Bags.

I'm having a busy few days, with not much time for sewing. Work all day, book group last night and a wedding tonight. I'm hoping to work on those pesky blue and white squares a little this weekend, but I'm also planning on working a little at the job too, so I can take Thursday and Friday off next week, making it a 5-day weekend. Woohoo!

So, with nothing new to show you, the classic fall-back is to show you something I love. This time around, I'll show you some of my favorite bags. The quilty peeps and I have been exchanging gifts for years (although we're currently in a lazy spurt and need to get back to it.) We always make 4 of whatever item we make, that way we all have the same goodies. Over the years, we've made a few bags:

I carry this little gem, made by Gurney, all around the house with me. It holds all the little tools that I need for hand work -- hand quilting, mending, etc. It's the perfect size.Junie made this little bag. I didn't use to be a bag person, and I remember when she gave it to me I wondered what I would use it for. It was too small for a magazine but too big to be my little "handwork" bag, as pictured above. But, that was before I became a sock knitter. It's THE perfect size for my sock knitting project du jour. It travels everywhere with me!And my big bag, made by Jewels. I love big totebags. They're great for everything. This one currently cuddles a sweater that I'm working on.I'm such a lucky girl to have such good friends. I luv me my quilty peeps -- and the bags they've given me!

Have a great weekend everyone!
XOXO,
Anna

A Beautiful Weekend

It was such a nice weekend here. The weather was perfect. I attended a high school graduation party yesterday, and then high school graduation. It was fun to see several of my sons' friends who have been away at college. This was their common reaction: "Well hello, Mrs. Thimbleanna, what are you doing here?" You know, not having a graduate and all. Well, I just love going to graduations. Love seeing those eager, pensive faces. So happy to be done. Yet wondering what the fall will bring. And graduation is always full of traditions -- the speeches, the awards, the bagpipers and the proud, teary-eyed families. Not to mention the outdoor ceremony, which makes it even more enticing. It all made for a more than pleasant Saturday.

Today, I managed to sneak in a batch of flapjacks and then a little sewing. A new apron, modeled by one of our big pine trees in the backyard. TheManoftheHouse ventured into the dungeon this morning, wondering what I was making. "Don't you already have an apron?" Why, yes I do. But they keep making cute fabric and I can't think of anything to make with it. So, I made another apron.My camera hungry petunias were just a little jealous of the pine tree, so I promised them the close up. I did the little embroidery on my machine -- it came from Embroidables. I think a little piece of hand embroidery would look really cute there too -- maybe an embroidered version of one of the desserts on the Susan Branch dessert print. I probably should have waited for Susan Branch's new embroidery patterns to come out. Guess I'll just have to make something else with her fabric when they do!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Do you think there are any flickr tutorials? 'Cause sometimes I just don't get flickr. Like browsing flickr. And adding pictures to other groups. And lots of stuff like that.

Two Shirts: Check

Before the big pile was dumped on us, I managed to cut out three shirts and get two of them completed. (Check that off the list!) They're made from the fabric that I bought when I went to Hawaii. This blue shirt is a cotton fabric with a little bit of lycra, so it has some give. Cotton with lycra has been fairly hard for me to find, so if I even remotely like it, I'll buy it because it's so comfortable. I've made this pattern (Vogue 7433) before and I wear it a lot.



This pink shirt is an all cotton print. It's a new-to-me pattern (Simplicity4045) and I altered it a little bit. The original had cap sleeves and I lengthened them, 'cause, you know, I'm not 16 anymore. I have vivid memories of my grandma making cookies and her little arm flaps wiggling. While I don't have grandma's arm flaps yet, I do worry that they could spring up any day now, and I want to still wear this shirt!

I have a friend who likes to go to high end clothing shops and try to "copy" the styles. She once told me that a fair amount of designer clothing appears to be cut on the bias, which makes them give a little more. And that is supposed to make them more comfortable. The reason I'm telling you this, is because the front and back of this pink shirt are cut on the bias, so I'll be able to test this theory out. So far, so comfortable.

KBG has tagged me to list my 5 favorite restaurants, so I'll be giving that some thought. Maybe I'll even test one out tomorrow. Yeah, that's it. "Honey, we have to eat out 'cause that cute girl* in the Ukraine wants to know where I like to eat!" Think it will work? Report this weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

*You could be 75 -- I would still call you a girl 'cause "lady" and "woman" just seem too stuffy!

A Happy Day!

WooHoo! Look, LOOK, what was in the mail today! My first package from the Flibbertygibbet Fabric Swap was fabulous, so I could hardly wait to open this second package, all the way from Jade in Australia!

