Sewing – Page 5 – Thimbleanna

A Random Little Catch-Up

24 Comments / December 4, 2016 December 4, 2016 / Liberty Love, Sewing

Oh. My. Gosh. What happened to the last month??? It’s been so busy here that I’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone post.

TheManoftheHouse made it through his second knee replacement and is almost back to normal. The Halloween surgery and weeks that followed sucked most of November out of me. Then there was Thanksgiving — I thought several times about posting, but something always interrupted my plan. Everyone was here this year and we had lots of fun — FinallyAGirl stole the show with her Uncle and the cousins. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I got a new assignment at work that means longer hours and has been awful — hopefully it will end soon. Last week was pretty rough, so SweetiePie and FinallyAGirl have come to cheer us up and help. It’s been wonderful having them here — SweetiePie has worked her little tail off — cooking dinner every night and she even tackled the pile of fabric that I had sitting around waiting to be pre-washed and folded so it could be added to my stash. She’s a gem and we’re so lucky to have her!

While they’ve been here, I made a little sleep sack for FinallyAGirl. I put a machine embroidery sentiment on the bottom of the sack in hopes that it would help her sleep a little better at night ;-D.

I used McCall’s 7219 for the pattern, Baby Pink Cuddle fabric for the outside and the cute Darling Little Dickens sheep for the lining.

And here’s our little peach modeling the goods — luckily there’s still a bit of growing room too.

In other news, after years of taking pictures of the moon that turned out looking like a tiny white dot, I finally learned how to get a picture that actually looks like the moon during the last super moon. Major zooming in, both with the camera and the computer happened ;-D.

And finally, I have lots of new goodies in my little etsy shop —
Beautiful new Liberty fabrics (with a restock of the beloved Betsy in Gray):

A few prints from the super cute Collette line by Blend Fabrics (oh, the fussy cutting opportunities!):

Some low-volume prints, and just so you can treat yourself at Christmas (;-D!), some beautiful new Dovo scissors (sadly, my favorite 5-inch scissors are sold out already):

Now I’m off to try and get in the Christmas spirit. (Maybe I’ll actually get a new blog header made!) It’s not going to be easy this year — everyone will be somewhere else! I’m not a fan of these every-other-year holidays — at. all!

XOXO,
Anna

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Making Luna Lapin

28 Comments / November 9, 2016 November 9, 2016 / Sewing

I was so excited when the nice people at Sew and So asked me to review the new book by Sarah Peel. The book is Making Luna Lapin and it’s the very sweet story of a little rabbit named Luna who is quiet, kind, and more than anything, loves to sew. A rabbit who loves to sew? How could I say no?

Sara starts the book by telling you the Story of Luna Lapin. Then you go on a few adventures with her … the story of the lost scarf, the story of the Christmas wish, and the story of the birthday bash. The stories are all very sweet and fun to read. And then … best of all … Sarah has included patterns for you to make your very own Luna along with 20 accessories to dress Luna and her brother Alfie.

As reviewers of the book, we were invited to make as little, or as much from the book that we wanted. I wanted to make it all!

I really wanted to make the super cute chair that Luna is sitting in, in the picture above, but I decided to make an actual Luna bunny and a few of her favorite clothes. I mean, wait. I spent my lunch hours hand sewing Luna and then she made her own clothes. Because, you know … she loves to sew. (My poor little Luna is looking a little cross-eyed — I need to re-position those eyes so they’re not set so closely!)

Naturally, Luna LOVES Liberty fabric, so after I lined her ears and feet with Liberty, she made herself a dress, following the instructions in the book. The instructions are clear and very well illustrated (~~I did have~~ Luna had a little bit of trouble understanding the bow instructions, but she worked it out.)

And THEN. Then, Luna made this A.dorable little pink coat. That coat KILLS me! I LOVE it so much — I want a pink Pea Coat in my jumbo size! (Maybe Luna would make me one!) I also want one for my sweet little FinallyAGirl so she and Luna and I can be triplets. (I think you know who is going to be the new owner of Sweet Luna, don’t you???)

Anyway, I Luna really wanted to make more of the accessories too — there are the cutest little boots and shoes in the book, but after lining her feet with beautiful Liberty fabric, I Luna just couldn’t see covering those pads up. Oh well … maybe for a cousin who doesn’t have such pretty feet. ;-D

Thank you so much to Sew and So for inviting me to participate in this blog hop. If you’re interested in the book, you can see a trailer with more sneak peeks by clicking on the little book icon here:

You can also read more reviews of the book and see more of the fun projects (like those cute shoes!) from the book by visiting the following blogs in the blog hop schedule:

Monday 31st October – SewandSo
Tuesday 1st November – Meet Sarah Peel
Wednesday 2nd November – Sew of Course
Thursday 3rd November – Melanie Sews and Other Stuff
Friday 4th November – Poppy in Stitches

Monday 7th November – Carina Crafts
Tuesday 8th November – Bendigolioness
Wednesday 9th November – Bit of Tea and Honey
Thursday 10th November – ME!

And then, after all that reading and previewing, you can buy the book HERE. (Currently, the link is for an e-book, and the link for the hardcover should be up soon. But still, $15 for the e-book is a great deal for all those cute little patterns. I’d buy it just for that little Pink Pea Coat!!!)

XOXO,
Anna

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Dog Days Baby Bonnet

26 Comments / August 21, 2016 August 21, 2016 / Chat, Sewing

Poor, poor little blog. It’s just been so neglected. I’m blaming it on the Dog Days of Summer. It’s been so slow around here with not very much happening. The days are long (work, work, work) and the weeks flash by. I have no clue where summer has gone — it seems like we were just thinking that FinallyAGirl would never get here and now she’s two months old already!

