Peep Days – Thimbleanna

The End of Summer

29 Comments / September 21, 2013 October 8, 2013 / Peep Days

Well, tomorrow is the big day — the official end of summer and therefore the day when I’m officially done with my 10 Things this Summer List. Just in the nick of time, I managed to get two more items completed.

1. Get Together with the Quilty Peeps. Finally! It took us over a year to find time in our schedules when we could all get together and we did the deed yesterday. I love getting together with my long-time BFFs and I love that they’ll let me take pictures of their projects. Our collective memories have gaps (ha!) so it’s nice to be able to look back on the blog and see when we got together and what we were working on. So, for future reference, here’s what we worked on yesterday:

Jewels came with enough projects to share LOL. We wanted to see all the fun stuff she’s working on and she kindly obliged. Here’s her newest project — a quilt she found in a magazine this summer. Aren’t those colors gorgeous?

Then she had a ton of blocks completed for another quilt she’s making. She showed us the flyer for the pattern and of course, I forgot to take notes. (Maybe she’ll tell us in the comments. ;-D ) I LOVE this star block and Jewel’s work is perfect.

And then we teased Jewels that she’s still working on her dresden plate project, which she was working on when we got together almost three years ago. We were laughing with her, not at here ’cause I’m pretty sure this would be a 20-year project for me.

Oh, and look at the darling little snack mix bags Jewels made for each of us — she’s a sweetheart!

Gurney was finishing the hand work on the binding for a Cat in the Hat quilt for her grandson. It’s SO cute! I LOVE this fabric and I’m hoarding some of my own.

Look at the cute back too. Gurney took all the fabrics that she had left over from piecing the front and used them on the back. So fun!

Junie was our hostess with the mostess and in addition to waiting on us hand and foot, she was cutting fabric for a baby quilt. Isn’t this fabric cute? I’d never seen it before. The line is Backyard Baby by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller.

Did you see that beehive??? I need some of that fabric just for the beehive. Here it is in the gray colorway too.

Thank you Ladies for such a fun day and for all the good food. It’s always great to catch up – hopefully we won’t have such a long gap before our next get-together!

And lastly, during our Quilty Peep Fun Day, I worked on stitching down the centers of my Steampunk blocks.

Which brings me to,

8. Make Enough Blocks for a Quilt Top. All done. 48 blocks. Turns out I only needed 41 whole blocks and 7 partial blocks. I thought I needed 48 whole blocks and I’d decided not to use the partial blocks in my version of the quilt. But now I have extra blocks to cut up for the partial blocks. It’s going to be hard to cut them through the middle!

So, that’s the end of my summer list. I completed 9 out of 10 of the items. Can you regular readers remember which item didn’t make the cut? Ok, I’ll tell you. It’s that *&*&#@# 10-year sweater! It’s sitting out nagging me and winter is on the way, so hopefully I’ll work on it this winter. For now though, 90% is good enough for me. Making a list has been fun and making it public actually made me work on it. If you made a summer list, how did you do?

XOXO,
Anna

Sweet Peep Day

34 Comments / February 12, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Peep Days

Well, how is your weekend going? Are you getting all geared up for Luuuuuv Day on Tuesday??? Here in ThimbleannaLand, we had a super fun day with the Quilty Peeps yesterday. Lots of sewing and eating, as always. We had a little Valentine’s luncheon in the middle of our day.

Gurney, Junie and I are pinterest addicts, so we spent a little bit of time bringing Jewels into the fold (Holy Cow Woman — were you up all night pinning????). The reason I tell you this is because Pinterest played a big part in our get-together. For lunch, I made a Potato and Asparagus Frittata, Jewels made Ina’s delicious Cape Code Chopped Salad, and Junie brought these wonderful dinner rolls that she found on pinterest.

And then, for dessert, Gurney bestowed this beauty upon us — a gorgeous (and divine!) Kahlua Cake (from pinterest).

We had to keep our strength up while we were sewing. There was lots of snacking. Junie made the yummy Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips that’s made the rounds on pinterest. (Are you sick of hearing about pinterest yet?) I was really excited about this ’cause I wanted to try it. We all loved it.

And Jewels made us these gorgeous Valentine cookies, courtesy of Martha.

In spite of appearances, it wasn’t all about eating. (Well, sort of.) There was some sewing. Gurney worked on the Aurifil block of the month project. Her blocks are turning out SO cute!

Jewels was knitting a really pretty ribbon scarf. I love those colors!

