Thimbleanna – Page 8 – My little online diary.

Walk Jog Run

8 Comments / April 6, 2020 April 6, 2020 / Chat, Quilting

Hello! A few weeks ago my cute friend Dara asked me if I’d review her new book “Walk Jog Run: A Free-Motion Quilting Workout”. I met Dara many years ago at a Quilt Market. She’s adorable and I had so much fun talking to her. I think she was just learning how to machine quilt back then and I’ve had such a great time watching her grow — and now she’s sharing all the valuable lessons she’s learned in her new book. Here’s a peek at the little project I made from her book …

… but more on that in a minute. First, the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. She’s so full of wisdom and really great tips about free-motion quilting.

The book starts off with all the basics you’ll need to know for free-motion quilting. She goes into great detail about sewing machines, thread, fabric, batting and other supplies. Then she talks about setting up your workspace, setting some goals (Dara is an expert on setting goals and, in addition to being a talented quilter, she’s a life coach), and building basic skills. I think my favorite part of the book is how she compares free motion quilting to doodling and all the many exercises to help you build your fmq skills. Then, with the basics out of the way, Dara has an extensive section of projects in order to build your skills and get lots of fmq practice. Here’s a listing of the projects from the table of contents — lots of fun stuff in here!

For my project, I selected the child’s apron. FinallyAGirl and I love to make cookies and cupcakes together (we even recently did a facetime cookie baking session since we can’t see each other right now) and I’ve always wanted to make her a little apron. I’d been saving just the right Martha Negly cupcake print for her someday apron.

Dara’s apron is a patchwork apron, but I didn’t want to cut up the cupcake print, so I opted for a “whole-cloth” apron. Dara quilted her child’s apron with some super cute fmq daisies. I was all set to do the daisies – I got out my paper and went through all the daisy doodling exercises, but when it came time to actually quilt the daisies, I bailed out. The main reason is that I didn’t want the daisies to interfere with the cupcakes (or the puppy print on the other side) and I couldn’t figure out how to place the daisies from either side where they wouldn’t interfere with the design on the opposite side (if that makes sense.)

So, I ended up doing a simple, large stipple on our little apron. I was facetiming with FinallyAGirl when I started the apron and I told her what I was making. I said “What fabric do you think we should put on the back side of your apron?” With no hesitation, she yelled out “PUPPIES!” Puppies? Where did that come from? Well … it just so happens that Grammy had a cute little puppy print in the stash, so, puppies it is. Sewing for someone who isn’t with you is tricky and, as you can see, this apron is a little big. It’s ok though, that just means we’ll get many years of baking out of it.

After I finished the apron, I took it over and left it on the doorstep. Special thanks to SweetiePie who took some pictures for me. Rumor has it that FinallyAGirl LOVES the puppy side and really didn’t want to model the cupcake side. So, the puppies are now the front of the apron instead of the back LOL.

So, another fun project in the books. Dara’s book Walk Jog Run: A Free-Motion Quilting Workout is available from C&T and anywhere books are sold and is currently the #1 seller! If you’re at all interested in free motion quilting, Dara is your girl — you’re going to love her book!

XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

10 Comments / April 3, 2020 April 3, 2020 / Around the House, Chat

Well, how’s it going out there? Are you guys coping with this virus mess? It’s been reasonably gloomy around here, even though I’m a homebody and I have lots of projects to keep me busy. We’ve had the usual slate of activities — a little cooking, sewing, knitting, jigsaw puzzles, walking, and a whole-lot-a Netflix binge watching. I laughed when I saw the meme going around that said “Today, I finished Netflix” — that’s sort of how I feel. TheSecondChild was here for awhile and we took a few long walks. One really long walk, just to see if we could do it. We walked 5 miles to TheFirstChild’s house and then walked back. It was fun, but it took three hours, so that was a bit much.

We’ve finally had a break in our grisly, cloudy weather and the last two days have been beautiful — making me think spring is finally around the corner. I sat out on the patio for lunch today and surveyed the yard — we definitely have some winter clean up work to do. Starting with our patio furniture. If you’re a long time reader, you might remember our squirrel problem. The squirrels have been stealing the stuffing from our patio chairs for many years now — this is my third set of cushions in about 10 years, and I’m finally giving up on them. I’ve left them out for spring nests this year. We need to figure out what to do for squirrel-proof patio furniture — replacing cushions isn’t going to do it anymore. Last year they discovered that the chairs and table are made from aluminum and they’ve been happily sharpening their teeth on them. Not sure where we’ll go from here, but if you have any suggestions, please share them!

