Thimbleanna – Page 3 – My little online diary.

Summer Zipped By …

10 Comments / September 24, 2022 September 24, 2022 / Chat, Sewing, Travel

Well, here we are. Fall Already. I have NO idea what happened to summer. It came and it went. Life spins by exponentially as you get older, I’ve decided. I seem to remember it was a mostly fun summer and not too miserably hot. But what do I know … I stay inside and sew a lot LOL.

We have had a fun summer with our cutie patootie little granddaughters. We had cookie baking, tea parties, lots of coloring, ice cream, homemade funnel cakes, sleepovers, star gazing on quilts, and one afternoon we even had HurrayAThirdGirl all to ourselves.

What a joy they all are! I find myself wishing they could stay little forever, but then I get excited to see how their little personalities will develop. I used to be so sad that I didn’t have any little girls of my own, but I think this is the way to do it — I’m loving these little girls SO much and I don’t think I would have had time to really enjoy them as a mother!

There’s been a fair bit of travel this summer. TheSecondChild decided to move to Florida in July, so I had several trips helping him with the move. I didn’t know much about Florida, having only been there for the standard Disney World trip when the boys were little, but I loved it. Even though it was hotter than hades, and moving is hard, we had a great time. One weekend, we snuck away to Key West for a little getaway. I’ve always wanted to go and see Ernest Hemingway’s home and it was the highlight of the visit. Here’s the famous author’s desk:

And, as expected, there were cats everywhere.

I had previously also been blissfully unaware of the iguana situation in Florida. I felt like I saw an iguana almost every day — they’re like squirrels. This was poolside at our hotel in Key West. Swim with a rooster and iguana anyone???

Someone even told me that they climb trees and if/when the temps get below freezing, they temporarily freeze (because they’re cold blooded) and fall out of the trees. Maybe on your head if you’re walking by. Ewwwww! One day, back in the mainland, we were in the drive-thru line at Wendy’s and I looked over to see this:

Needless to say, I became a little iguana obsessed LOL.

There’s also been a lot of sewing over the summer. I made a little dress for FinallyAGirl’s birthday at the beginning of the summer.

The pattern is Ginger from The Children’s Corner store, and the fabric is the cute Children of Liberty print in my little shop.
I also FINALLY finished the hand piecing on my Trip Around the World quilt. I think I finished with 42 rounds and it should be a double size quilt when finished. This is a picture of the back, right after I finished the last round.

It took me TWO weeks, working a few hours a day while watching tv, to get those seams ironed down in the right order. That was a job! I’ve also been steadily hand-quilting away on HurrayAThirdGirl’s baby quilt (it’s late haha) — I’m about half-way through at this point and hoping to be done by the end of November. There are also some Christmas quilt tops that are almost done, but they will have to wait for another post.

Which at this rate, may be in the spring LOL.

Happy Fall!
XOXO,
Anna

A Storm and A Wedding

10 Comments / June 25, 2022 June 25, 2022 / Around the House, Quilting, Wedding

Ahhh June. You’re almost gone {sigh}. But surprise, this will be my second post this month! I was thinking about why posting has taken such a back seat lately. I thought maybe I could pin it down to retirement — now that I’m retired, I feel like I have so much time but it makes it hard to actually do stuff (I work much better under pressure). Like, why is it so hard to write a blog post? While it’s true that posting has slowed down since I retired, it was already slowing a little before then. For some reason it’s just harder to take the time to write a post these days. Maybe because in the back of my mind I’m thinking … I have plenty of time, I’ll just do it tomorrow??? Oh well, chalk it up to just another mystery. I thought once I retired I’d get SO much more done. Haha.

We had a whopper of a storm last week. They called it a Derecho. Which, they say, if it had been over water, it would have been a hurricane. Our part of town was particularly hard hit and we had really REALLY high winds. They clocked them at 100 mph at the airport. We had trees and power poles down everywhere. We were without power for 2 days. Luckily, TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, who live 2 miles away, only lost power for about 5 hours so we were able to stay with them for a few days. We would have just camped out at home but the daytime temp the day after the storm reached 99F so, it was a little steamy. ;-D

Anyway, we were lucky and only lost one tree (which I attribute to the fact that we’ve lost so many other trees from storms and disease over the last 20 years that there aren’t that many left). The wind uprooted a pine tree that was dying — we were going to have to have it removed anyway, so the storm actually saved us a little money.

We were really lucky — the tree was exactly the height of the space that it fell into, so there was no damage to the house. Many others were not so lucky. Here’s a picture of a house a few streets over — the tree stump just to the left of the trailer used to be a huge tree that fell onto the middle of the house:

They had another big tree fall on the back corner of the house, so there’s a lot more damage that you can’t see. I’m so sad for these people — what a job to repair the mess. MyDadLovesMeBestSister also had a huge tree fall on her back deck — it destroyed the deck and caused some roof damage. Thankfully, everyone is ok though!

