Books – Page 3 – Thimbleanna

Fun Times

31 Comments / March 31, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Books, Swaps

Ok, was that hysterical laughter I heard out of all you Siggy Swappers when I wondered out loud whether I could finish all of my siggy blocks in one day? So. Not. Funny! Boy, what was I smoking? Those little suckers are taking forever. For one thing, whose bright idea was it to put a thimble on my blocks?

‘Cause once you start, you can’t quit, right? These thimbles are really taking some time, even though they’re machine stitched. All that thread changing takes time. {Sigh} I will say though, that I’m really enjoying making these little blocks. You have to love a block that gets cut to size after it’s pieced. I love that technique — it hides a multitude of sins. Anyway, I only got 20 blocks done on Saturday. I have almost another 20 ready to go, and hopefully, I’ll have the rest of them done by the weekend.

In addition to the siggy swap, I’m participating in a scrap fabric swap with a small group of ladies. This should be a fun swap — we’re exchanging fabrics and then the challenge will be to make a quilt with the fabrics before October 1st. Or I should say a quilt top, in my case. There’s no way I’d have a whole quilt done by then. These are the packs of scraps that I sent out yesterday.

That will conclude my swapping for awhile. And that’s enough LOL!

In non-quilt related news, I met a few of my book group members last night to hear Geraldine Brooks speak. I can’t even tell you how cool it was — what an interesting woman! As you know, her Year of Wonders is one of my favorite books. And now I’m more excited to read People of the Book. Her presentation was fairly short, lasting only about 30 minutes. Then she had about 15 minutes of questions, and then a book signing. I was in and out in just an hour, as I didn’t have to wait to buy a book for the signing — I brought mine along with me. Here she is speaking. Isn’t she cute?

We discovered a fun fact about her last night — she got engaged right here in Ft. Wayne! Apparently, she was a journalist in Cleveland and her now husband worked at one of our newspapers. On one of her visits here to see him, he popped the question. There were a lot of gasps when she revealed that little tidbit — I think we collectively, suddenly felt a little more important LOL. I mean, she grew up in Sydney, has traveled the world as a journalist, and she’s a “Pulitizer Surprise” (as her young son called it) winner. Don’t you think that makes us a little more worthy???

What a charming woman! While she was signing my book I asked her if she had a relative in Australia that likes to quilt. (Because some time ago when I mentioned on my blog how much I loved Year of Wonders, someone commented that they were related to her and I couldn’t quite remember who it was. We figured it out though.) She thought for a minute and said, “Well, I like to quilt.” Ha! I knew I liked her! I wish I’d had the presence of mind to ask her more about that, but we went on to figuring out the link and then I needed to move on so she could get to the next signature.

Oh, and for you book lovers out there, someone asked her who she likes to read. She said her current “crush” is Marilyn Robinson. She loved Gilead and is currently reading Home. Which is so funny, because MeMum and I had just had dinner together and MeMum told me how much she loves Gilead and that she was now reading Home too. {Insert Twilight Zone music here.}

So, if you ever have the chance to hear Ms. Brooks speak, go do it! It was really enjoyable. And if you ever have the chance to embroider 60 thimbles on exchange blocks, that’s really enjoyable too, but you might want to pass. ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

A December Book Group

42 Comments / December 11, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books, Crafting

Ah, yes…it’s that time of year again. I’m reading more and more posts where people don’t have time to blog. I haven’t had time to read blogs! It was busy, busy here all weekend as I was getting ready for my book group which occurred last night. It’s always a lot of work to clean my little pig sty up and even more work when there’s decorating and cooking to do.

We used to be a normal book group that just discussed the book and then had dessert, but several years ago someone started serving dinners, so now we all do it. And since it’s Christmas time, I thought I’d bring out my MeMum’s Christmas china. (Please excuse the dark pictures — it’s mood lighting LOL!)

I love my candle holder. I used to borrow MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s candle holder, but I think she got kind of sick of it, so she bought me one of my own. (Hey — it’s a technique — you should try it sometime!) It’s always fun to arrange different things around those candles. In this case, I cut a few branches off of our pine trees and added some little red balls, drums, and nutcrackers.

And then I added the dogs to the table because our book discussion was about The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. (Which we all LOVED, btw. I hated the ending, but LOVED the book. Some of the passages were really beautiful — especially his passages about the relationships that the dogs have with the characters. And there were more than a few places that brought tears to my eyes. One member was sitting on a plane to NYC between two big burly guys when she hit one of those passages. She had to slam the book shut and wait until she had a little more privacy LOL!)

On the menu we had:

Baked Brie in Phyllo Dough (YUMMY!)
Strawberry Romaine Salad with Raspberry Vinagrette
Chicken Madeira
Ina’s Raspberry Cheesecake

Here’s a close up of the place setting. I think MeMum’s nutcracker china is so pretty. I made each guest a little soldered pendant to take home. One side said “She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain” and the other side had a black silhouette of a woman reading a book. Thank you again Beckie, for teaching me how to make those pendants!

So, whew! Now that’s over, and as MyDadLovesMeBestSister says, I can get busy doing stuff for the really important people. Indeed. It would be really nice though if there were four weeks left, instead of two. TWO! As Ms. Farmhouse so eloquently put it, there’s a knot in my stomach! How are all of your plans coming???

XOXO,
Anna

I Wish I Could Think of a Clever Title

38 Comments / February 5, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books, Crocheting

We’re having the weirdest weather here in the midwest. Huge thunderstorms last night. We went to bed with four inches of snow on the ground and woke up to find heavy fog and all the snow gone this morning. Thunderstorms again tonight — just so odd for early February!