We do have a few signs of spring. My little chive patch is growing. I don’t have much of a green thumb, but you can’t really kill chives. Plus, I love not having to buy chives except in January and February.

Our sad little tulip patch is coming up too. TheManoftheHouse loves tulips so I thought I’d plant a few for him this year, even though I know they’re never very successful here, due to our rodent problem. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the first two little plants that are blurry in the photo below have been nibbled — probably by bunnies. >:o

Oh well, it was so nice to be out in the beautiful weather. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more pretty days mixed in with typical chilly, wet April days. In the meantime, I’ve had lots of projects to keep me busy inside. Easter will be here SOON, so I’ve been knitting. I also finished a winter sweater, but I’ve been too lazy to take pictures. ;-)

On the quilting front, I have a big-stitch quilt on the frame, but I work on it about 30 minutes a month, so it’s going to be there for awhile. I’ve also been making some star blocks for a quilt — this will be a long term project but I’m having fun with it.

I hope you’re all managing to keep safe and sane. The worst part about this whole isolation thing is missing the grandbabies. I just want to make cupcakes and rough house like we usually do. I can’t wait until it’s all over. In the meantime, I’m going to let you in on my little trick that keeps me from going over the edge. Don’t tell. It will be our little secret. It starts with the view out our kitchen window. This is my view every night at dinner. Except MeMum sits in that chair there. So, I sit and talk to her and TheManoftheHouse while we eat — all the while, staring over her right shoulder. It’s there. Do you see it? Perfectly framed by the window muttons, bird feeder and giant tree in the background.

I stare off at that beautiful little view and pretend I’m in England, walking through the forest and glimpsing a beautiful English Manor house. Every night, just me and my little secret. How fortunate I am to have such a view.

Hang in there — I hope you have a little secret that’s getting you through too!
XOXO,
Anna

Scrappy Trip

12 Comments / March 16, 2020 March 16, 2020 / Quilting

Holy Cow! It’s been a whole month since I posted last time — I know a month seems like a long time, but did everyone have to go off the deep end??? I can’t believe the level of crazy — I don’t even know what to say. Wow.

Rather than go down that depressing rat hole (and because there’s absolutely nothing else going on), here are a few pictures of my latest little quilt project. Allison at Woodberry Way hosted a Scrappy Trip Quilt Along in January and February and I sort of played along. I started late and didn’t do anything on schedule, but it was fun to work on a quick, easy quilt.

I used a fat quarter pack of Tilda’s Happy Campers fabric. I love the colors — they’re so soft and happy. The recommended size for the quilt along was 64″ x 80″ which required 20 fat quarters. I wanted a little larger quilt, so I added a few more fat quarters from my stash to the Happy Campers collection and ended up with an 80″ x 88″ quilt.

For the backing, I used Meadows Lace by Ana Davis in gold. I thought the soft yellow print went really well with the yellows in the Tilda fabrics. The quilt pattern is a machine-quilted baptist fan and I used some extra Tilda strips for a scrappy binding.

After she was all done, I gave her a vigorous bath and now she’s just full of cozy, crinkly goodness. Quilt projects like this are so fun and satisfying!

Ok. Off to get the family dinner. Good thing we don’t eat a lot of potatoes around here anymore, cause you can’t find them in the stores around here. Potatoes and TP. It’s a winning combination. Stay safe out there boys and girls!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy Valentine’s Day!

8 Comments / February 14, 2020 February 14, 2020 / Holidays, Knitting

Happy Valentine’s Day Lovelies! Have you had an action packed week? It’s been a quiet week here — I’ve been hunkered down, not doing much really. Cleaning a little here and there — really not sure where the week went. I did make two of the Little Cotton Rabbits mini bears for my little human grandbabies. Here’s a shot of the finished bear heads — no bodies yet.