Look how smartly she wrapped everything. Those tags are too cute! I almost didn't want to open them -- it's so fun to have pretty presents sitting around. Yeah right....I ripped into them to find:Underneath those tags: with For the Swap, there are three fabulous Heather Bailey prints (YUM!); with A New Project, a cheater piece of fabric with pretty flowers on it; with For the Stash, some embroidery floss and ribbon to match the fabric; and with For Your Sewing Kit,

OHMYGOSH, an adorable pincushion. Oh Jade! I've been wanting to make one like this 'cause I want to start a pincushion collection. And now you've done it for me. Thank You, Thank You, so much Jade. I love it all! I do believe, my dear that you've set the gold standard for us all to strive for in future Flibbertygibbet swaps.

What a lucky girl I've been to get packages from both England and Australia. And btw, thanks so much to Gail for organizing the swaps -- they're so much fun!

And, as if that weren't enough, three other things made me really happy today:
1) Your comments indicate that I'm not the only one with lots of UFO's. (Ok, I already knew it. Just trying to get you all into the 12-step program.)
2) I went to MeMum's and BigDaddy's at lunchtime. I loved being able to remind BigDaddy that today is his mother's birthday. She was born one hundred years ago today. We both really miss her and wish she were still here. I made dinner tonight in her apron in her honor!
3) I had a wonderful surprise this morning! Gurney posted in my comments section! She listed 7 of her UFO's. And since this is a long post, I'll save you from having to go look at those comments by reposting her UFO's here. Gurney said:

Geez, only 7? Where to start?
1. Katie's high school grad. quilt - still working on applique butterflies. (She just finished her first year of law school.)
2. Still cutting out the bow ties from the blue fabric exchange.
3. Pieced a few blocks of the millennium 2000 square exhange. Were we nuts? 2000 fabrics?
4. Quilting the I Spy quilt from the I Spy fabric exchange.
5. Quilting the "Minnesota" quilt.
6. Looking at the 4" squares we exchanged. There are like 100. Need to set them together. Anna's is finished. (Slut).
7. Cara's wedding quilt. Her 4th anniversary is in July. Bit off a bit more than I could chew with this one I think.
8. What? I'm only allowed 7? There's so much more!

Excellent list Gurney! Do you all see the subliminal message between the lines? (Blog, Blog, Blog....)

Thanks for hanging in there for this long post and sharing my happy day. Wow! After today, tomorrow is sure to be a bit of a disappointment!
XOXO,
Anna

Bunny Pincushions

So far, I've been holding steady. Resisting the urge to make those grannys. But dang it...they're dropping like flies. Bad Fortune Cookie, Creative Little Daisy, Flibbertygibbet (the Babette is close enough), and {gasp} Yarnstorm are all "doin' it." And last night at KnitNight, Junie asked me "How hard are those granny squares to make?" She's wondering. She's thinking about it. Bunny pincushions are taking my mind off of those grannies. For today, anyway.

Years ago I made bunny pincushions for the women in my family. Shortly thereafter, my little bunny disappeared. I ended up with MeMum's but I've always felt guilty about it. So, I finally got around to making a replacement for her. And if you're making one, you might as well make several! That way, if your bunny decides to take a hike, you'll have a spare.

XOXO,
Anna

Cousin Bags

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on some little bags for an upcoming trip with the women in my family.
These didn't really turn out like I saw them in my head. When I made the first one, it had a bottom like you see on these (with the box shape) but the zipper ran straight across the top. They just looked so awkward though, so I changed the top to reflect the boxy shape of the bottom. Then they looked really dorky, so I added the little ribbon loop. They still look a little odd to me, but I'm very pleased with the little bee on the back of each one and I think the ribbon loop added a little something.





I have no idea what the cousins will use them for. I'm going to use mine to hold camera stuff (batteries, extra cards, etc.) On the theory that you shouldn't gift an empty bag, I'm going to put some snacks, lip balm, and bandaids in them -- a little beach survival kit, so-to-speak.I feel like this green floral fabric should be my thrifted white wool blanket. After all, my fabric was free -- can't get much more thrifty than that. It would certainly be more versatile if it were plain white, but I can still envision several projects for this fabric -- not that I'm crazy about it, but because I want to use it up. I didn't use much of it on the outsides of the bags, but I managed to use a fair bit of it on the linings. The women in my family are probably going to get sick of seeing it!

XOXO,
Anna

My Favorite Baby Gift

TheManoftheHouse has a cousin who just had a baby (well "just" means before Christmas) and I'm "just" getting around to making her gift. So, I thought I'd show you how I make our favorite baby gift -- a tied quilt.
All the babies in our family (my DadLovesMeBest sister and mine) had at least two of these quilts when they were little. They all loved them, and son2 was particulary attached to his, well into his childhood. He called the little ties "nubbies" and he used to twirl them between his fingers as he fell asleep at night.
Here's a picture of the closest thing we have to a baby, wrapped up in the baby blanket:

So, you'll need:
1 1/3 yds of fabric for the top of the quilt
1 2/3 yds of fabric for the back of the quilt
1/4 yd of 4 different contrasting fabrics for the prarie points
Quilt batting
2-3 skeins of pearl cotton in a coordinating color

Preshrink your fabric. You need to cut a square of fabric from both your top and bottom fabrics. Measure the width of your fabric (after shrinking probably somewhere around 42".) Cut the length of your fabric the same as the width so that you have a square.

You need to cut 3-inch squares for the prarie points. Cut 2, 3" strips of each of the 4 contrasting fabrics, Also, cut 2, 3" strips from what's left of the backing fabric. You will now have 10 strips of fabric. Then cut 3 inch squares from each of those strips.

Fold each square diagonally. Press. Then fold diagonally again and press.






Now you'll have lots of small triangles to line up along the edge of the quilt.





Pin the triangles to the right side of the top of the quilt. Tuck the folded edge of a triangle between the edges of the triangle next to it. I've tried to figure out how to put the alignment of the triangles into words and I'm giving up -- a picture being worth a thousand words and all -- look and the picture to figure it out! ;-)

Here you can see how I align the triangles in the corner.







Sew 1/4" seam to attach the triangles to the quilt top.







Place the quilt bottom fabric on the quilt top fabric, right sides together. Stitch from the quilt top side, and stitch on top of the existing 1/4" seam, leaving a 10" - 12" opening in the middle of one side. Now, I don't have a picture of this next part, but leaving the quilt wrong sides out, place the batting against the wrong side of the top of the quilt and pin. Turn the quilt over and stitch from the quilt's bottom side, on top of that same 1/4" seamline (and don't stitch through the that 10" opening.) That makes three times sewing on this seamline. You could have put the batting in the mix during the 2nd stitching, but the batting would have been on the bottom side of the quilt and I prefer it to be on the top side. (It's hard to explain, but stitching three times makes for a nicer looking quilt from the top side.)

Turn the quilt right side out. You now have a quilt sandwich. Pull the prairie points out and gently press along the edge.




Hand stitch the opening closed.










Now, it's time to tie the quilt. Thread a tapestry needle with your "thread" of choice -- you can tie it with whatever you want -- Son2 loved his quilts tied with yarn. You can also tie the quilt wherever you'd like. I prefer to tie the quilt every 4". Sometimes the print on your fabric will "tell" you where to tie it (e.g., in the middle of every circle, on the tail of every puppy, etc.) When it doesn't, as in this case, I make a 4" square template out of cardstock and just place it along the quilt and move it along as I tie. That's 'cause I'm lazy and I don't want to take the time to mark the quilt. For you more motivated types, mark away! Move along the quilt in horizontal lines and grab stitches every 4".

Continue making rows of stitches until the quilt is covered.







Clip the threads between each of the stitches.









Tie each "tie" in a square knot. This is the best knot if you want it to stay tied.








After all the knots are tied, go back and trim the tails. I like to cut the length using my middle finger as a guide.





Voila, you have a finished quilt!










Wrap your baby up and watch TheEmptyNestChild freak out 'cause there's a new baby in the house!

XOXO,
Anna

Blogs, Lovely Blogs

Tomorrow is my book group (which I'll tell you about in a later post) and, sad to say, I haven't finished the book this month. We're reading The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. It's not that I don't like the book, I've just been preoccupied. It's the blogs.

They're just SO interesting. YOU are all so interesting. I love it that you can read about someone next door or someone on the other side of our small planet. And that you can discover how different yet similar you are to someone who leads such a seemingly different life. And maybe those of you who have been at this longer than I have can tell me if this excitement and nosiness obsession continue. Will I learn how to manage it better?

It's so fun to read archives and follow the lives of some of you. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about Autum as she's discovered the joys of sewing -- my gosh, what beautiful purses she's learned to make in such a short amount of time! And what fun to read about Jean, who shares my grandmother's name and is such an incredible knitter. She whips out those sweaters so quickly -- it takes me a year! And the archives I finished just today of Isabelle. I ran across a comment she left somewhere mentioning that she lived in Scotland. So, of course, I had to check her out. I loved reading about her students and the funny things they write. And, although it would seem that we have very little in common (Isabelle! What willpower you must have to be a vegetarian -- I discovered two of my very favorite meals in your bonny Scotland -- Bangers and Mash and Shepherd's Pie -- how can you resist?), we do have similarities -- children close to the same age, parents to look out for, and a Scottish heritage.

