Thimbleanna – Page 29 – My little online diary.

The Aunts’ Quilt — Month 11

20 Comments / September 15, 2015 September 15, 2015 / Cookie of the Month, The Aunts' Quilt

WooHoo! It’s the 15th of the month. The ELEVENTH month of our Aunts’ Quilt quiltalong. How are you Auntlets doing??? One more month and we’re done. Unbelieveable — this year has flown by!

Our assignment this month was to do two of the borders on the quilt. I was too lazy to spread my whole quilt out again (I did last month, and I will again next month), so I just folded the borders and took an abbreviated picture.

And here’s a more spread out version just to prove that the borders are actually sewn to the middle of the quilt top.

Next month we do the last two borders. Then what? I’m going to need a new project. (Ha! Maybe I should work on a UFO!)

Anyway, it’s also time for the cookie of the month. This month I chose a cookie from a little cookie leaflet that I received from the kids’ school years ago. Scandinavian Almond Bars — they’re easy to make and they’re pretty darn good!

Scandinavian Almond Bars

Cookies:
1 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. almond extract
milk
1/2 c. sliced almonds, coarsely chopped

Mix butter until soft. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and almond extract and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into fourths. Form each into a 9-inch roll. Place two rolls 4 to 5 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each roll with your hands until it is approximately 3 inches wide. Repeat with remaining rolls.

Brush the flattened rolls with milk, and sprinkle with almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light brown. While cookies are still warm, cut them crosswise at a diagonal into one-inch strips (a pizza cutter works well). Cool them on a wire rack. Drizzle with almond icing.

Almond Icing:
Stir together 1 c. sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. almond extract, and enough milk (3 to 4 T.) to make an icing of drizzling consistency.

Now, for a little housekeeping — new fabrics arrived for my little etsy shop while I was gone! First up are several different double gauze prints. I LOVE the little shirt that I made out of double gauze a few months ago and I wear it all the time. This fabric is so soft and cozy — it’s perfect for anything for babies (swaddles, bibs, burps, etc.) and big kid clothes too. Love, Love, Love. And … kitties with glasses and bow ties — Eeeep!!!

And then there are the beautiful Seed Catalog prints from Lakehouse Fabrics. I love these prints. They’re perfect for backgrounds and low-volume quilting needs — I can’t wait to do some applique flowers on them!

And last (for now haha!) I only have one fat quarter bundle of For You by Zen Chic left. This fabric goes great with my Aunts’ Quilt and I’m so sorry that it came out too late to be used in my quilt. The prints are really fun — a great stash building bundle!

One last housekeeping item — how ’bout a winner for the Good Neighbors Charm Pack from my pincushion post? If your name is Pam S and you said

“This is a beautiful collection of fabrics, and I particularly like the combination that you chose for your beautiful pincushion. Thanks for sharing! I would love to visit the Grand Canyon someday.”

You’re a Winner (and I hope you make it to the Grand Canyon)! Send me your address (anna@thimbleanna.com) and I’ll forward your info to Connecting Threads.

Whew! I’m off to eat a cookie!
XOXO,
Anna

Scotland – Part 1

25 Comments / September 13, 2015 September 15, 2015 / Travel

Wow — it’s been so fun to read all your comments on my last post! Thanks to everyone who has entered to win a fat quarter pack of CrazyMom’s new fabric (there’s still time to enter if you’re interested!) and Thanks for playing along with my request to tell me the one place that you want to visit. There have been some fun and interesting answers. No surprise, a lot of you want to go to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and lots of places here in the US. And really fun for me to read, is that a lot of you want to go to Scotland or England, since that’s where my latest little trip took me.

**Warning** – Picture Heavy Post (LOL)

It was a complete accident that I ended up with two big trips in the same month. We’d been talking about taking a family trip to Canada and Montana for a long time, but at the beginning of the year, the kids said they wouldn’t be able to go this year. But “I” wanted a little break somewhere and about that time, Meredithe and Anne were planning a little get-together in Scotland and invited me to come along. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get away, so I decided to go and made my reservations. THEN, the kids called and said they really wanted to go out west anyway and could only go during the second and third week of August. What’s a girl to do??? Say no to one of them??? Nope — I used up all my vacation from work in one big bundle! I’m a REALLY LUCKY girl!