I love making Julie‘s little animals SO much, although, I’m really slow at it. And I struggle a lot with choosing yarns. Julie is a genius though — her patterns are SO thorough and well thought out. I wanted to put little hearts around the bottom of the dresses, but they’re knit top down, which puts the “v” in the stitch upside down for making little hearts. So, I tried to knit the pattern backwards, bottom up, turning increases into decreases. It was ok, but it just didn’t look right, so I ripped it out and followed her pattern. As it should be. I could have done bigger hearts out of several rows of stitches or done some duplicate stitch magic, but I was running out of time, so I ended up just doing little x’s and o’s. And doh, I did the x’s on one dress and the o’s on the other one. I should have mixed them up! Grammy is slipping in her old age LOL.

These little mini bears are the perfect size for the little boxes I like to make for the girls once in awhile. FinallyAnotherGirl is only 17 mos. old, so it’s still a little hard to find things for her box — I’ll be glad when she’s old enough to not choke on small things and able to eat candy LOL. FinallyAGirl is 3 1/2 now, and she’s into all things crafty. Plus, she can eat candy, so her box is a lot easier to fill.

I hope you have a good day and a wonderful weekend. I must run and get ready for my afternoon at the endodontist — ’cause nothing says Love like a root canal!!! ;-D
XOXO,
Anna

Knitted Cable Hats

10 Comments / February 1, 2020 February 1, 2020 / Knitting

Happy February! January was just a big disappointment around here — if you’ve been around here for a long time, you know that I’m a snow lover and we’ve barely had any of the pretty white stuff. ;-( Oh well, that hasn’t kept me from knitting, and I made some little cabled hats for SweetiePie and our cute little granddaughters. I posted them the other day on Instagram and I wanted to post all the details here, so I’ll have a record, in case I ever need to make any more.

I made 4 different sizes, so I’ll call them Adult, Child, Toddler and Infant. The yarn is Big Bad Wool Pea Weepaca which I purchased at my LYS, Knitting Off Broadway. It’s a fingering weight really soft yarn and it’s fun to knit with. The entire hats are knitted by holding two strands together and, in order to get the variegated look, rather than a hard stripe, the colors are mixed for a few transition rows when the colors change.

The pattern is a set of free patterns that I found on the internet at crazyhands.net. The Adult hat is here, the child hat is here and the baby hat is here. I made the toddler hat first (which is why there isn’t much white yarn at the top, it was a learning experience.) I used the child hat pattern and got the hang of the repeats of the cables, etc. There’s also an option for a folded brim, but I opted for not folding the brim as I was worried that I would run out of yarn. I originally thought that this first hat would be for the child hat, but it turned out to be just a teeny bit short for FinallyAGirl, so I added ear flaps to make it the toddler hat for FinallyAnotherGirl. The Adult and baby patterns are a little different, so, I mainly just used them as a guide for sizing, but reverted to using the child pattern when it came to knitting the repeats on the cables. The child pattern is really nice and detailed — there are some good pictures showing how to do increases and the cables. Anyway, for my notes, here’s how many stitches/cable repeats that I did for each hat:

Adult: Cast on 112 stitches, increasing to 132 after the ribbing; two cable repeats before starting the decrease rounds
Child: Cast on 112 stitches, increasing to 120 after the ribbing; two cable repeats before starting the decrease rounds
Toddler: Cast on 100 stitches, increasing to 120 after the ribbing; one and a half cable repeats before starting the decrease rounds
Baby: Cast on 80 stitches, increasing to 96 after the ribbing; one cable repeat before starting the decrease rounds

I wanted to have fun with the pompoms, so, rather than make them out of yarn, I opted for the little fur pompoms that you see all over now. The Adult pompom is a Big Bad Wool pompom that I purchased at my LYS. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the tags on the children’s pompoms, so I don’t know who makes them, but I purchased them from Blazing Needles. I was going to buy all three pompoms in the same size, but, luckily for the hats, they only had two pompoms in the larger size, but they had that little teeny size. I’m so happy they didn’t have three pompoms in the same size — I love that little infant hat! All of the pompoms have snaps that are so cool — it makes it easy to attach the pompom to the hat AND you can buy pompoms in different colors and then just swap them out in a snap!

Here’s a picture of the two older girls out playing in the snow. This was FinallyAnotherGirl’s first experience to really play in the snow and she loved it! I hope we’ll have a few more snowstorms yet this winter so the girls can have some fun — and get a little more use out of their new hats!

XOXO,
Anna