Enough about the weather, I thought I’d show you how I wasted occupied my time while waiting in the airport last week.

Last spring, PamKittyMorning showed a little button card with some crochet around it. Since then, I’ve wanted to try crocheting on paper. Why? I have no clue. It was fun to crochet again and I kept my waiting frustration to a minimum. And just so I didn’t completely waste all that time, I did get a little knitting done on my monkey socks. These little valentines required a lot less thinking though, so I worked on them the most.

When I returned home from my trip, I mentioned to Jade that I’d discovered Japanese quilting books while in NYC. (If you remember, Jade gave me my first Japanese craft book a few weeks ago.) I wandered into Koni-HoweverYouSpellIt (the Japanese book store) and I was amazed at the number of Japanese quilt books that were available. I could have come home with a huge pile full of quilt books, but I behaved myself and only bought two. I’m not sure I ended up with the two I thought I did — it was so difficult to choose and I think I confused myself. Anyway, Jade mentioned that she’d like to see them, so I cobbled together a few of the pictures from the books I bought.

Both of the books I bought ( ISBNs 978-4-89396-936-1 and 4-391-62072-3 — I have no idea why that first ISBN is so big) have around 50 projects in them. I think these books are a great untapped resource and I’m seeing more of them in my future. Very exciting!!!

Go check out Randi’s post today and get digging in your recipe box! I’ll be back Thursday night with a recipe to share and I hope you will too!

XOXO,
Anna

Books and More

27 Comments / January 31, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books

I finally got around to ordering books from my annual Amazon Christmas Gift Certificate and they arrived last week. I’m thinking I made out like a bandit this year — apparently I’ve had a gift raise, as I managed to score six books this year, which is two more than last year.

I saw four of the books in real life before I ordered them. I knew when I saw Warm Fuzzies, Pretty Little Pincushions, and Sew Pretty Homestyle that I had to have them. They’re all chock full of fun projects. My quilty peep Jewels showed me her copy of Simple Knits for Cherished Babies (in fact, I think that’s where the pattern for the cute hat and booties from the last post can be found.) It’s a beautiful book and I love it.

I ordered the other two books sight unseen. Joyce talked about Quilts of Provence one day on her blog. I’ve recently been interested in whole cloth quilts and this book did not disappoint. It’s full of beautiful pictures, text and even a few projects in the back. I’m anxious for time to sit down and really read it. Thanks so much Joyce, for mentioning this book — I think it’s my favorite of the six. That leaves Simple Gifts to Stitch. Hmmm. I just can’t get excited about this book and I’ll say I’m pretty disappointed in it. I think you probably need to have a lot more imagination than I have for it to work (so if you love this book, take that as a compliment.) Oh well…five out of six and I’m a happy camper!

Apparently, with Valentine’s day looming, cupcakes are on my mind ’cause I’ve noticed a few worth mention if you like cupcakes:

Joni’s made this cute little Valentine.
An adorable cupcake bag from Rosehip via That Silly Lil’ Doe.
And when the quilty peeps and I were in NYC last fall, I was fascinated with the frosting technique used at Billy’s and Magnolia. Here’s a video that shows you the Magnolia technique. The cupcake in the video isn’t quite as pretty as the real thing, but perhaps practice makes perfect!

Bring on Valentine’s Day — I need a cupcake! Oh, and if you’re in the midwest or Canada, I hope you’re staying warm. I’m happily in NJ this week, so I’m missing the bitter cold weather!

XOXO,
Anna

A Blurb Book

25 Comments / January 26, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books, Chat

Wow, thanks for all the wonderful wishes for TheFirstChild. You are all so sweet! It’s been an exciting time here and TheFirstChild has been touched by all the e-mails, messages, and, as he says, heartfelt “lectures” (LOL!) he has received.

Anyway, on to some news you can use, as they say. Or hopefully something you can use, if you’re ever thinking about ordering a blurb book. You can have books made about most anything these days, so before Christmas I spent some time with MyDadLovesMeBestSister and we took pictures of all the beautiful quilts that MeMum has made for our family. Then I used the free software available at Blurb.com and created a book for MeMum.

It was really interesting because, at the same time (and unbeknownst to me), MyDadLovesMeBestSister made a similar book of family pictures for MyCrazyBIL using the services at Shutterfly. It was fun to compare the two books. The Shutterfly book is a hardback, 8 inches x 8 inches, and has no dust jacket. The pictures on the cover of the book are part of the hardback cover. MyDadLovesMeBestSister paid roughly $100 for about 80 pages. The Blurb book is also hardback, 7 inches x 7 inches, and has a dust jacket with front and back flaps that can be customized with text and/or pictures. The cover pictures for the book are on the dust jacket and there are no pictures on the hardback portion of the book. I paid about $35 for 30 pages. So, given the difference in book size, the price difference isn’t much.

I chose to create my book with no words except for those on the dust jacket flaps and a letter to MeMum at the beginning of the book. MyDadLovesMeBestSister scattered words among the pictures in her book. We were both pretty happy with our books. I think the actual binding and the paper/cloth used on the inside covers of the hardback is a better quality on the Shutterfly book. But, I really love having the ability to customize the flaps on the dust jacket of the Blurb book. It makes it seem more like a “real book”. Blurb also has a copyright page, which I could do without, but since it’s there, you can customize it and have a little fun with it.

MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I were hoping to be able to compare the two services (service was great with both companies, btw) and choose just one company for the next book we decide to make. But it wasn’t that easy as they came out pretty even. I think you just have to make your decision based on book size and dust jacket or not.

One conclusion we did draw, however, is that making these books was really fun! They make great gifts and fun conversation pieces.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna