Anyone Can Quilt

Here I will sit...

Today is quilting day.  I got the beast basted yesterday, and then had company for dinner, so had to put the quilting on hold.  But today is the day!  I think I have mentioned to you before that we are in the slow do it yourself renovation process of our home.  This is our little dining 'area' off of the kitchen... sort of in the kitchen... We don't have an actual dining room is what I'm saying.  Anyway, my husband has done such a great job with our kitchen/dining area.  He gutted the whole thing and re-did the plumbing, electrical, dry-wall, floors and so on.  But, he's afraid of finish work.  Which is why we don't have trim around the doors or windowsills in here.  They're naked.  So, in turn, I haven't felt the need to make any window treatments for the windows in here.  But in the evening the sun shoots through this here window and burns the retinas of it's victims.  So I hung up an old embroidered tea towel with a tension rod.  It's actually kind of cute I think.  Cause I'm a girl, and I like cute things. 

I have these little cuties on the no-sill window to keep me company.  I love birds.

My friend MT sent me this hippie weiner dog, it cracks me up every time I look at it.

I also got a wonderful surprise in the mail the other day!  My wonderful friend from Germany, Sabine, sent me a gorgeous home magazine from her country.  Along with a sweet card and two beautiful pieces of fabric.  Sabine is great, we have become such good friends over the past few months and have found that we have so much in common, even though we are from two different parts of the world.  I have so much fun looking at all of the gorgeous pictures in this magazine, even though I can't read a word of it!  Sabine put post-it notes throughout so it was like she was here visiting while we browsed together.  Thank you so much Sabine!

Well, when I can pull myself away from this gorgeous magazine, I will get to my quilting.  I've got a nice mug of tea and will keep the kettle on.

The tools of the trade, hopefully I won't be needing the seam ripper though... wish me luck! x

Back with goodies!

So sorry for my absence my friends!  I've had some computer problems this past week.  My computer is working now, but my wireless internet isn't working yet.  Since my household runs on wireless internet that is a bit frustrating for me.  So I have to use the lovely orange cord that has been fished up from the basement to have internet at the moment.  It's real purty.  But, at least I can still use the computer, lovely orange cord and all... I hate cords.  Anyway, I am here, and please forgive my silence, I'll be spending the next few days catching up on blogs and responding to emails!  So, some good news, my Summer Stash quilt top is done!  Yippee!  I plan on quilting it this afternoon. 

Don't you hate it when you hear about those lucky people that find some wonderful vintage treasure for nothing at a garage sale?  That drives me crazy.  Buuuuuut... I did find these old plates for  $ .25 each when walking the dog the other day.  Please don't be angry with me.  I want everyone to like me...

Let's take a look at them one by one shall we.  They were in a box marked, "chipped plates, 25 cents" .

 

I hung this one up already. 

Now before you start calling me bad names, this one wasn't 25 cents.  I bought this one a few months ago at a thrift store.  Just wanted to show it to you! 

I also found this sweet pillow for the girls' room. 

And this box is from the Goodwill, don't know what it was for, but I like it! 

Now, remember the 25 cent plates?  These were from the same place, and yes, they were 25 cents too.  Now stop giving me the stink eye!  It's not my fault! 

Look at that little guy.  Little things like this completely make my day.  That's how I roll.

I wonder if I could get Mr. Precious to wear some boots....

We got 5 of these old children's magazines.  They are so wonderful!

In the back of each magazine is a calendar. 

Guess what this picture does?  Yep, it makes my day.  "Have some cheese dear... Why thank you!"

Oh, and look at this.  This is one of the treasures that my Mother in-law brought to me.  I haven't opened the box yet.  But look how cute!  I can't wait to set it up for Christmas.  And apparently, it's 'attractive anywhere', so that's a plus...

Happy Monday!

More photos of last weekend...

I took so many pictures of our camping trip last weekend.  I thought I'd share some more of my favorites!

Here's my 4 year old nephew.  You might remember him from here.  He's hilarious.  And very afraid of our puppy.  Whenever she runs up to him he screams and runs away, "NOOOO!"  It cracks us up.  So, when I saw him sit down next to her while she was sleeping, it was fun to watch him do his 4 year old experiments on her....

Touch her tail...

Smoosh her belly...

Lift her leg...

Put it back down...

Lift it higher...

Then put some rocks on her.... and then repeat.

This is my dad's camping truck, "Jr.".  He only uses it to pull his trailer to local camping spots.  Jr. has sure got some character I think.

We have a teeny little trailer.  Our bed is made up from the dinette, and the girls share the couch bed.   It's not fancy and new, but quite cozy when made up with handmade pillow cases and quilts.

I love leaving this window open and listening to the river at night.

When I'm inside cooking breakfast, I often get a little visiter.  "Hi Sar.." he says.  "Take a picture of my cracker." 

Then he decides to help me take some pictures of my coffee.  He adds just the right touch I think.

And then it's home, exhausted, and looking forward to the next trip.  x

A full weekend!

Our 4th of July weekend was spent at the old family property on the river.  Kids, Camping, swimming, fireworks, food and wine.  And unfortunately a bit of rain.  But the kids didn't care, they swam as much as we'd let them. 

I had a great time taking pictures of the kids swimming.  See the little gal on the left smiling at the camera?  That would be my oldest.  That girl will smile at any camera remotely pointed in her direction.  Here below is where she first noticed the camera...

Wow!  Look at that smile, she doesn't even notice her little friend drowning behind her...

He's OK!  And here, still smiling... notice the camera has the opposite effect on her little sister to the right there.  Let's take a look at what little sis does at the sight of the camera...

She notices the camera is lookin' right at her.

This makes the little beast angry.

Veeery angry.

Ugh oh...

Take THAT Mama!!

Here's the creepy 'Blair Witch Project' teepee the kids made.

The puppy had fun picking out little rocks to carry around.

Then my bro made us a teeny little dinner. 

Holy pork ribs!

I have more to share my friends but since this post is getting a bit long, I think I'll split it up and leave some for tomorrow!  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend full of pork ribs family fun! x

You've got to be kidding me...

No you're right, please help me Mr. Precious, you are the quilting expert...no really...sorry if I'm in your way.

That's what I get for trying to work on my Summer Stash quilt!  I turn around for one second....  But I did grab the camera instead of shoo him away, so I guess I'm an enabler.

I did get a block done though.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to put the rest on hold for the weekend.  My Mother in-law is here visiting and we have all kinds of Grandma festivities planned!  But here's a peek of the first block my friends.

I'm so exited about this quilt!  I'm using a great star pattern from the beautiful book, "Blended Quilts II", by Marsha McCloskey.  Such gorgeous and romantic quilts in the 'blended' quilts series. 

And look who's growing up to be such a big girl!  Rosie is 5 months old now.  She's grown so much already.  See her shredded collar, that's the result of the Ultimate Fighting Championships she has with Mr. Precious.....kids... x

A handmade gift.

I recently purchased this great book.  I love it.  It is great for beginners and has so many fabulous patterns.  There are clothes, tote bags, pillows, curtains, and even a dog coat.  I bought this one along with Sew U, because of my sudden and irrational (for me) urge to make clothes.  Go to Amazon and buy this book right now if you want a great sewing book with tons of helpful info.  

The pattern for this sweet elephant is in this book.  I'm so glad I bought this book when I did.  Just in time for me to make the perfect gift for our sweet little friend who had her 3rd birthday this weekend.  The instructions were clear and straightforward, and this little gal went together pretty quickly.  The elephant pattern comes in two sizes, this is the Mommy size.  My girls each want one in the Baby size.  I decided to add a nice fabric bow to finish her off.  But wasn't in love with it, so I changed it to a pink grosgrain ribbon with turquoise ric rac. 

I think she is going to be well loved.  x

making mama proud.

My Mother is a seamstress.  She can sew anything, and sew it beautifully.  When I decided that I wanted to learn to sew years ago she was so exited!  But I've never had an interest in sewing clothes.....whatsoever.  The thought has always given me hives.  But, I found a couple of wonderful books that make me actually exited about making clothes.  One of them is Sew U, by Wendy Mullin.  I know many of you have heard of it.  The book takes beginners step by step through making cute and simple skirts, shirts and pants.  Clothes patterns have always confused me and I thought were a bit vague for someone who was looking at them for the first time.  But this book explains it all.  I also discovered that pattern sizes are nowhere near ready to wear sizes that you get at clothes stores.  I wear an 8 in most of my clothes, (still hanging on to some 6's... damn it.)  But when I take my measurements and look at the size chart for a clothes pattern,  apparently I wear a size 400.  It's a real confidence booster.  But, after a bit of simple sewing, I made my first skirt!  And it fits!  Even though it's a size 410.  I even put in a zipper.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mom!  (just kidding, Mama doesn't smoke a pipe...she quit years ago....kidding again...)

Voila!  A simple a-line skirt.  Now, there are three things I'd like you to notice about this picture.

1.  The kitty feet.
2.  My pasty white legs. 
3.  My horrid flip flop tan lines on my feet.  I wear jeans and flip flops a lot.  Fancy.

