Thimbleanna – Page 7 – My little online diary.

Checking In

6 Comments / October 10, 2020 January 23, 2021 / Chat, Family

Well Hello! Ohmygosh, another few months have flown by. I have to keep telling myself that it’s actually October — I’m still in August. (Ok, who am I kidding, I’m still in 2005 or something LOL.) See, here’s proof – does this look like October to you?

My zinnias were so pretty this year that I had to take a picture. I planted mostly pink ones and I’ve loved not having so many different colors. The flowers are definitely starting to fade though, so when I need to jolt myself back into October, I just have to walk outside. It’s been so beautiful this year — I hope the good weather will last a little longer. We had a visit the other day from this sneaky little guy — he’s definitely getting ready for winter. I had to run him off before he decided to bury that nut in my seat cushion. So far, they haven’t destroyed the cushions this year, but it probably won’t be long.

I feel like I’ve been really busy in the few months since my last post, yet I feel like I haven’t done much. I spent most of August and part of September working on a new website for my little fabric shop. I decided try to move things from Etsy — their fees are just so high and when you throw in advertising fees, I actually had a few listings that were costing me money. I like being able to offer items at a discount, so I moved to a new website where the prices can still be lower. For now, the Etsy shop will remain, but with higher prices to try to offset the fees a little, and with a smaller selection. The new website also has some fun features that Etsy doesn’t have, for example, you can create a “design wall” where you can view all the fabrics that you might be thinking about purchasing together. When I’m shopping online, I love to be able to see everything on the same page so I can tell if I like it together. You can also shop by colors, themes, supplier, or type of fabric (knits anyone?)

Also, a new website meant I ~~needed~~ wanted a new logo. I had seen some cute logos on Instagram done by cerigwen_shop, so I contacted her to create a new logo for me. She was so easy to work with — she created several options and then tweaked the final one I selected. I love that big pink thimble — if only sterling silver were pink LOL!

Just as we were finishing the new website, we had a little family getaway to our favorite place in Utah. Both boys, DIL, and the grandbabies went and we had a wonderful time. It was the perfect time to be in the mountains — the beautiful trees were just starting to show their fall colors.

We did a lot of hiking, which is a little challenging with three babies who are 4 and under. The kids were SO good though! I’m sure it was all that fresh mountain air (it looked really smoky and hazy from the California wildfires, but it was heaven to us.) And luckily, we had one strong adult for each baby, so no one had to walk when they were tired. (Although, no one offered to carry meee-e LOL.)

We always took a picnic lunch on our hikes, and on this particular hike, we were having a little picnic in a meadow and a really nice guy came by and offered to take our picture — such a fun surprise!

Now, we’re safely back home and starting to think all things fall. I’m still plodding along on too many UFOs — all with not much progress to report. Hopefully I’ll finish something up soon — I’ve seen a ton of new projects that I’d like to start, but I’m trying to be good. Not making any promises though ….

Happy Fall!
XOXO,
Anna

A Bucket Bag

8 Comments / August 14, 2020 August 14, 2020 / How-To, Sewing

Once Upon A Time Ago, I saw a big roomy bag at a market that I thought would be perfect for my knitting. The problem was, that it had a big roomy price tag. Gee, I didn’t want the bag to cost as much as the yarn I planned to put in it, so I filed the vision of that lovely bag in my head for another day. Not too long after that, I found a sheepy fabric that I thought would be perfect for such a project bag, so I bought it and hung it on the wall to nag me into making a perfect little knitting bag. And nag me it did — for an embarrassing number of years. Finally, last weekend, I thought “this is ridiculous”, so I took down the fabric and made my bag. And it was ridiculous that I’d waited so long — it only took a few hours to make. Why do some of the smallest jobs seem to take so long to get around to executing?

Anyway, it’s done and I LOVE it and I took pictures along the way, so I could tell you how I made it. (And so that I would have notes, should I ever want to make another bucket bag — and surely I will!)

Here are the things you will need for a bucket bag that will be approximately 17″ wide x 11″ tall x 8″ deep:

One 15 1/2″ x 34 1/2″ piece of Soft and Stable (I use this on most of the bags I make — it’s amazing and it gives your bag some stability — no one wants a floppy bag!)
One 15 1/2″ x 34 1/2″ piece of cotton or cotton canvas for the outside of the bag.
One 15 1/2″ x 34 1/2″ piece of cotton or cotton canvas for the lining of the bag.
One 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of lining fabric for an inside pocket.
One 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of fusible interfacing for an inside pocket.
Two leather bag straps approximately 20″ long.