Junie continued her fabric folding efforts. (See Jenny? Junie just works on folding her fabric here and there, and eventually, she’ll have it all done. Just. Do. It!)

Junie even had help — we had to chase both kitties out of her fabric boxes. Bad Kitties. Scruff says he’s sorry he bit you Junie — I think he’s just jealous that you have so much pretty fabric.

And I worked on an old Valentine UFO. I was going to work on my applique quilt, but decided to sneak another UFO finish into my year. Almost done….

And there were gifts. ‘Cause I have the best Quilty Peeps on the planet. Jewels brought us each a filled-to-the-brim gift bag. Lots of candy, cupcake liners and and adorable little dresden plate pin cushion. Jewels loves anything red, so this is HER week LOL. I don’t know if I’ll really be able to stick pins into that cute little pincushion.

And Gurney gave me a beautiful pack of homemade greeting cards and a cute little schnibbles pattern. Gurney makes the most beautiful cards and I’m so honored to have a nice selection to use when I need them.

We had a wonderful, really FUN day. I love my Peeps and our sewing days — we don’t manage to have them often enough. We’ll be celebrating our 25th year this year — how lucky can a girl be??? Thank You Thank You Dear Friends for all the wonderful memories and fun!!!
XOXO,
Anna

LuuuuV Day

47 Comments / February 14, 2011 February 12, 2012 / Peep Days, Sewing

Did you have a fun Valentine’s weekend? And Day??? Full of Luuuuv and hearts and smooching and Chocolate???? (My Sweetie surprised me with some Shari’s Berries — Oh. My. Gosh!)

Anyway, it was a fun weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. It started with a fun day with the Quilty Peeps. Us locals drove a few hours to see Gurney. We shopped (quilt shops, of course) and then Gurney ever-so-sweetly treated us to a Valentine’s Proper Tea. It was great fun and the food was wonderful.

Notice how the ladies know correct pinky etiquette? Extended … yet not overly so. (I have no idea what I’m talking about…just play along.) We had two types of tea — a cinnamon spice (yum) and a chocolate flavored tea. The foods were all finger foods — appetizers, sandwiches (cucumber was included, of course) and three delicious little sweets — a meringue heart, a mini-fruitcake and a little lemon shortbread type of cookie. I have the best quilty peeps ever and we had a great day. Thanks girls — and especially YOU Gurney, for the fun treat!

Other than that, it was a low-key Love-y weekend. I made a few gifts for my little sweeties. Boxers for the boys in my favorite recent crush — Thing 1 and Thing 2! Sadly, there were no cute models around, so I just took a quick pic on the cutting table.

I embroidered “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” just above the hemlines — just in case both boys are home doing laundry at the same time.

Then I wrapped them (with a little fabric surprise for SweetiePie) and packed them with a chick flick movie (yeah, the boys might not be too excited, but the girls should like them), lots of candy, and some dental floss and toothbrushes to counteract the sugar.

Then, last night I made our annual Valentine’s dinner. Steak Au Poivre, herb roasted new potatoes, and oven roasted asparagus. And for dessert, I tried a wonderful new recipe, Not So Humble Pie’s Bittersweet Chocolate Tart. It was delicious! Thanks to LindaNoBlog for the great suggestion.

Oh, and this picture isn’t our Valentine’s Dinner, but it was just as fun. Someone posted a picture on Pinterest and because I’m 5 years old and love to play with my food, I had to try it.

You should have seen TheManoftheHouse’s face when he figured it out. He ate his veggies first and he didn’t know why I was grinning. Then, he started to eat his spaghetti and discovered that it was connected to the hot dog. It was pretty funny! If you don’t think you’ll die after eating an occasional hot dog, you might like this fun little surprise. If you have kids, I’m betting they’ll love it!

OkeyDoke…off to pay some bills. Big Valentine Smoochies!

XOXO,
Anna

Market Report: The Fabric

47 Comments / November 12, 2010 February 12, 2012 / Peep Days, Quilt Market Report

Shoot! I meant to post before now. I just can’t seem to get caught up around here. Plus, we had a very busy weekend last weekend. I spent one day with the family cleaning up leaves at MeMum and BigDaddy’s house and the other day sewing with the quilty peeps. I was working on the Ghastlies. ‘Cause, of course, I didn’t get them done by Halloween and I don’t want them being a UFO until next Halloween.

