Month: September 2009

So, do you remember last time I won a blog giveaway that I won three times?  It’s happened again.  Apparently my luck runs in threes.  These three wins have been fantastic and I’m SO lucky!  After the quilt, I won a copy of Victoria from Sweet Cottage Dreams.  I love Becky’s blog — she’s so sweet and is always up to something fun.  I haven’t seen a copy of Victoria since they started re-publishing and I’m particularly excited about this issue.  The front cover has one of my all time favorite 7-letter words — British.  Yum!  Thank You Becky — I’m sure to enjoy this issue!

And then, I won a fun prize package over at Pieceful Chaos.  Caryn sent me some really fun stuff — a cute 2010 mousepad calendar, a pretty fall notepad, a lovely packet of potpourri, and an adorable scissors fob.  I love Caryn’s blog too — I’ve been reading it for a long time and she’s always sewing something pretty.

I have no idea how she knew I needed a scissors fob, but I was pretty desperate.  A few years ago, when I was sewing with friends, I grabbed a scrap of fabric to tie to my scissors so that everyone would know they were my little scissors.  I LOVE my new scissors fob.  It’s just perfect for me — the cute little charm says Love Often on one side and Laugh Much on the other side.  I love anything that tells me to laugh more — I think we all need to laugh more often.  Look how pitiful my scissors looked before their sexy makeover:

Thank You Caryn.  I LOVE all the goodies.  THANK YOU to both of you for being so generous and for being such fun blog pals!

I hope you’ve all had a good weekend.  Mine was perfect.  I made like a hermit all day yesterday and stayed inside quilting while the beautiful sunlight streamed through the window.  Today, I spent the afternoon with MeMum — we watched a few more installments of Monarch of the Glen and did handwork on our respective bindings.

Before I went to MeMum’s, I made a blueberry pie (oops, the shell cracked!)  I found a new recipe that I wanted to try.  It called for ground tapioca to be added to the blueberries for thickener.  I was very hopeful, as I’m not a fan of runny pies.  I’m thinking maybe cornstarch would have been better, as it was pretty runny.  Oh well, it was delicious — more sauce for the ice cream, right?

I’m sad to see a perfect weekend come to an end, but I’m looking forward to the week.  I’m really looking forward to catching up on blog reading — I’m really far behind!  Next time, I promise, there will be an actual quilt on this blog!

XOXO,
Anna

What a whirlwind weekend we had here!  I felt like I won the lottery on Saturday morning (well, I did really) — THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments of congratulations!  I can’t tell you how very excited I am to have won Kellie’s beautiful Lilly Pilly quilt — Kellie is such a warm and generous person (and fabulous Mum) and I’m beyond thrilled that I’ll be able to see her beautiful quilting in the flesh.  THANK YOU Kellie.  From the bottom of my heart…Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!  Kellie’s patterns are starting to come to the U.S. and I can’t wait until she’ll be coming here to teach classes — it WILL happen someday, won’t it Kellie???  So … I have nothing crafty to show, yet again, but gee … I have a good excuse, don’t you think?  It’s been hard to concentrate!

I did manage to do a bit of big stitch quilting with pearl cotton, but it’s been slow-going.  And SweetiePie was here on Sunday night and Monday.  We had a wonderful time quilting together — she on her project and I on mine.  MeMum even graced us with her presence for a few hours on Monday.  SweetiePie and I talked a lot about Lilly Pilly (Eeek!)  We’ve decided that when I finally get the boys rooms cleaned out and re-done, it would be the perfect centerpiece of a Grandbaby room … robin’s egg blue walls (for the boys) and the gorgeous pink Lilly Pilly (for the girls).  Wouldn’t that be fun?

SweetiePie and I also talked a lot about yoyos.  We went to our friend’s house so that SweetiePie could see the Ethan Allen yoyo quilt (I’m trying to get her hooked!)  This time I examined the EA quilt — the yoyos are just a bit bigger than the ones I’m making with the large-size clover maker and there are just over 2500 yoyos in the king-sized quilt.  Holy Cow!  Needless to say, I won’t be making a king-size version.  ;-)  When we came home, SweetiePie decided to experiment with bigger yoyos.  Pretty big, huh?

Yeah, it’s not very practical to have them that big, but the quilt would sure go together a lot faster, no?

And just so you have a little something to think about this week, here’s a picture of my September guy from my Extreme Ironing calendar at work.  (Shhh, don’t tell, we can’t have cameras at work, so I had to take this with my cell phone.)

Just Because.  There’s nothing hotter than a man wielding an iron.  Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  Penny has put a poll on the Flea Market Fancy Freaks blog to ask what colorway you would prefer if Free Spirit were to reprint the fabric.   Also, there are almost 500 signatures on the petition to bring Flea Market Fancy back — if you haven’t signed it yet, run over and do so now!

Yipee!!!  Here in the U.S., it’s a three-day, holiday weekend.  And lookie — my weekend started off with a big surprise in my mailbox:

Isn’t that the cutest ribbon?  And just perfect for the surprise inside — Frannie’s Favorite Recipes.  Frannie is Marsha’s (from CuteStuffInside) daughter.  (Read here for an adorable post about Frannie and her BFF.)  Look at that Cah-Ute cover — I can hardly stand it!  And the best part — it’s full of recipes for just my kind of food — cookies and cupcakes!  (How did you know Frannie?)   I’ve been looking for a good chocolate cupcake recipe and I can’t wait to try yours.  Thank You SO Much Frannie.  You’re a sweetheart.  I’ll always cherish my new recipe book and the oh-so-sweet note you left inside!

Thanks for all the fun comments on my yoyo post.  I probably should have explained the cause of this new obsession.  Remember when I embroidered the monogram for my friend’s daughter’s bedroom?  Shortly after that post, I delivered the monogram to my friend and she showed me the progress on her daughter’s room.  Holy Crap!  It’s just gorgeous.  Hot. Pink. Walls. and beautiful black Ethan Allen furniture.  And the pièce de résistance was this Ethan Allen yoyo quilt.  The minute I laid eyes on it, I grew weak in the knees and started to hyperventilate.

In the days following that visit, that yoyo quilt was all I could think about.  There were e-mails and discussions with Brigette and Ms. Barefoot (my yoyo quilt idol).  Could I make one?  What colors?  Finally Brigette convinced me that red and white was the way to go — for a first yoyo quilt.  So, that’s the plan — we’re making a red and white yoyo quilt.  Hopefully, it will be done before I expire, and if it is, I could see a second yoyo quilt.  And then a third.  ‘Cause wouldn’t it be fun to try them in a bunch of different color combinations?

Now, on to the weekend.  TheEmptyNestChild is hoping for a big escape and a grand adventure.  I hope you have a great weekend too!

XOXO,
Anna

{Edited to add:  OHMYGOSH!  My weekend can end right now — look how lucky I’ve been!  Breathe In. Breathe Out.  This is going to take a whole stackful of paper bags for breathing!!!)