Place the piece of soft and stable on top of the wrong side of the outside bag piece of fabric and sew a very scant 1/4″ seam all the way around the rectangle. Then trim the soft and stable in the seamline as close to the stitching as possible. Set aside.

Iron the fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of pocket fabric. Then fold the fabric width-wise and stitch around the three seam sides, leaving an opening for turning the pocket in the middle of the long side of stitching.

Trim the corners, turn the pocket, and fold the raw edges along the bottom of the pocket opening toward the inside of the pocket. Press the seams so they are nice and flat. Lay the lining fabric out, right side up, so you’re looking at a horizontal rectangle. Place the pocket 4 1/2″ in from the left hand side of the rectangle and 4 1/4″ up from the bottom of the rectangle. (Or, you might like your pocket a wee-bit higher on the inside of your bag — I think 5 ” from the bottom would have been a great distance too.) Sew the pocket to the lining along the right, bottom and left sides, leaving the top open.

Fold the outside piece of fabric with the attached soft and stable and stitch a generous 1/4″ seam along the side and the bottom of the bag. You will now have a rectangle that measures 15 1/2″ x 17 1/4″ that is open along the top, sewn closed along the bottom and one side, and folded on the other side. Iron the seams open where possible. Repeat this step with the fabric lining, except you will need to leave an opening along the bottom seam (the 17 1/4″ side) for turning later.

Now you’re ready to box-out the corners of your bag. It’s tricky to explain, but not really that hard. Hopefully the pictures and words together will help. Also, reading through the next few pictures before you do anything might help make it more clear. On both the lining and the outside of the bag, place a pin along the edge of the folded side, a few inches from the seamline along the bottom of the bag.

Now, using the lining piece of fabric, open up that bottom corner and place the pin you just placed in the fold, along the seamline in the bottom of the lining. You have to feel it with your fingers — you’re re-folding the corner so that the folded side edge runs along the bottom seam. You’re going to do the same thing in the other corner of the lining, except the side edge of that corner was seamed instead of folded, so you’re going to be lying the two seams on top of each other, right sides together. Once you have the corner re-folded, measure up 4 1/4″ from the point and then draw a diagonal line that is 4 1/4″ from the corner point. It’s very important to make sure that the diagonal line is perpendicular to the seamline of the bottom of the bag.

Stitch along that drawn line. After you’ve completed both corners of the lining, do the same thing for the main soft and stable piece of the bag. Then trim all corners off of the bag and lining.

Like magic, you can now stand them up and they have their boxy shape! Turn the lining right side out and place it inside of the bag with the soft and stable, right sides together. Pin or clip all around the top of the bag, matching the side seam and the folded edge of the lining to the side seam and folded edge of the bag. Then stitch a generous 1/4″ from the top edge, all around — don’t leave any openings.

Remove pins or clips and turn the bag through the opening in the bottom of the lining. Hand stitch that opening closed. Press along the top edge of the bag and then topstitch 1/4″ from the edge. Then, attach your bag handles according to manufacturers directions. (Mine were sewn on, some are put on with rivets or snaps, etc.)

Ta-Da! You have a perfect little bucket bag, perfect for stuffing full of whatever project you’re working on.

Hurry and put something in there and admire your handy work!

That wasn’t too bad was it? I hope it wasn’t too confusing. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I really do need to go work on that little project I stuffed into my bucket bag — you won’t believe how old it is — I think it might be the oldest ufo in my house and I think it’s older than my oldest child — an embarrassing Eeeek!

XOXO,
Anna

A Crayon Caddy

9 Comments / July 27, 2020 August 5, 2020 / Sewing

Our little Sweet Pea FinallyAGirl had a birthday last month — FOUR years already! Where oh where has the time gone? It seems like she was just born — in spite of the fact that she has two little sisters LOL. Birthdays and Christmas always seem to be a challenge because our babies these days have everything — especially when they have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, great- aunts and uncles, cousins and friends that all adore them! Luckily we have the internet for inspiration and lots of fun gift ideas. So, this year, at the last minute, I decided it might be fun to make her a little crayon carrier from my stash of Heather Ross Kinder fabrics.

I pieced her name with letters from one of the prints for the front of the caddy. (And then I thoughtfully blocked out her name for the picture — just for you — you’re welcome LOL.) I used a size 8 thread to big-stitch around each letter and it was so fun.

