Baby Oh Baby – Thimbleanna

Another Pink Quilt

14 Comments / January 30, 2021 February 1, 2021 / Baby Oh Baby, Quilting

Hello Hello!
I hope January has been good to you! I’ve been hunkered down quilting and I’ve finally finished the baby quilt for FinallyAnotherGirl. Ta-Dahhhhh!!!

If you remember, I made a baby quilt for FinallyAGirl using the same fabrics, but a different pattern a few years ago. The pattern is from the book “In The Nursery” by Jennifer Sampou (Thank You So Much Miss Molly for remembering the name of the book!) It feels like this quilt didn’t take as long as the first one to complete, even though I didn’t finish it when I wanted to. It’s all hand quilted — I started the quilting last June and had about half of the quilt done by August, but then it sat untouched through all of the busy fall months. After Christmas, I decided that this quilt would be priority #1 for the new year and once I maintained a little discipline, it really didn’t take too long to finish the quilting.

I love the patchy simplicity of the middle of the quilt, and that sweet little swag border. It was hard to figure out the quilting for the border, but I pulled out my stencils and made something up. One stencil had the cross-hatch flower, so I put it above each swag and added a few leaves to it. Then, I decided to attach the flowers with a ribbon and I put a bow in each corner to tie them all together.

FinallyAnotherGirl is almost 2 1/2 now and it seems a little late for a baby quilt, but FinallyAGirl didn’t get her quilt until her 2nd birthday. I gave FinallyAnotherGirl her little quilt yesterday and she seemed pleased.

So, two out of three pink quilts finished! Just one quilt left for HurrayAThirdGirl — if only I could decide on a pattern. It will definitely be a scrappy pink quilt, just like her sisters’ quilts — and hopefully it will get done before she’s an adult ;-D

One month of the new year under out belts already — time flies when you’re having fun. Haha. At least we’re supposed to get some snow this weekend — THAT will be fun!

XOXO,
Anna

Baby Makes

13 Comments / October 21, 2018 October 21, 2018 / Baby Oh Baby, Knitting, Quilting

In my last post, I mentioned that I had a few baby makes for our new little FinallyAnotherGirl. We’ve had such a busy fall, I feel lucky to have even had anything to give our new little cherub. We’ve been busy with house projects and they sure do take a lot of time. The past few weekends, we’ve been working on our garage. We’re finally done, and I think it’s cleaner than our house LOL. At least it’s all ready for winter.

Anyway, back to the baby makes. Long time readers might remember that new babies in our family get tied baby quilts. Our littles seem to like the tactileness (that’s not a word!) of those little ties. I squeaked out two little quilts — one just in time to be gifted at the hospital, and the other a few weeks later.

I used the pink Heather Ross Kindergarten print for the first quilt. I backed it with one of Moda’s Home Sweet Home prints and used an old Sarah Jane print from the stash for the binding. Then I tied it with a pink that, as it turns out, is too dark LOL. But, I still like it anyway, and when FinallyAnotherGirl isn’t in her crib, I think she naps on this little quilt. Yay!

For the second little quilt, I used my new favorite print, Happy Moons from Art Gallery. I LOVE those sweet little moons! I backed it with an old Sarah Jane print, again from the stash, and then crocheted a bobble edge. I’m not crazy about the bobble pattern I used — clearly, I need lessons from my buddy Ms. Cutting Cloth.

There was also a little knitting. I knit a little baby sleep sac out of a variegated pink yarn by Swans Island. The colorway is Cherry Blossom and it was a dream to knit. The pattern is from the Baby Collection book (not an affiliate link) by Kate Osborn and Courtney Kelley.

I paired this little sac with a cute little knit ruffle top from Janie and Jack. (Naturally, it’s on sale, now that I’ve already bought it LOL.)

It’s not a terribly practical design (especially if you want to go anywhere and need to buckle baby up in the car seat) but I just thought it was really cute. And I remember how much fun it was to pat my little babies’ behinds when they were wearing a cozy knit garment. Or, maybe it’s just me LOL.

I have lots of other baby things I want to make — baby makes are my very favorite. I just need more time. And with that C-word holiday looming, it doesn’t look like there will be much spare time to be had. ;-(

Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

Three Things

15 Comments / September 22, 2018 September 22, 2018 / Baby Oh Baby, Travel

Oh. My. Gosh. September is almost over – and it’s the official first day of Fall! Summer completely FLEW by — someone should give it a speeding ticket!!! Anyway … here are three things. On a Saturday. When I can’t keep up.

Thing 1:
OUR NEW GRANDBABY IS HERE!!! YIPEE!!!

FinallyAnotherGirl put in her appearance on Sept. 16th (see? I can’t keep up!) at 9:38 p.m. Other than being an ALL day affair, it was picture perfect in every way. Everyone is healthy, which is the most important thing. FinallyAGirl was an absolute Peach all day. She spent most of the time in the hospital waiting rooms, with short visits to see Mommy. After the miracle of birth, the most amazing thing was seeing her Daddy (our baby) introduce her to her new baby sister. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. And, she was SOOO excited! She had to tell EVERYONE “[name] Baby Sister’s Here!!!” It was the sweetest thing ever. And this is my favorite picture, caught by TheManoftheHouse on his short shift to see the two babies together (unlike last time when everyone was allowed in the room after the baby arrived, we were on a strict 2-visitor policy this time — {frown}). Anyway. I hope there will be many tender moments like this over their lifetimes.

Thing 2:
The whole baby event over the last few weeks has totally interrupted my review of my trip pictures (lots of weeding out going on over here LOL.) After Bonnie and I went to Edinburgh, we had our fun week in Shetland (pictures coming … well, whenever haha.) Then, we had a day in London before our hubbies joined us for separate London stays.

For our day in London, we decided to do a few things that hubbies wouldn’t want to do — quilt and yarny things. We started off with a big disappointment though — we went to The Antique Textiles Company. If you want to visit, you basically have to make an appointment (which is no fun.) I knew that, and had our time pre-arranged, but the owner had asked me to remind him shortly before our trip. I should have made a calendar entry or something, because I was so busy in those weeks leading up to the trip that I forgot. Therefore, he wasn’t there. BooHoo.

It would have been fun to see the quilts, but I heard later that the prices are higher than what we find here in the states, so that helped with the disappointment. Besides, the disappointment didn’t last long, because, next, we went here:

Ohhh Yes! And the very, very BEST part of the visit to Loop, was meeting THE Miss Julie herself! Bonnie and I have been Julie fans for years — I think I’ve known Julie since we started blogs over 10 years ago and Bonnie has made a ton of her adorable little animals. It was an afternoon I’ll never forget. We shopped at Loop, bought sandwiches and went to a pretty little park for lunch, shopped some more at Ray–Stitch, and then sat visiting in another little park for an hour or so until it was time for Julie to leave. What an absolute thrill it was to meet her after all these years of correspondence. And she’s just as charming and sweet and adorable as she is on her blog. Really, I just can’t gush enough LOL! Thank You Thank You forever for meeting us Julie!!!

Of course, in blogger-meet tradition, we exchanged gifts. Bonnie and I definitely came out way ahead in that department — we each received an adorable little bunny that will be cherished and loved. Julie very cleverly named my bunny Bonnie and Bonnie’s bunny Anna. Aren’t they just the cutest?

After we had to leave Julie, we decided to ride bikes in Hyde Park (because I love to ride bikes and I knew there was no way I was getting TheManoftheHouse on one haha.) It was SO hot — I don’t know about Bonnie, but I was soaking wet by the time we were done. It was so fun though — we took our new little bunnies to meet the young royals, but they wouldn’t let us in LOL.

And just like that, my fun time with Bonnie was over. The next morning, we split up and went off on our separate ways to meet our arriving families. It was hard for the bunny sisters to leave each other, but they sent each other messages on Instagram until we arrived back in the states. Anyway, it was a super fun trip and I’m so grateful to Bonnie for agreeing to go with me — I wish I could do it all over again!

Thing 3:
Over the last month or two lots of new fabric has arrived in my little etsy shop. The most exciting of which it Tilda’s new Bird Pond line. I rarely buy a whole line of fabric (as I like to pick and choose what I think are the best prints), but this line is so beautiful, I had a hard time excluding any of them. I REALLY want to cut into them, but you know. New baby sewing and that big holiday coming soon are keeping me busy for now. Fat quarter packs are here and half yard packs are here.

That’s the end of my three things — thanks for hanging out until the end. Have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Finally A Quilt

19 Comments / July 11, 2018 July 11, 2018 / Baby Oh Baby, Quilting

Ooooh Look! I made it back here in less than a month’s time LOL.