I learned a neato tip in one of my new books, not sure which one at the moment.  But, it was great.  To make your fragile tissue paper pattern pieces more sturdy and longer lasting, you can iron fusible interfacing to the back of them!  Then you can hang them in a closet to save for next time.  Genius!

I am wearing this skirt today and it is so comfy, and it came together in an evening.  I see many more in my future.  x

 

We have 2 lucky winners!

Congratulations to Lynne in Hawaii and Cath in UT!  You are the winners!  I had so many nice comments from all of you lovely people, I decided to give away two Amy Butler stacks.  I went to the trusty Random Number Generator and Lynne and Cathe were chosen.  Thank you so much to all of you who commented, it was so fun reading all of your comments.  And I have lots of new blogs to visit!  And to all of you other lovely ladies who left such nice comments, so sorry.... I never win either. x

Summer sewing lesson

My almost 10 year old big girl wants to sew.  Today was her first lesson!  We decided a good first project would be a quilt for her American Girl doll Addy.  Addy grew up during the civil war and was a slave until she and her family gained their freedom.  My girls love reading American Girl books.  I highly recommend them for little girls from any country.  Their stories teach about what it was like to grow up during different times in our American history.  From the 1700's until now.  The stories are all fun and courageous, and have great illustrations.  So, I just happened to have this great printed tumbling blocks print, all civil war reproduction fabrics.  Perfect for Addy.  I quickly sewed the quilt layers together and L's job was the quilting.  She did every bit of it herself.  I'm so proud of her!

She stitched carefully on the trusty old 'Star Performer'.  My very first sewing machine.  I bought this machine from QVC when she was a baby.  I have since graduated to my fancy shmancy Bernina's.  Yes, that means more than one.  Hey, you've all seen my fabric, I have a problem.  Anyhoo, this machine brings back all of the fun and frustrating memories of learning how to sew.

Isn't Addy beautiful?  I love her cozy wool socks and flannel nightgown.

A little tip for you new quilting ladies:  To get the antique puckered look, I never prewash my fabrics and use 100% cotton fabric and batting.  That way, it all shrinks up a bit after washing, which creates great old fashioned puckers.  But it is very important to use high quality quilt shop fabrics and to switch to the dryer right away after washing.  This greatly reduces the risk of fabrics bleeding.  I only really worry about red fabrics bleeding, and since I wash in cold and switch to the dryer quickly, I've never had a problem.  This was a quick and fun project, my little quilter feels such a sense of accomplishment.  Sleep tight Addy.

Bunting and buffet....and more fabric...no kidding.

I finished something!  I started painting this buffet a few months ago.  I took off the doors, sanded it, and primed it.  Then it sat.  And sat.  Sat sat sat.  So this weekend I decided to put on my big girl panties and finish it! 

Now take a close gander and see what else I have to finish.  The wall is painted 3/4 of the way up.  The paint has been stripped from the window sill.  See at the bottom of the wall there?  Yup, the baseboard is missing.  We are in the slow 'do it yourself' process of renovating our little home.  It's a small craftsman cottage, built in 1934.  I love my house.  I don't love renovations.  But we are making slow and steady progress.  We have refinished all of the floors, my husband has replaced all of the electrical wiring and plumbing.  He also gutted and rebuilt the bathroom and kitchen.  They are now beautiful.  I really wish I could have seen the original kitchen.  When we moved in it was an unfortunate 1970's type remodel.  And not in a good way.  Anyhoo, this is a little nook inbetween the living room and the kitchen.  Mr. Precious has claimed his sunny spot. 

It's too bright!!  Look at his eyes.  Doesn't he look eeeeeevil? 

His kitty feet don't look evil.  I love kitty feet.  Except when they track kitty litter onto my couch. 

A view from the living room.  The blinds in the living room were closed so it looks super dark in there.  But the nook is shining!  Here is the bunting I made for my little K's birthday.  We decided to leave it up for the summer.

And now my dear friends.  I'm just going to lay it all out here for ya.  Prepare yourselves.

If you've made it this far without throwing up....I thank you.  I'm about to put you over the edge. 

Yes, these are bolts.  Please forgive me, I know not what I do.  Let's all stop what we're doing and have a moment of silence...... I feel better don't you!?  Now, I'd like to share the pain.  So I think a giveaway is in order!  Come on, everybody's doing it!  So please say hello in the comments section and I'll enter you to win a stack of lovely Amy Butler fat quarters from this stack of bolts.  I'll give you all a couple of days and choose a winner on Thursday morning.  Now go out and buy some more fabric for your stash, it'll make me feel better. x