My Scotland trip divided neatly up into three little segments, so that’s how I’m going to post about them. I can’t go to Scotland without begging for an audience with my Best Scottish Girl, Pam and she very kindly said yes. This was my third visit with Pam. The first time was in 2008 when TheManoftheHouse and I were cat-sitters for The Life family while they went on a trip and the second time was in 2012 when SweetiePie and I dropped in on The Lifes for a visit. On both of those trips I had every second planned with activities. This time was different. I just wanted to relax and visit. I only had two requests — I wanted to see Pam’s adorable little grandbabies, and I wanted to see The Kelpies. (Ok, I had three requests — I wanted to go places that Pam loves to visit. Live her life, so to speak!)

I was SO excited — in “living her life”, I was fortunate enough to be able to meet all of her family that I hadn’t met before, as it was her son’s birthday and everyone was there the night I arrived to celebrate his birthday. I felt terrible that I hadn’t remembered his birthday when I planned the trip and it was so naughty to crash the party. But. I felt very honored — they were so kind to include me and I loved every minute. No picture, I forgot to take pictures. Or, I could have just been jet-lagged or something.

Anyway, the next day, in between chasing down my lost luggage, Pam and I went to the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. She posts about them often and they’re beautiful!

And Look! There was a wedding reception — MEN IN KILTS!!!

We also went to My Bear Paw — a cute little quilt shop in Edinburgh. ‘Cause I’m on a quest to get Pam quilting and it’s working! She’s made three beautiful quilts so far. And did I get pictures? No. I didn’t get any of the adorable grandchildren either. I’m so sad, but I was busy playing with them, so I do have a good excuse.

On Sunday, The Lifes took me to see The Kelpies. They’re really beautiful. And big. It was so fun to finally see them.

Very close to The Kelpies is The Falkirk Wheel. I’d heard about it, but thought it was some sort of thing used to generate power. Wrong! It’s a really cool “wheel” that takes the place of locks. Boats are loaded into the top and bottom of the “wheel” and it rotates to move them to the lower or upper canal.

After Falkirk, we went to Crieff. Pam grew up going to Crieff Hydro and then took her children there when they were growing up. I loved getting another glimpse into her Scottish life! While we were there, we hiked up the knock (did I say that right Pam? LOL???). The views from the top were beautiful — the heather was in bloom! (And please note my darling little tour guides!)

(Look at the children on the top of this building at Crieff — I want that pattern on a quilt!)

On the way home, we stopped at Queensferry, a pretty little town on the Firth of Forth. The views across the water were beautiful. (In the third picture, you can see new towers for a new bridge behind the existing bridge — those towers are huge!)

Whew! Are you tired yet? Poor Pam and Mr. Life — we were busy! On Monday, we went for a beautiful walk along the Water of Leith walkway. It was a perfect — I loved just being out and walking along a pretty river. If you look closely in the second picture, a local artist had been there and made lots of little standing stone sculptures in the middle of the river.

(I want this wheat on a quilt too!)

We stopped and had lunch and then made our way to the New Town part of Edinburgh. It was fun to see all the Georgian architecture and we went to The Georgian House too (no pictures allowed ;-( ).

On the way home, we walked through Princes Street Garden. The gardens are so pretty and there were people everywhere — it was the last day of the festival season in Edinburgh. A symphony was practicing for a concert that night — what a beautiful setting under the stunning Edinburgh castle!

And finally, on my last morning in Edinburgh, Pam and I went to High Street. Edinburgh has such a fascinating history with buildings being built on top of each other (even streets on top of each other! — and the closes are amazing) and I love to pay a visit to The Royal Mile just to take pictures. We also visited Gladstone’s Land and the John Knox House –again, no pictures.

There is so much to see and do in Edinburgh and I loved having Pam with me this time. I saw so many little details that I wouldn’t have noticed without her!

