Christmas in July

Thank you so much for all your very kind comments about SweetiePie's pink purse. You're all so very sweet -- and you know how much I love your comments! The little love birds are out for a special dinner tonight and when they return, I'll give her the purse. I hope she likes it!
I've seen lots of posts this month about Christmas in July. Oh my! It's unbelievable that next Christmas is closer to us in time than last Christmas. There's good reason to think Christmas in July when you make homemade gifts. They take planning and time to make. It's hard to even think about it though. Hopefully I'll get my act together in the next few weeks and sit down and do a little thinking about gifts for this year.
This Christmas tree skirt is a "Christmas in July" project from a year or two ago. I had to start planning in advance. I made it for MeMum and gave it to her for Christmas. She desperately needed a tree skirt as she'd been wrapping her tree stand with quilt batting for years. Every year I planned to make her one, but I could never decide on a style. She loves Victorian things and for a long time, I sort of planned to make her a crazy patch tree skirt. But, I just couldn't ever get excited about that plan, so it never happened. Then one day, we were in a quilt shop and she commented on how much she loved redwork. How well I remember that lightbulb moment. Right then and there I decided I'd make her a redwork tree skirt. I love embroidery, so it was really fun to make. I adapted the sleigh and reindeer outlines from a wool table runner project called All Through the Night by Bonnie Sullivan.This tree skirt is much larger than normal because MeMum and BigDaddy always get a big tree -- 10 to 12 feet high. Big Daddy always puts the stand on this huge piece of plywood, so the tree skirt had to be big enough to cover the plywood. MeMum loved it and it looked pretty under her tree last Christmas.

So, now I'll yell at us. Get off of that computer and get to work on your Christmas in July! Oh, and have a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy 4th of July!!!

A July 4th Project

When a holiday comes around, I like to make some sort of themed project. The problem is that I don't usually think about it until a day or two before the holiday. Which means the project needs to be quick. I have tons of bigger projects filed away for all the major holidays. Some year I'm going to be prepared and remember weeks before the holiday. Some year.On Sunday morning, I started thinking about the 4th being this Wednesday. And I remembered that I'd always wanted to make these little candle holders that I saw years ago at a tole painting convention. I've always wanted to place them along my patio walk when we have our annual cookout. Every year, when I would remember that I wanted to make them, it was always too late. This year though, I had a whole day! (The fact that I had planned on working on the blue and white quilt was beside the point. Or, maybe that was the point -- I was putting off having to make yet more blocks.) I ran to the store and bought 8 jars of baby food and got to work.

They're really pretty simple to make. I removed the labels and washed and dried the jars. I used GooGone to help remove the sticky residue. Then I applied some white paint to the outside of the jar with a sponge. This gives the paint a little texture and doesn't show lots of brush strokes.When the paint was dry, I drew a line to mark the area that was painted blue. I could have freehanded this area without marking it -- I did one jar that way and it came out pretty even. To mark it, I placed a pencil on a short box and put the upside down jar next to the pencil. Then I rotated the jar to draw a line.After the line was on, I painted above the line with a blue paint. When the blue paint was dry, I freehanded the red stripes.When the red paint was dry, I painted some little freehand stars on with white paint. I drew them the way we used to draw them as children and then filled them in. They're very casual and rough looking. A small heart stencil or stamp would have been a good way to go, but I didn't have one, and since this was a last minute project, I had to make due with what I had -- which was nothing!When all the paint was dry, I took a fine tip black pen and drew in some detail lines. (There are lots of possibilities here -- I debated about writing some patriotic words on the jars, but in the end, I just left them as you see in the pictures.) Then I gave the jar a light coat of a spray varnish. After the varnish was dry, I made a hanger out of some wire and attached it around the neck of the jar. For a little decoration, I also tied a strip of red fabric and a little decorative yarn around the neck.

When all done, I put a little tea-light candle into each jar. I had some little garden stake thingies (highly technical term there) so I planted them along the walk and hung my little jars on them. They'll be fun on the patio when we're sitting around, after dinner, in the evening.If you'd like to make some little jars -- you still have a whole day before the 4th -- plenty of time! ;-) Even if you don't want to paint the jars, you could just leave them plain and tie some little bits around them for decoration. It's the same idea as the bigger jars you've probably seen in catalogs hanging from trees! The sky's jar's the limit!

XOXO,
Anna

A Wish...

Happy Easter Everyone!!!XOXO,
Anna

The Gig's Up!