Junie finished up an adorable quilt that she made for a new baby in her extended family. She said it’s a Moda Bakeshop pattern, but I’m too lazy to look up the link for you. I love the little surfing monkey and the baby’s name on the quilt. (Sorry for the dark photos — it was pretty late in the afternoon by the time I remembered to take pictures.)

Gurney was working on this very pretty Crabapple Hill snowman pillow. I have this pattern in my stash and hope to make it someday. Gurney is a wonderful embroiderer.

And Jewels (the hostess with the mostest) worked on her cute little dresden plates. They’re pretty small and very perfect. They’re all hand-pieced and Jewels is the master. I love them!

Ok, so here’s my market fabric report. Once again, I bought WAY too much fabric. At least it was less than last time, but still. I blame it on the excitement of the Sample Spree Moment. In the back of this picture is Sunkissed by Sweetwater, Anna Griffin’s new line is in the foreground, and to the right is the only fat quarter stack that I was really there for — Sherbert Pips by Aneela Hoey. CrazyMom has a picture of the prints all spread out — I can’t bring myself to take my cute stack apart. I love those pips, but I’m 100% positive that CrazyMom will have something done with her pips before I do, ’cause she actually uses her fabric!

Then, I was innocently wandering past the Lecein booth and I spotted this adorable Little Red Riding Hood pack. I couldn’t help myself. I probably won’t be able to cut into this fabric either.

And last, but not least, The Cat in the Hat. My new fabric obsession. I want to buy it by the bolt. C’mon now — how can you resist Thing1 and Thing2 all over their own piece of fabric??? Just imagine the pillowcases, BOXERS, quilt backs, and more. Can you blame me???

Since I’ve spent all day in the dungeon cleaning out fabric and junk (new furnace coming next week so cabinets have to be moved) I’m thinking all this new fabric really wasn’t necessary. On the other hand, I have lots of stuff heading to Goodwill now, so I have new room to stock up!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Banana Bikes

56 Comments / October 3, 2009 February 12, 2012 / Chat, Peep Days

One week ago today I was blissfully sewing with the quilty peeps. (In sharp contrast to the pantry and kitchen drawer cleaning I’m doing today {sigh}.) One of the highlights of my day with the quilty peeps, was being able to see the banana bike collection that Junie and her fabulous hubby have started.

Junie took the picture above — I was so busy taking pictures of all the bike parts, I didn’t get any good pictures of all four of the bikes together. (Thanks Junie!)

JunieHubby is an amazing guy. He rebuilds all kinds of really nifty old jukeboxes, coke machines, arcade games and probably lots more. He’s rebuilt all of these banana bikes except one — was it the red one? I think that one is a reproduction. Don’t hold me to that though. JunieHubby told me lots of really cool facts about these bikes (I remember gasping at the prices of some of the little parts) but I have a terrible memory, so I don’t trust myself to recount any of those facts.

Besides, I was too excited about being in the presence of relics from my childhood. Aren’t these the cutest bikes ever??? And LOOK at these fun colors. The red bike doesn’t have speeds and I think the reason I didn’t take a picture of the red handlebar was because it doesn’t have handbrakes — it has a plain handle. I liked the crossbar on the red bike though — without the shifter, there’s room for that pretty Schwinn logo.

My very favorite part of these bikes is the chain guards. Feast your eyes:

I mean really. How cool are those names? Oh. My. Gosh! I loved our pink banana bike when were were growing up, but I think I’d be in a real pickle to have to choose between pink and one of these adorable fruity bikes.

Junie and I had lots of fun taking pictures of all the little bits and pieces of these bikes. JunieHubby has spared no attention to detail — just look at those little racing flag valve stem covers on each of the tires. They’re on the rear tires too and they’re color-coded to match the bikes.

I love the pretty speedometers too. And the shiny brake drums. Hmmm. That’s not what you call it — the brakes are around the rim of the tire on a bike. Help JunieHubby! I love that pretty shiny part that’s in the middle of the bottom row of the picture below. Whatever it is, it’s pretty slick. Oh — and that fun coil-y part that’s under the speedometer. Pretty, pretty, shiny, shiny!

You’d all be very proud of me — I didn’t get any drool on any of the bikes. And when we were all done taking pictures, we grabbed Jewels and Gurney and took the bikes out for a spin. A very short spin. And we laughed a lot. ‘Cause you should try to set the timer on the camera and then run and hop on a banana bike with a cross bar and then hold hands. That’s why my tail light isn’t shining!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Junie and JunieHubby for sharing your super exciting hobby! {Smooches}!

XOXO,
Anna