Sorry, I rambled on so long — and this was only 4 days! There’s just so much I want to remember about this trip — i had the best time with Pam and Mr. Life — I loved every minute of it!
Next time, I’ll tell you about my visit with Anne.
XOXO,
Anna

Good Neighbors

165 Comments / September 10, 2015 September 10, 2015 / Sewing

Well Hello! At last, I’m back from my travels. I had a fun trip and I can’t wait to go through all my pictures and post a few of them!

In the meantime, it’s my turn on the Good Neighbors Pincushion Party blog hop. If you’re a quilter, you’re sure to know CrazyMom. She chose her blog name well all those years ago — she IS Crazy! CrazyMom is also amazing. She’s a non-stop ball of quilting fire — oh, to have all of her energy! She makes an unbelievable number of quilts (I LOVE her 101 Scrap Projects!), writes patterns, teaches quilting classes, co-authored a book, and NOW she has her first fabric line. I’m SO excited for her, and when she asked me to be part of her pincushion party, I jumped at the chance!

Her new line is called “Good Neighbors” and it’s classic CrazyMom style — bright, happy colors, just like her quilts. (I shamelessly stole that little picture above from the Connecting Threads website so that you could see some of the variety of the prints in Good Neighbors.) I love that this line is called Good Neighbors — I’d love to swap these fun fabrics over the back fence with CrazyMom — I can just imagine how fun it would be to have Ms. Crazy herself as my neighbor — my Good Neighbor!

Anyway, on to my pincushion. I knew right away that I wanted to make my favorite pincushion again — Posy Pin Pie by Jillily Studio. This is a large pincushion and it holds lots of pins and needles and … stuff. I love a jumbo pincushion! Because it’s such a big pincushion, stuffing it with all walnut shells would make it pretty heavy, so I chose a half ‘n half stuffing. Half fiberfill and half walnut shells. (Fiberfill on top, shells on the bottom.) In my book, it’s the perfect weight.

CrazyMom’s fabrics are so fun and versatile. I had fun choosing which fabrics to put in my pincushion. And look at the little discovery I made — Good Neighbors goes perfectly with Jen Kingwell’s Gardenvale (I mixed them up in the pile above) — how fun is that???

So, would you like a charm pack of Good Neighbors for yourself? Just leave a comment — and to make it fun, tell me the top vacation spot on your bucket list (i.e., where is the one place that you really want to go where you’ve never been before.) I’ll draw a random winner by Tuesday, September 15th. (Sorry, this drawing is only open to U.S. and Canadian residents.)

Also, you can check out the full Good Neighbors collection at Connecting Threads.

And be sure to check out the rest of the cute pincushions in CrazyMom’s Pincushion Party!

9/1/2015 Amanda Jean – Crazy Mom Quilts
9/2/2015 Anna – Noodlehead
9/3/2015 Mary – Mary on Lake Pulaski
9/4/2015 Svetlana – Sotak Handmade
9/5/2015 Debbie – Esch House Quilts
9/6/2015 Holly – Bijou Lovely
9/7/2015 Carla – Grace and Favour
9/8/2015 Faith – Fresh Lemons Quilts
9/9/2015 Vanessa – V and Co.
9/10/2015 Anna – Thimbleanna (that’s Me!)
9/11/2015 Krista – Poppy Print Creates
9/12/2015 Erin – Why Not Sew
9/13/2015 Lee – May Chappell
9/14/2015 Alex – Tea Ginny Designs
9/15/2015 Cheryl – Nap Time Quilter
9/16/2015 Penny – Sew Take a Hike
9/17/2015 Amy – During Quilt Time
9/18/2015 Debbie – A Quilter’s Table
9/19/2015 Anne – Spring Leaf Studios
9/20/2015 Melissa Corry – Happy Quilting
9/21/2015 Amber – One Shabby Chick
9/22/2015 Nettie – A Quilt is Nice
9/23/2015 Adrianne – Little Bluebell
9/24/2015 Cindy – Live a Colorful Life
9/25/2015 Amy – Diary of a Quilter
9/26/2015 Chase – Quarter Inch Mark
9/27/2015 Rene – Rene Creates
9/28/2015 Erin – House on Hill Road
9/29/2015 Nicole – Modern Handcraft
9/30/2015 Teri – Connecting Threads

Good Luck!
XOXO,
Anna

A Little Trip

28 Comments / August 25, 2015 August 25, 2015 / Family, Travel

Well Hey There! I’m finally back from our little getaway trip out west. We were gone for two weeks (didyamissmelol?) and had a wonderful time. TheFirstChild, SweetiePie and I drove out, then TheSecondChild joined us for the second week and TheFirstChild flew home early — I think one cross-country drive was enough for him!