I made it as a tri-fold pack with crayons and colored pencils on the left side, a blank drawing pad in the middle, and a zippered pouch where she can stash treasures or art supplies on the right side. It’s hard to take a picture of something that is long and skinny, but you get the idea.

The zipper-pocket has a vinyl top layer so she’ll be able to see the goodies that she’s keeping in her pocket. I had everything I needed to make this carrier in my stash — ahhh, the joys of being a fabric hoarder! I used the By-Annie’s Soft and Stable in between all the layers — I love that stuff. It gives the carrier such a nice feel and keeps it from being too flimsy. I also gave it a button closure with an old Sweetwater Make Life Special button and an elastic ponytail holder sewn into the binding of the right hand side.

I think our little sweetie likes it — she’s used it a lot. One thing I might change for the next version would be to put the see through vinyl behind the crayons — they mark up the fabric when you place the crayons into the holder. I imagine after a year or two it might get pretty marked up!

Speaking of next versions of things, I’m behind on making projects for FinallyAGirl’s little sisters. I’m at least quilting on the baby quilt for FinallyAnotherGirl, but I really need to start piecing the baby quilt for HurrayAThirdGirl — in hopes that it will be done before she goes to college. I’m finally working on her little bath towel (which will look like the hooded bath towel in this post except with the hippo instead of the elephants on the hood) — at 8 months it’s WAY past time. So, I’m off to get it bound — have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

A Little Catch Up

7 Comments / July 19, 2020 July 19, 2020 / Chat, Recipes

My Oh My. I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. Or desire to be online. Or will to live LOL. These last few months have been somewhat painful and I’m sure a lot of you have been feeling it. I’ve been plenty busy, but just haven’t really wanted to blog about it much. Plus, when I spend time online, I want to be inspired by beautiful projects but this last little bit it seemed like so many blogs and instagram pages turned into their version of the news and it was just too much, so I just turned it off for awhile. Just call me an ostrich. Life is just too short, and the older I get, the shorter it gets, so, I followed Nancy Reagan’s advice and Just. Said. No. LOL.

We’ve tried to have as normal as possible spring/summer here, considering we can’t go really go anywhere. I spent most of the spring in the yard – cleaning out flower beds and then spreading 15 yards of mulch around. I love the years we mulch because after all the hard work, the beds remain relatively weed-free. My little Etsy shop has kept me busy too — who could have predicted what covid would do to the fabric industry? Thank you SO much for your orders – lots of new fabric has been arriving and my third order/restock of Liberty in just a few months is due later this week. There must be a lot of beautiful Liberty masks out there!

I’ve been spending lots of time with the grandbabies (now that we aren’t isolated from them), trying to help SweetiePie and give her a break now and then. Those three little girls are busy! When I look back over my iphone pictures, I realize we really have been having fun. We’ve had some pool days (luckily, we’re in a small neighborhood with an uncrowded pool), lots of games and puzzles (seeing FinallyAnotherGirl learn how to play Hide and Seek is just too cute!), walks and bike rides (my favorite are the walks after the sun goes down to beat the heat), and even a day at the Zoo when they were letting members-only sign up for time slots so it wasn’t so crowded. Feeding the “giraf-fez” is ALWAYS a hit!

In the kitchen there have been the usual cupcakes and cookies, and because it’s summer, I’ve tried a few batches of ice cream. A friend gave me some fresh peaches, so I made some peach ice cream. The ice cream wasn’t very good (WAY too much cream) but I made some ice cream sandwiches with it, and the cookies for the sandwiches were a big hit.

A U-pick berry farm has popped up along the route between our place and TheFirstChild and SweetiePie’s home. I’ve watched it the last few years, wondering about it, and this year, I decided to take FinallyAGirl and check it out. We picked little baskets of the most beautiful blackberries and we’ve had blackberries running out of our ears. (Because it doesn’t take long to pick them and we kept picking more because we were having so much fun. ;-D)

FinallyAGirl and I made blackberry freezer jam (using my favorite recipe and substituting blackberries for raspberries).

I thought the jam would use most of the berries but didn’t even use half of them. So, I decided to make some blackberry ice cream which turned out great. There are still blackberries left, so I think I’ll be making another batch of jam. (And I’ll definitely be making these Almond Raspberry Bars using blackberry jam instead of raspberry jam, making them Almond Blackberry Bars ;-D).