AND, I actually have a finish — a big finish for me. I Finally finished the baby quilt for FinallyAGirl. Behold, The Proof:

I took pictures outside the other day and the sun was pretty bright, so these pictures leave a lot to be desired. But hopefully, you can see some of the details of the quilt. It’s very traditional — I do love an Irish Chain style quilt. And, of course, I had to use Pink. Scrappy Pinks. It’s mandatory after years of sewing non-pink things! It’s all hand-quilted and it took a little more than a year to finish all the stitching. (Because I’m sl-o-o-o-w). I quilted it pretty traditionally too — heavily with lots of 1/4″ quilting around the shapes.

I filled in the spaces around the stars with little hearts, and then I put a little star hanging from a moon in the middle of the stars. Apparently, I filed the little moon idea away years ago, because SweetiePie and I were looking at the baby quilts that MeMum made last week, and she’d put that same moon with star in a quilt for TheSecondChild when he was a baby. Here’s a terrible picture, but, you can see the details of the quilting on the star.

The back and binding are adorable little prints from Lakehouse/PamKittyMorning. Oh, how I LOVE those prints! I sure wish Lakehouse would start making fabrics again!

I gave the quilt to FinallyAGirl last week when they were here. Here she is (wearing her piggies!), wondering why I’m making Grandpa hold the quilt up LOL.

And I have an amazing Grandma Tip for you. ‘Cause us Grandmas need to stick together. This isn’t an original idea — I get my best ideas from other Grammies and Grandma Extraordinaire, Ms. Farmhouse, was the first to tell me about this gem. The Bouncy House. If you need a great gift for your littles, This. Is. It. We got this for FinallyAGirl (and her future sister(!)) for her second birthday and it was a huge hit. We had SO much fun all weekend playing in it. It’s rated for up to three children up to 8 years old, but Ms. Farmhouse said it’s ok for an adult to sit in there. So we took turns LOL. FinallyAGirl was so shy and careful at first, but by the end of the weekend, she was jumping like the crazy two-year-old that she is. Anyway, highly recommended!

Must run and make dinner — Hope July is treating you like a million bucks!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Oink!

17 Comments / June 16, 2018 June 16, 2018 / Baby Oh Baby, Family, Sewing

Really? I popped by to check in, and it’s been two (TWO!) months since my last post. I feel like I should have started with “Forgive Me Father, it’s been two months … “. I think that’s the longest break I’ve had in my eleven years of blogging and it makes me so sad. I’d like to promise (at least to myself) that it won’t happen again, but, for the foreseeable future, it will probably, certainly be spotty posting. We’re dog-sitting our cute little Winston this week, and he definitely disapproves too!

The year is speeding by and I feel like I’m missing most of it. I do have a good excuse though — MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I have started cleaning out MeMum’s house and it’s been a LOT of work. Mummy has been living with us for a year and a half now and we decided that it just doesn’t make any sense to keep her house any more. Empty houses are very sad — they need families and people living in them to keep them happy. ;-( We started going through things in early spring, but it’s taking forever, mostly because a) we both work full-time, and b) it’s a big house stuffed full. Mummy loved collecting pretty things (downsizing was NEVER in her plan) and it’s been fun and hard and sad all at once to go through everything. There have been lots of tears (and smiles) and we still have lots to do. We’ve found lots of gems too — this is one of my favorites discovered last weekend —

All this sorting really makes you think about stuff. What to DO with all of it??? I can hardly bear to part with any of it — especially things that have been handed down through the family. It’s hard though because, at least for now, the grandkids don’t seem to be interested in any of it. I’d like to be able to save them from this same fate when my time comes, but will I be able to??? Maybe I’ll just keep it all in hopes they’ll change their minds as they, um, mature LOL. Oh, the dilemma …

Anyway, in happier news, I have been sewing a little here and there. I made a new little top for FinallyAGirl last weekend.

I noticed in quilt market reports that there was a new Korean fabric company at market this year and when I saw this adorable little piggy print, I knew I had to have it. I also loved the sweet little wildflower print in pink, gray and mustard and had to have that too. The little piggies kill me though — I might have to make myself a top out of this fabric. I probably won’t put an Oink! label on my shirt though LOL.

SweetiePie reports that the piggies fit just right and that they look cute with a little pair of denim shorts. Just what I was hoping for!
Have a Happy Father’s Day Weekend!
XOXO,
Anna