January 2011 – Page 2

Finally, The Ghastlies

82 Comments / January 10, 2011 February 22, 2011 / Quilting

We finally have a quilt finish around here! I actually finished the Ghastlies before Christmas (just barely) but I couldn’t show them to you because I made three of them — one for MeMum and BigDaddy, one for MyDadLovesMeBestSister and CrazyBIL and one for us.

I love that they’re getting their little photo session in the winter. Ghastlies should be surrounded by the stark black and whiteness of the cold, not the pretty greens or autumn colors of the other seasons.

I had a hard time deciding how to quilt the little creepers. Since the pattern is a wonky log cabin and I chose to “float” them on a bed of gray, the gray sashing isn’t straight. I ended up quilting big wonky zig zags in the gray. In my mind, I was thinking of the visual version of that screeching music from the movie Psycho.

Then I free-motioned around each little character and did 1/4″ quilting along each color of the log cabin. Try that on a domestic machine — it was a pain in the behind. Stitch down a side, turn, stitch down the next side, turn…round and round to complete each block. I didn’t think I’d be able to keep the stitching straight if I tried to free-motion it. I’m really happy with the quilting, but it was very time-consuming.

I backed the quilts with a solid piece of the ghastlie print. This is the only picture I got of the back — rather sinister looking in jail, I think. The blocks are each 14″ and each quilt measures 56″ x 70″. Perfect for snuggling while listening to werewolves howling outside.

At the end of our photo session, I took the Ghastlies for a little swing in MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s tire swing. They seemed to really love the ride.

What they didn’t love was the snowy adventure. Little hammer girl was very unimpressed.

And the coven of witches were downright whizzed off. They were whispering about me and when I tried to get close enough to hear what they were saying, that skinny little witch on the right turned around and gave me a death stare.

Fine. I dried them off, folded them up, and put them in the cupboard. They have until October to wipe those scowls off of their faces!

XOXO,
Anna

We Have a Winner!

27 Comments / January 8, 2011 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Ok, time to draw a winner for my four year blog anniversary. After removing the duplicate comments and those who didn’t want to be entered, I cut and pasted the comments into a word document so they would automatically be numbered for me. (I think this only works for WordPress comments. ) Then I consulted Random.org — the Random ManoftheHouse Generator is out grocery shopping, so we’re going high tech here.

Number 50, Come On Down! According to my word document numbering, that’s YOU Terri — yes, YOU, the girl who never wins anything LOL.

Congratulations Terri! And thank you, thank you to the rest of you for all of your wonderful comments. It was so nice to read through all of them. I usually call a truce on contest comments, so I hope you’ll forgive me for not answering them. Back to our regularly scheduled programming now though — I might be slow, but I’ll try to get back with you if I hear from you!

It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon here in ThimbleannaLand. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? I think I might lie around this afternoon and try to organize some projects. I don’t really make lists for any given year anymore, as I never get them finished. I just sort of have an ongoing list. Some projects have been on there so long though, that they need to be deep sixed. I think maybe, instead of making a list of projects to complete this year, I’ll just come up with a general goal. Maybe two UFO’s for every new project, or something like that. I should make a resolution not to buy any more fabric (ironically, the FedEx man just rang the doorbell 20 minutes ago) but we know that’s not going to happen!

So, off to plan and dream. And here’s fair warning — next time there will be finished quilts here in ThimbleannaLand. Don’t want anyone keeling over out of shock or anything!

XOXO,
Anna

Splash of Color

42 Comments / January 6, 2011 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Hello! I’m just popping in to participate in Emma’s Splash of Color this month. Emma started the Splash of Color to cheer us up during the dreary winter months. And it’s surely dark and dreary here in ThimbleannaLand today.

I looked around, and the most colorful thing here (aside from my fabrics, yarns and threads) is my jar of M&Ms. I know we’re not supposed to be eating them this time of year, but I can’t help it. It’s so gray and sad. We NEED the cheering up. There were quite a few brown M&Ms in the pile, but they aren’t colorful, so I sacrificed for you and the need for a colorful picture. I disposed of them. In my mouth.

