done. I started knitting the Drunken Bees pattern (which I can’t seem to find now) out of this yarn, but quickly discovered that I’d really have to be drunk to successfully execute that pattern (I knit waaaay too tightly for that pattern to work for me). Just as I was pondering new options, Bekah posted a new sock pattern that she’s offering for free. So, I used my standard sock knitting method and used the “stripe-y” technique from her pattern for the stripes. I’ve already worn them and they’re super cozy! Thanks Bekah!

Lean to the Left …

Lean to the Right …

there’s a punch line here somewhere, but I can’t remember what it is. Oh well … (btw, all the wood in the background came from yet another tree that we’ve lost on our lot — at this rate, our lot will be naked in 10 years {Sigh}).

I actually took these pictures last week, but somehow I just can’t seem to get back here during the week to write a post. I’m either at Mom’s or, when I get home, I make a hurried dinner and then bury myself in the hand quilting on the baby’s quilt. It’s slow going though — I’m guessing I’m about 1/3 of the way done. I was hoping for a finish by Halloween, but now I’m hoping for Christmas ;-D.

And now … it’s the weekend. Yipee! Have a Good One — and if you’re in the southeast, I hope you’re staying high and dry and that “normal” will soon return.

XOXO,
Anna

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