Speaking of MyDadLovesMeBestSister, she just hosted her second wedding in a year a few weeks ago. CuteNiece2 married her high school sweetheart in a beautiful beach ceremony on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina.

The photographer did a great job — you can’t tell it, but it was actually raining. In spite of the imperfectly timed rain, the wedding and everything about it was perfect — everything was SO beautiful and it was fun to gather as a family again. And, where there’s a wedding, there’s a wedding quilt:

CuteNiece2 sent me a picture of a quilt that she liked and I tried my best to reproduce it. It’s a scrappy quilt, made from lots of neutral fabrics from my stash — many of which were used in SweetiePie and TheFirstChild’s Wedding Quilt.

The background fabric is a sweet little neutral designed by Brenda Riddle.

And the backing is a Riley Blake wide back from a few years ago that I had in my stash. I sent this quilt out locally (thanks for the quilter recommendation Ginny!) to have it machine-quilted — I don’t do it often, but I sort-of ran out of time. It seems like such a luxury to have the quilts machine-quilted by someone else — I’m thinking I’m going to have to do it more often.

I’m itching to start a new quilt (or 2 … or 3!) but I’m trying to resist the urge, as I have a lot of UFOs. Lots of Christmas fabrics have been arriving in the shop though, so I might lose the battle!

XOXO,
Anna

Spring Projects

9 Comments / June 2, 2022 June 2, 2022 / Holidays, Knitting, Smocking

Well, that was a longer than normal break! It’s been a pretty busy spring full of fun activities with the grandbabies plus the usual spring chores around the house, etc. It all seems like a big blur now that I look back on it — it’s true what they say — Time Flies when you’re having fun. Or, it just flies when you’re old LOL.

A lot of my time was spent getting ready for a trip to Scotland, which happened a few weeks ago. Half of the trip involved a hundred mile walk, so, in February I started walking 5 miles a day to build up my hiking stamina. All that walking takes a lot of time and I probably should have trained harder, but more on that later! When I wasn’t walking, I spent a fair amount of time making fun things for the girls and preparing our annual little Easter party for them. Just like last year, we decorated cupcakes, made Easter bonnets,

and had a fun scavenger hunt to find prizes. Prizes included the annual Easter Grammy Surprise Box

and some little knitted kitties in their denim dungarees.

As always, the pattern is by Little Cotton Rabbits. Her fun little animals are so cute — I’m pretty sure I love them more than the girls do!

Judging by the mess at the end of the party, it was a big success. The girls are at such a great age now — they love all the fun activities — especially the suspense of the scavenger hunt.

In addition to the Easter Party goodies, I made some smocked Easter dresses for them. We love to read the Peter Rabbit stories together and have Peter Rabbit tea parties, so I decided to put little bunnies on their dresses.

The pattern is Lee from The Children’s Corner Store and the fabric is a Liberty print called Camille — one of my favorites. SweetiePie sent me a cute picture of the three girls in their dresses, but I can’t seem to find it now, so a picture of three little sleeves will have to do ;-D

I also made matching hairbows for each of the girls. I ordered Peter Rabbit scrabble tiles from Designs by Chastity on Etsy. She did a nice job on the tiles and it worked great just to hot glue the tiles to the Liberty fabric.

So, that about sums up spring in ThimbleannaLand. Oh! I also made a wedding quilt which will make an appearance this weekend — CuteNiece2 is to be married on Sunday. More on that later too. Have a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Bobbalicious

8 Comments / February 28, 2022 February 28, 2022 / Knitting

Well, how is winter going out there? We’re having a good one — we’ve had a fair amount of snow (which, as you know, I love!) so I’m a happy camper. The weather today is beautiful — mid 40’s and sunny — it’s a clue that spring will soon be here. I love all the seasons for different reasons, but Spring might be my least favorite. Oh sure, there are pretty spring flowers and finally an end to winter (for those who are tired of it), but there’s generally mud and spring clean-up involved. I’d rather stay in and knit and sew LOL. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here — all that yard work is at least a month away, so I still have time to stay holed up inside.

We’ve had a good and busy winter here in ThimbleannaLand. Pretty routine, and I’ve been able to sew and knit quite a bit. I made cute little Valentine dresses for the FinallyHurrayGirls, but it seems we were all too busy for pictures. I’ve also started the wedding quilt for CuteNiece2 who will be married in June and I’ve been knitting in prep for Easter. I also finished a sweater for HurrayAThirdGirl. My goal last year was to make each of the girls a sweater for their birthdays, and in classic Me fashion, all the sweaters have been late.