Thank you for your Splash of Color series Emma — pretty colors are definitely a pick-me-up in the winter!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. In case you missed it, only one more day until my Divine Twine/Vera Bradley giveaway comes to an end.

Gingerbread Houses 2010

44 Comments / January 3, 2011 December 29, 2011 / Family, Gingerbread Houses, Holidays

Whew! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s weekend. It sure whizzed by quickly — in fact the whole Christmas break is just a blur to me. As much fun as it was, I’m thinking it will be good to get back into a routine. Thanks for all your fun comments on my blogiversary giveaway (if you missed it, the drawing is still open until Jan. 7th, just go HERE.) It’s been really fun reading all of the comments, especially from those of you who are just discovering blogs. There are so many wonderful blogs out there — prepare to be inspired!

Anyway, lots of you mentioned the annual gingerbread competition. You’re all so cute — thanks for being interested! I’m sorry I made you wait so long, there just hasn’t been any time to go through the pictures. I didn’t think we were as inspired as last year, but we still had lots of fun. So, let’s get to it!

Team 1 was supposed to be MeMum, CuteNiece1 and TheSecondChild, but TheSecondChild had to work late on the 23rd, so he wasn’t able to come home until the morning of the 24th. We jokingly refer to this group as our crazies and we laughed that the team draw put them all together. I think they had big plans to make a psych ward, but somehow that changed when TheSecondChild couldn’t make it.

We had a CuteFriend of the boys’ stand in for TheSecondChild at the last minute. CuteNiece2 was working late so CuteFriend and MeMum started building the house. CuteFriend had never built houses with us before and as he was constructing the house, MeMum was often heard to utter “just wing it”. They were having a terrible time and when CuteNiece2 arrived, she rolled up her sleeves to get things straightened out, but by then, CuteFriend was also saying “just wing it”. Sadly, “just wing it” wasn’t terribly effective and their house collapsed and they threw in the towel.

Team 2 surprised us with an adorable American Eagle house in honor of CuteNephew’s new job at our local American Eagle store. He and SweetiePie made a wonderful team and they did a great job. They left a roof off so that the inside of the store could be seen with all the clothes and mirrors. I love all the special touches on this house – especially the swirly frosting. Very, very cute!

Team 3 was TheManoftheHouse and me. We did a camera shop and didn’t even manage to finish our house. We wanted to put lots more frosting on the front and back and a line of kids waiting for Santa photos, but I spent most of the first hour fixing bad frosting bags for everyone (note to self: use plastic bags next year). While the initial construction on our house was drying, TheManoftheHouse was busy building that adorable little camera on a tripod.

Team 4 was CrazyBIL, TheFirstChild and BigDaddy. Their house started out looking suspiciously like last year’s house and when BigDaddy was spotted making a sleigh, someone asked them what they were making. CrazyBIL said a Sleigh Wash and we all started laughing. It WAS just like last year’s house. The funny thing is, before we all started, the three of them discussed whether a sleigh wash had ever been done, and none of them could remember one. After that discovery, they changed course and made people going into the sleigh wash or something or other. There was serious cheating going on when they ripped off a big hunk of cotton from my nearby snow village scene and used it for smoke coming out of the chimney.

Team 5 was MyDadLovesMeBestSister and CuteNiece2. They made a super cute art studio and I can’t believe I didn’t manage to get a good shot of the front of the house. Look at those adorable little topiaries that MDLMBS made from Lindor truffles and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Those were my favorite touch from all the houses. Followed closely by the cute little pretzel easels featuring Christmas art work. Oh So Clever!!! They left the roof off of their house too (ok, it might have kept falling off) and it made for perfect views into the arteeeest studio.

And the winner by votes? The Camera Shop. I’m thinking it was either a sympathy vote because we ran out of time or because everyone loved the little tripod camera. We gave the prizes (movie tickets) to the runner up team — SweetiePie and CuteNephew.

So, there you have it. We’re all running out of ideas for houses, so hopefully it won’t be even more downhill from here!

XOXO,
Anna

Month: January 2011