The best thing about these blogs is the sharing. I love to comb the blogs for ideas. Just last week, Simple Sparrow posted these. It was just the inspiration I needed. My quilty peeps are coming for a day of sewing on Saturday and now I'll have a fun little gift to give each of them.






What did we ever do without the blogs? They're like our own little quilting bee that's spread around the world.

XOXO,
Anna

An Overdue Pillow

Last weekend I read this post -- so beautifully written, and it reminded me of a quote that I wrote down a few years ago. So, I went to the dungeon, rummaged around in the stash and found some fabric.












I ended up not using the red ribbon, but I turned the quote into a pillow. I'm not real crazy about the way the embroidery turned out, but I love the trim -- wild and red!












Judging by the number of wrinkles laughlines I have -- I'm fabulously successful!
We're headed into a very cold weekend -- hope you're all staying warm....
XOXO,
Anna

An Old Project

I was surfing around tonight and ran across this post with a picture of some fabric that I haven't seen in several years. Seeing that fabric reminded me of this dress I made my niece over 8 years ago (I know this 'cause that little cherub is now a wild 10-yr old!) Just a quick post to share....

xoxo,
Anna

I'm Sick and My Favorite Hostess Gift...

I haven't felt well in several weeks. I think they call it BlogFever. ;-) I can't stop reading the dadburn things. It's SO fun! And so inspiring!!! Today my victim has been Creative Little Daisy. I've just started reading some of her archives -- I'm feeling like she did a year ago when she first started reading blogs -- it's so overwhelming! I'm really enjoying reading her blog and I love her purses.

I thought I might share one of my favorite little projects. When I'm invited to parties that call for a hostess gift, I like to make a monogrammed hostess towel. They make a nice little elegant gift and they're fairly neutral, which is helpful when you don't know the style of your hostess. (And let me apologize for the lack of light in my photos. Since I work all day away from home, I never see the sun at home during the week. Not that that helps much -- it's been so gloomy this winter that there's not much natural light to take advantage of.)

So, here's how I make my little guest towels:
Cut a piece of cotton or linen 19" x 26". Stitch 1/4" in on all sides. (I know these pictures are sort of hard to see -- if you click on them you can see them larger. I also used red thread for easier viewing, but I'm sure you know to use thread to match your fabric. And Holy Cow! Try to ignore all the lint on that presser foot -- that sure shows you how bad my eyesight is!)

On each of the two long sides, press the fabric toward the wrong side along the line of stitching. Fold again and press -- this creates a 1/4" little hem.

Stitch these hems close to the edge.









On one short end, press the edge toward the wrong side along the stitching line, creating a 1/4" fold. Then create a 1 1/2" hem and press. Sew this hem near the edge like you did on the long sides.

Iron the other short end in the same fashion as the first short end -- first turn under 1/4" and then make a 1 1/2" hem and press. Put a wing needle in your sewing machine and select a decorative stitch. Stitch from the right side of this hem, right along the edge. (It will be easier to see this wing needle if you make this picture bigger -- sorry it isn't very clear.)

Clicking on this picture will show the detail of the wing needle stitching at the bottom of the picture.




Just above the wing needle stitching and centered on the towel, add a monogram. I happen to have one of those spiffy embroidery machines, but this step could just as easily be done with hand embroidery and a pretty alphabet.

So...clear as mud? Again, sorry for the dark pictures -- they really don't do justice to these little towels. The first time I gave one of these towels, we were invited to an end-of-season baseball party when our boys were on the HS baseball team. The grandparents of one of the boys hosted the party in their new seventeen thousand square foot house. Complete with acreage, a pool and a guesthouse. I decided to take one of these towels not knowing at all what this woman's house looked like. After we had been there awhile, the Grandpa asked if I'd like a tour. Would I? It was awesome. Sort of a giant Cape Cod style. They had designed the second floor for when their children (6 of them) and grandchildren visited. In typical Cape Cod fashion, the stairs were in the middle of the house and when you got to the top, you could go to the right (the boys wing with a full up master bedroom and large cowboy themed dormitory style bedroom) or to the left ( the girls wing with another master bedroom, laundry room and princess style dormitory bedroom.) The guesthouse was bigger than the first little house we lived in. It had two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and a laundry room. There were many more very cool things about this house but the absolutely best thing was that there were monograms everywhere. I had chosen the perfect hostess gift -- it fit in perfectly. So, there you have it...the start of my giving monogrammed guest towels as hostess gifts.

That's it for today....
XOXO,
Anna