On the sewing/quilting front there have been several projects. A few masks, of course. And a few little girl dresses which didn’t get photographed before they were treated to a trip to the beach. I spent most of early spring working on a wedding quilt for CuteNiece1. I completed some applique and 80-or-so blocks. I can’t really show much of it, but here’s a peek at the applique:

And then, Covid struck and the weddding has been postponed until next year, so there will have to be some unpicking. I was just getting ready to sash all the blocks when the postponement happened, so I’ve lost my steam and the project now sits as a UFO. What’s the hurry? I have a year left, and I work best under pressure LOL. I’ve also been working on FinallyAnotherGirl’s baby quilt. When I finish the current row of quilting, I’ll be a little over half-way finished. I’m hoping to have it done by her second birthday in September. We’ll see!

So, that’s probably enough for now – hopefully I’ll be back before too long with a little sewing. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a good summer (or winter, as the case may be) and staying safe!
XOXO,
Anna

Whoa!

9 Comments / April 16, 2020 April 16, 2020 / Bunnies, Chat, Holidays, Knitting

It was Easter. Then it wasn’t! What the heck happened? I seem to have lost the last few days — well, as you know now, they all seem to run together. I hope you had a nice Easter even though it was so different this year. Ours was quiet and very uneventful. The highlight of our day was to facetime with the kids while the girls opened their little Easter gifts we had dropped off the previous day. They were so cute when we stopped by — they were jumping up and down in the window screaming and laughing — I wish I’d taken a picture!

Anyway, after years of dreaming, I finally knit some of Julie’s Little Cotton Rabbits. They were such a fun project, but boy oh boy, are they ever time consuming!

Or, more likely, I’m just a slow knitter. In either case, Julie is a genius. Her instructions and pictures are so thorough — it’s as if she’s sitting next to you while you knit. I had so much fun deciding on the dress patterns, color combinations, leg styles, etc. I can’t even imagine how Julie has knit so many — it must be a case of practice make perfect. I’m hoping that with these first ones under my belt, the next ones will be a little quicker.

I can’t wait to make more bunnies – not to mention some of the many other patterns she has developed. And I know this sounds like some sort of an ad, but it’s not. I just love these little patterns and I think they’re so cute. I’m not the only one either — I was goofing off the other day on the internet and came across this post of quintuplets who received some Little Cotton Rabbits in their Easter baskets. It made me wonder how many other children around the world received some of Julie’s little animals. We Love You Julie!!!

I had to put the little rabbits on the rocking horse before they went to their new home. Horsey is sooo lonely these days without his girls around. He’s counting the days until the quarantine comes to an end.

Back to Easter – in addition to the bunnies, I gave the girls each a storybook and the traditional Grammy Surprise Boxes. I struggled a little coming up with things to put in the boxes, since shopping was limited to what I could find in the grocery store while grocery shopping. I ordered some little Meri Meri hair clips and decided to make some felt finger puppets. I forgot to take pictures of all the little puppets ;-8. FinallyAGirl received Little Red Riding Hood with her Grammy, the woodsman, the big bad wolf, and a tree (to represent the woods.) FinallyAnotherGirl received Peppa Pig, Mama Pig, Daddy Pig, her brother George, and the sheep.

So, that was Easter. The other highlight of the week has been that FinallyAGirl has learned how to call Grammy from her ipad all by herself. (WooHoo!) The first time it was such a fun surprise! I answered the facetime call to see this:

Then I heard this whispering little voice: “Grammy. We have to be very very quiet. Daddy doesn’t know I’m calling you. I’m in our secret clubhouse. Tell Grandpa that he and Ma (that’s what she calls MeMum) have to be very quiet too!” Ohmygosh. Be still my little heart. The secret clubhouse is under her Daddy’s desk – that’s the underside of the middle drawer behind her head in the picture above. Since that first call, she’s called almost everyday and cheered us up. We’ve done puzzles, read books, had tea parties — all the usual stuff we’d do if we were actually together. How lucky are we to live in the age of facetime? I love our afternoon visits and I know I’ll miss them when life returns to normal and she and SweetiePie are too busy with real life for these calls. I suppose they’ll be replaced with real life visits though, so all phases have their benefits.

Ok, enough chitchat from me. Thank you for all your lovely comments — sorry if I haven’t responded to them — they haven’t been forwarded to my e-mail account. I think the last comment was forwarded though, so I’m hoping the problem has been solved.
Hope you’re having a Good Week!
XOXO,
Anna