HurrayAThirdGirl’s little sweater is from the Bobbalicious Set by Debbie Bliss. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in Baby Pink. It’s really soft and lovely to knit — hopefully it won’t pill too much.

I used those sweet little pink Acufactum fairies for the button ribbon. I love that they’re a little surprise when you open the button placket.

HurrayAThirdGirl is 2 (and a few months) and I made the size 3 on the pattern. Happily, this sweater is plenty big and will last her a few seasons. Her Mama, has declared this her favorite of all the sweaters I’ve made for the girls. My jury is out — I might be a little partial to the sheepie sweater or maybe the merriment cardigans. In any case, HurrayAThirdGirl has worn several of the hand-me-down sweaters from her sisters, but I think this is the first sweater made just for her. I’m thinking she might need another one soon (although FinallyAGirl was crying awhile ago because she’s grown out of the sheepie sweater and she loves that sweater and she needs another one LOL.)

And btw, isn’t HurrayAThirdGirl a cutie? We got some great news about her little patched eye this month — as CutiePie excitedly told me over the phone right after an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist, “She can see!” I don’t think I’ve really said much here on the blog, but she was born with a cataract, so the lens had to be removed when she was a newborn. There was a lot of worry that she’d never really see out of that eye (which is now corrected with a contact until a permanent lens can be placed in a few years) but her recent eye tests were amazing. And, well, proud Grammy aside, SHE is amazing. Try spending most of your day with an eye patch — I don’t think I’d even last 10 minutes.

A pesky little patch isn’t going to slow this little doll down though — she has babies that need tending!

Happy Last Day of February!
XOXO,
Anna

Snoopy and the Yellow Quilt

9 Comments / January 16, 2022 January 16, 2022 / Quilting

Boy, January is in full swing already and I feel like I’ve missed it! We went to Utah for two weeks for a little ski break — not me, of course, skiing and I are not friends. But the kids love to ski, so it’s always fun to go with them and enjoy the snow. FinallyAGirl and FinallyAnotherGirl had their first ski lessons — FinallyAGirl loved it and declared that she wanted to stay there and ski forever. FinallyAnotherGirl was less thrilled, but I’m betting she’ll have a lot more fun next year. Anyway, this post has nothing to do with skiing — I just thought a little explanation was in order as to why this post is so late. I wanted to post closer to Christmas when Snoopy and the Yellow Quilt actually happened, but I ran out of time. Also, when I was a girl I had a little Snoopy pin that said “Don’t Eat Yellow Snow”. Just so you know, the Snoopy and the Yellow Quilt here have no relation to yellow snow!

A few weeks before Christmas, I called up my good Quilty Peep JunieJune and told her we’d like to make a Snoopy for the girls’ playhouse. She and her hubby made a super cute Snoopy for their granddaughter’s playhouse last year and I filed the idea away for this year. TheManoftheHouse’s favorite Christmas movie is the Peanuts Christmas show and he watches it with the girls, so I knew he’d love for them to have a Snoopy in their backyard. JunieJune gave me her pattern and she and her awesome husband helped us cut the runners that Snoopy needed for the top of the house. They went above and beyond by bringing their saw to us, rather than us taking the wood to them. You can’t find friends like that just anywhere!!! Anyway, here’s a peek at our Snoopy:

Next year’s version will have a new spotlight. I want the spotlight to be only on Snoopy, so that the Christmas lights show up better. Plus, the existing spot, throws a shadow on the house. But, super fun for a first attempt and improving it will give us a good project for next Christmas.

On to the Yellow Snow Quilt. MyDadLovesMeBestSister has two little leather yellow couches in her family room and I thought it might be fun to make her a throw quilt to keep her warm in the winter. I didn’t really know what to do for a pattern, so I looked through some pinterest pages and found a quilt with 25-patch blocks that I thought would work with my yellow stash prints.

These pictures are terrible, but they were taken in a hurry right before the quilt was wrapped up for gift-giving. There are 20 25-patch blocks and they’re set with white sashing and yellow posts. MyDadLovesMeBestSister has two goldendoodles (you may remember Teddy) so I added a puppy paw to the bottom right-hand corner. Hopefully, she’ll share the quilt with the dogs LOL.

I backed the quilt with the Soft Spot Plush for maximum cuddle factor. The quilt was washed and it’s nice and crinkly cosy. Perfect for a cold winter’s day nap on the sofa in front of the fire!

So, not much else to say — simple words for a simple quilt.

On to the next quilt! I’m thinking about starting two new quilts — in spite of a pile of UFO’s. The promise of a fresh New Year always does that to me!

XOXO,
Anna