Just the girls in the family snuck off for an afternoon last weekend and we had a quick visit with our little princess. It was short and sweet and oh so fun. And we weren’t the only ones being sneaky — SweetiePie snapped this pic of us ladies oooohing and aaaahing over the baby.

I love that picture so much. It says so much about our little family. And how thrilled we are to have that sweet little girl join us!

I’ve also done a little bit of sewing here and there. I’ve barely started to work on the blocks for a quilt for FinallyAGirl. And, this afternoon, I made her a quick little bonnet for some up-coming trips she’ll be taking in the next few months (Don’t Look Pie!).

She probably already has several little sunbonnets. But you know what they say. Makers gonna make. Especially when the maker is a new Grandma. I just couldn’t help it. A few months ago, a really sweet woman started buying lots of Liberty fabrics from my little etsy shop. I finally asked her what she was making with all of her Liberty, and she told me she has a new little granddaughter too. Then she told me I really should make the sunbonnet from Purl — it’s so sweet and easy to make. I used Pheobe in pink for the print and Moda Bella 97 for the white. And the little bonnet is fully reversible, in case SweetiePie wants a mostly white bonnet with just a hint of color.

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TeddyBear decided to model the bonnet, even though his head is the wrong size. (And mostly because I can’t find my little doll model, who I hope will turn up as mysteriously as she’s disappeared — I need her modeling help!)

Hopefully I won’t be gone for so long next time, but who knows. I’m guessing it will be September by the time I post again. September! I just can’t believe it already!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. In the event you’re in need of fabric, there have been lots of new arrivals in my little shop — some new Liberty, some of the very popular Rifle Paper Co. prints, and some Santa fabrics (’cause I’m not saying the “C” word in August!)!

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A Sewing Weekend

25 Comments / July 24, 2016 July 24, 2016 / Chat, Sewing, Store

Happy Sunday! Now that it’s over haha. And, it’s even Monday for some of you. I’m late as usual ;-D.

Oh well, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was great, even though it’s hot outside. Not much happening here — it was nice and quiet, so I escaped summer’s heat and spent a lot of time sewing in the dungeon. I finally finished piecing the second Little Red Riding Hood quilt top for my Grandma room. The pieces have been on my little portable design wall for several months, and every time I’d walk by, half of them would fall on the floor. I’m so excited to have that project finished! I’ll hand quilt this second quilt just like the last one, but I’m in no hurry — maybe I’ll put it on the frame sometime this winter.

After finishing the quilt top, I started playing with a new little quilt for FinallyAGirl. Pink!, of course. When I told TheManoftheHouse what I was working on, he said “Doesn’t she have enough quilts already?” Silly Man. Probably, but that’s not the point. Each one of MY babies will have a little hand-quilted baby quilt from their Grandma — you know, one that’s more traditional, and maybe a little keepsake. I made a few blocks to test out the pattern and then proceeded to cut lots of little pieces.

I’m really excited about it — it should be a fun little project. I’m going to take my time and enjoy the process. Here’s the scrap-pile of yumminess so far. ;-D

I also finished some of my little vinyl project bags. Some of the fun prints from the Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements collection have arrived and I couldn’t help myself. You might remember how much I love a good map fabric, and I thought these fabrics would be perfect for project bags. I cut these a little bigger than the ones in my instructions too — 11 x 14 instead of 10 x 12. It’s fun to have different sizes.

I LOVE them. I even used recycled vinyl because I couldn’t find my vinyl stash (er, one piece LOL). Of course, I found it after I had these little bags sewn together. For probably more years than some of you have been alive (!), I’ve been saving those fancy vinyl zippered bags that new mattress pads and comforters come in — do you know the kind I mean? I was thrilled to be able to cut one up and recycle it! Two of my bags have already claimed projects — a new start on some socks and a little something for a certain little baby girl which is almost done and ready to be blocked.

So, that was the weekend here. Pretty boring for most, but exciting for a quilter! Off to bed now — have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna

Baby Bibs

22 Comments / July 17, 2016 July 17, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Store

Ok, I gave you a break from baby stuff with the little backpacks on my last post, so, now I’ll make you suffer again LOL. Really, it will slow down after this because I haven’t been working on any more baby stuff.

I made FinallyAGirl a few bibs before she was born. I love to make bibs — you can do almost anything with them. When TheFirstChild was born, someone gave me two really cute little homemade bibs and I loved them so much that I traced around them to get a pattern that I’ve been using for many years. I was going to say that I used my embroidery machine on a few of these bibs, but, as it turns out, I used it on all of them. First up — some elephants that I’ve used before on terrycloth with a simple bias binding.

Next, simple cotton with a ric rac edge. SweetiePie loves polka dots and monograms. I think this one might be her favorite.

She also love pompoms. This little bib is like the tied quilt that we made at the baby shower. I don’t think those pompoms will last very long, but they’ll be easy to cut off if they start to look ratty. ;-D

And this last little bib is my favorite. A little pink plaid ruffle, some big stitches, and a Peter Rabbit embroidery. I know it looks like Mama Bunny is putting Peter to Bed, but she’s actually feeding him. Poor little Peter must be sick. I Love Peter Rabbit!

Now it’s back to regular programming. I’ve been working on a new shirt and I need to get started on FinallyAGirl’s quilt (I keep saying I’m going to get started!) It’s also that fun time of the year when market purchases start to trickle into quilt shops. These fun crochet-edged double bias tapes arrived last week. They’re SO cute and I’m looking forward to using them on clothes and quilts.

Have a great week — it’s supposed to be blisteringly hot here by the end of the week … Think SNOW LOL!
XOXO,
Anna