I had KnitNight with my best and oldest quilty friends and one of them said, "I have a confession to make." I've had a bet running with myself about how long it would be until this confession, so, I knew it was coming when she said..."I found your blog." !!! So, it's very fun and I must say Welcome! to my bestest friends! (Isabelle, I'm sorry for my improper grammar, I'm cheating in excitement.)

My friends and I have been together since we started our friendship quilting group almost twenty years ago and we've had some wonderful times together. They've been a great source of inspiration to me over the years. Sometimes it will be months between our visits, but when we get together, it's like we just saw each other yesterday. The really good part about having them join us here at Thimbleanna's, is that occasionally maybe they'll let me sneak some of their inspiring projects in here (that is until they all start blogs of their own) but the bad part is, that if I make something for them, I won't be able to show you until after the fact. It's a sacrifice I'm more than happy to make!

Now, Shropshire Girl asked me to explain how I make my little Easter ducks. Unfortunately, I didn't take any "in progress" pictures when I was making them, but I'll try to give you a rough idea of how they're made.

You'll need:
Egg shaped plastic molds that are split lengthwise (like those pictured at right.) You can find some here.

Circle shaped molds for the heads. I've never had good molds for the heads. I use a plastic ball christmas ornament that is cut in half for the big head (the one I have is really too big) and for the heads on the little ducks, I used a melon baller to scoop the circle halves. When they are released from the scoop, they're a little loose, so I press on them a little to "tighten" them up.

Sugar Recipe (recipe below)

Royal Icing(recipe below)

Orange and/or yellow feathers

Orange felt -- cut duck bills and feet. Just be free and wing it!

Wiggly Eyes

Make sugar recipe. One recipe should make at least 2 small ducks.

Press sugar mixture firmly into sugar molds. Unmold onto cookie sheets. Bake egg halves in 200 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes. When done, let cool for a minute or two, then pick egg half up and hold in palm with flat side up. Gently run a knife around the edge of the egg, approximately 1/8 inch in from the edge. Scoop all the sugar out of the middle of the egg. If the egg breaks, just crumble it up and add it back to the moist sugar mixture and do over. For each duck, you'll need two egg halves (one half should have a flat side to make the bottom of the duck) and two half spheres for the head.

Let the egg halves dry out for a day or two so they'll harden and not be so fragile. Mix the icing:Put it into a frosting bag fitted with a star tip like 4B or 6B. Squeeze a little icing onto one half sphere and attach the other half sphere to it. Squeeze a little icing on top of the duck body toward the front of the duck where the surface starts to drop off. This will create a little icing shelf for the head to rest on. Pipe decorative trim around the edge of the top half of the duck. Let the top of the duck dry for 20 or 30 minutes.

After the icing has set up a little, pipe a decorative trim around the seam on the duck's head, then attach the head to the top of the duck body. Gently press two little duck bills into the decorative piping around the head. Pipe decorative icing around the neck seam. Pipe little stars of icing for the eyes and feathers, then press eyes and feathers into the icing. (Refer to picture below for placement.) Hold your breath for 3 hours while the duck head dries in hopes that it doesn't fall off. (Just kidding!) Attach two little duck feet to the bottom half of the duck. Let duck dry overnight.

Repeat for as many ducks as you want and fill with candy. This is a fun project to do with older kids, but they do have to have some patience as the eggs can be a little delicate and the icing takes time to dry. Making these is somewhat like making the sugar Easter panorama molds. These instructions might explain the process of hollowing out the eggs more clearly.

I hope you try these -- if not this year, maybe next year!

XOXO,

Anna

Getting ready for Easter

Thanks for all your nice comments about my thumb tacks. They're really fun to make, I hope you'll all try them. And I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them. ;-)

I grew up moving around a lot, but when I was little we always went "home" for Easter and Christmas. "Home" was the little town in Utah where my parents grew up. One of my favorite places to be was my aunt's house. She is a wonderful woman -- she has 5 daughters and 2 sons and she was always busy doing something fun. She taught me lots of "crafty" things, but the one that means the most to me is cake decorating. (Sewing, etc. are my favorite activities, but my mom taught me that sort of stuff.) When I was 14, my aunt gave me my own little cake decorating kit for my birthday -- tips, couplers, bags, and a Wilton catalog. I still have them all and they hold wonderful memories for me.

One Easter, she taught me how to make these little ducks.

They're made out of the same molds as the sugar eggs. I've never had good molds for the heads though, so I have to improvise. That's why they're a little wonky. The ducks are a little goofy looking, but I like them anyway. I think maybe we'll use them as placecard holders for our Easter dinner this year.

XOXO,
Anna