Our trip started off with a big bang and a quickie visit with my beloveed Ms. Farmhouse. She very graciously provided beds for us in her gorgeous home. Our visit was way too short, but it was so fun to see her — we normally only get to catch up at quilt markets. One of the best things for me was to see her beautiful nest. Boy, oh boy, what a sewing room — this is only part of it!

And the best part is, the kids thought I was over the top with my little quilting hobby. Thank you Ms. Farmhouse for making me look normal — the kids commented that I’ve found my twin. (If only my dungeon could come close to being a twin to the nest!)

The second day of the trip, we made it almost to Calgary and then our final destination, Banff, on the morning of the third day. Wow, oh Wow! Banff National Park is just beautiful. I don’t even have the words to describe how lush and green and pretty it is. We spent our three days there hiking and seeing some unbelievably gorgeous lakes. The aqua blue colors in the lake water were amazing. Beautiful (and famous) Lake Louise:

Peyto Lake:

And, my favorite, Moraine Lake. If you’re on Instagram, you see lots of people taking pictures like this one — sitting on a rock, overlooking the lake.

And here’s a tip about that rock-shot: When you first arrive at the end of the lake, you see this huge pile of rocks. SweetiePie somehow knew that the rock-shot happens from the top of this pile. Therefore, we needed to climb to the top of the pile.

First, you have to cross this log-dam. If you slip off of a log, your feet end up in the lake. Climbing up the pile was interesting — and fun!

So, where’s the tip? When we got to the top, there was a guy up there with a dog. I asked him how on earth he got the dog up that rock pile. He laughed at me and said there’s a nice, easy path that goes up around the back of the rock pile. Doh! Oh well, I’m probably glad we didn’t know about the path, or we would have missed the fun of almost falling off of the rock pile!

Emerald Lake:

There’s a beautiful hike around Emerald Lake through the woods. Very, very fun!

After three days in Canada, we made our way down to Glacier National Park in Montana. It’s about a four-hour drive and it was surprising how different the mountains are — less dense forests, but just as beautiful. The more open areas had a big advantage — we saw no wildlife in Canada, but saw animals every day in Glacier. The famous Glacier tour buses — they haven’t changed since the 1930’s.

We spent all of our time in Glacier hiking and enjoying the views. One of my favorite hikes was the Highline Trail. There’s about a quarter-mile at the beginning of the hike where you hike along a cliff. The park service very kindly provides a cable to hold on to — so you don’t plunge to the road 100-feet below. ;-D

The view from the cliff was totally worth it.

We did several other hikes in Glacier and I loved them all (if you go, don’t miss the Grinnell Glacier hike!). (As a side note — have you seen the funny video of the lady who tells you how to avoid a shark attack? (Go watch it — it’s too funny!) You hear a lot about watching out for bears in Glacier (for good reason!) and the shark-lady says not to go into the bear’s house in her video. When we hiked through meadows like the one below, we were sure we were in the bear’s house — tons of berry plants everywhere!)

We also found some time for a little other fun — skipping rocks at the lakes,

Zip-lining,

And a visit to Polebridge, which the boys are convinced is inhabited by anarchists!

After just 4 days at Glacier, we took 3 days to drive home — it took an extra day because we stopped to see these guys:

Anyway, it was a great trip — highly recommended if you haven’t been to either of those parks. Especially, if you love to hike like we do!!!

Lots of fun stuff going on here (oooh, new fabric!), but it will have to wait. I’m off again in a day, on another little adventure. And then, maybe we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming and some blog-reading!

XOXO,
Anna