Anyone Can Quilt

Can you guess what this is?

My great-grandma Crystal made it in 1982, when I was 7 years old. 

I remember visiting her cozy little house at Christmastime and staring at each and every piece of costume jewelry.  I thought it was wonderful.  And I still do. 

My great-grandma Crystal made all kinds of neat things.  She was always crafting something.  She wasn't one to sew though.  Go figure. 

My favorite piece on this jewelry tree is the little heart locket above, with the flower on it.  Because inside is a picture that was very special to her.  A picture of her little boy.  My great uncle, Elmer.  

Isn't that sweet?  It was a nice surprise to find. 

I think my great-gran was quite the fashionista!  OOh, look at the one with the coral roses!

She's propped up in my sewing room, for Stuart and I to enjoy.

You haven't forgotten about Stuart have you?  He's my little blue angel.

He's finally gotten his big bird feathers and has such a pretty yellow face.  He lost all of his striped baby bird feathers that went all the way down to his little bird nose, and the fluffy soft yellow feathers took their place. 

He even has his own Charlie Brown Christmas tree. 

Silly Stuart's favorite thing to do is grab this chain with his foot, and shake it back and forth, over and over...and over.  He loves the sound of the dice (die?) clanking against his perch.  It cracks me up. 

And now my friends, I will leave you with a photo of my wonderful Christmas gift.  You know the kind.  The kind that you purchase yourself on Ebay quickly because it looked so good, and there were only a few minutes left in the auction when you found it.  And it was such a great price you would be angry that some other lucky gal got her dirty paws on it and you didn't?  And theeen, you called your husband to tell him he bought you just what you wanted for Christmas?  (Or you wait till he gets home from work to tell him because you are feeling just a smidge guilty.)

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Here she is.  My very own vintage Singer Featherweight!  I'm in love with this little machine.  She is beautiful and sews like a dream.  She's so tiny, shiny and pretty; I love her.  Did I need another sewing machine?  Yes.  Yes I did.  So there.  I'll do a full post on her soon and tell you all about her. 

I drank the featherweight kool-aid.  And I blame all of the fabulous women who have them at our annual quilt retreat.  You know who you are.  (Karen, Connie, Robin and Mary!)

Until next time, happy sewing!  xoxo

goodbye summer....Mama wants some fall.

I made some beautiful strawberry jam.  I love the color!  And I looooove the quilted jam jars I found.  They scream cozy cottage kitchen to me. 

As does my mother's childhood apron.  It's was handmade by her grandma Martha.

'K' for Kirstie, rhymes with thirsty.  Now little sis wears this apron. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed summer.  Now I am anticipating fall with such excitement!  I look so forward to fall and winter, my favorite times of the year.  Crisp air, falling leaves, chimney smoke, baking and a cozy fire.  Today is cool and fall-ish as I stand on my front porch.

This is my view of downtown.  The brownish pile across the river there is made up of thousands of logs.  There is a paper mill just down the river.  I love watching the trees change on the little mountain as the year goes by.

Fall flowers on the porch.  Hey!  Where did those flies come from?  They are tainting my fall flowers moment.  How dare they.

Now I know this it's too early for Halloween decorations.  But, I was so inspired by the cutest Halloween charm pack that my friend MT got for me.  I had to make a banner. 

And I had to hang it up.  Already.

Aaaand I'm not taking it down.  

This charm pack is Haunted Mansion by Moda.  The charm pack came with 42 charms, so one on the front and back of each flag made a nice long banner of 21 flags.  This was such a quick and fun sewing project!

There is also some fall knitting going on in these parts.

Arm warmers for big sis, she requested thumb holes.  So thumb holes it is.  I love this color.

There is also lots of coffee and tea drinking from this fall mug!  I love this mug, I snatched a set of these up from a local thrift store.  These are the exact same type of Fire King mugs that my grandma Marlys and grandpa Carl  had when I was little.  They make me think of them whenever I use them.  I remember my brother and I waking up early when we would spend the night at my grandparents house when we were very little, I was about 3 or 4.  We would walk into their room in the morning and stand at the side of their bed and silently stare at them until they woke up.  Then grandma would go to the kitchen and make coffee for them both.  We would be silly and make our grandparents laugh as they drank their coffee in bed.  

Ok, back to school.  We started our home school year already.  It's so nice to be back on a schedule. 

A schedule that I've got to fit these arm warmers into.  They're almost done.

I hope you're as ready for fall as I am! x

A mini finish!....plus I'm still alive.

Hello all!  It's good to be back.  I feel like I've been running like crazy lately, and running three steps behind.  I can't complain though, as the cause of my busy life is the greatest gift of my life: motherhood.  Next week we'll see if I make it through hell week dance performance week.  Rehearsals and performances from Monday thru Sunday.... it's a loooong week for us mamas with hours every day spent waiting in the 'black box', but it's all worth it when we see all of their hard work as they perform on stage.  

Ok, back to the mini quilt!  This thing is so small I added the borders, quilted and bound it all last evening.  So yes, the dinner dishes are still in the sink.

Well hi there little fella.

Those tiny umbrellas above are my favorite fabric in this quilt. 

It's Blythe sized!  Blythe dolls are just so much fun!  But we need a better picture so see her huge eyeballs. 

She's sweet, but also has a little bit of an attitude problem. 

You know those people who come across a great thrift store or estate sale find?  Who come home with bags of vintage notions?  And you want to stomp your feet and and call them jerks because you never get to find and rescue those treasures?

Call me a jerk:

Go ahead I deserve it...

The jumbo aqua ricrac may have just pushed you over the edge... I'm an a-hole.

I brought home bags of goodies.  Each bag has some treasures, and some not so fabulous stuff.  It's so fun to rifle through them, it's like a treasure hunt!

I even bought a huge bag of doll heads because I saw these staring back at me from somewhere in the middle.  I think I was high on account of the abundance of ricrac.

I know, I'm letting my crazy show.  No idea what these will become, but they totally crack me up. 

 

So, back to my day.  My nephew is going to spend the afternoon with us.  The precious boy who is in kindergarten, is suspended for the day because he attempted to give one of his classmates a wedgie...that's my boy.  The girls and I may just have to teach him the art of the 'swirly' this afternoon.  The boy can't have too many skills!  

 

p.s.  I've been trying unsuccessfully to leave comments on some blogger/blogspot blogs for the past couple of weeks.  "Open id error" keeps appearing.  Don't know what that's about but I'll keep trying! xoxo

Treasures all around.

I've been sidetracked again.  Now it's with these fun little dresdens.  Ooooh they're so fun!

Also have some vintage sheet coffee cozies on the assembly line.  They're almost finished! 

So I had my 35th birthday last Friday.   My thoughtful friends always spoil me with the most special gifts.  Look what M.T. made for me!

Isn't it great?  Little sewing machines!  I love love love this quilt so much.  It makes me smile every time I glance at it. 

This quilt is soooo special.  My sweet friend Sabine made something for me too:

Oh gosh!  Could this be any cuter?  I love the little scallops around the cupcake.  She also sent me this very special book.  My friend Sabine is German and I have started to 'try' to learn some German!  It's been really fun.  So imagine how I laughed when I opened this next gift:

This will surely help me!!  It's a kindergarten book from the 1950's.  I have spent so much time looking at the illustrations. 

I love this one above.  The creepy little boy is spitting something and the girl in the yellow dress is running away in disgust.  Warms the heart.  Oooh, and look at the photo above this one, check out the dead fox hanging next to the gentleman in the green coat, smoking his pipe next to the children.  Love it!

Now my friends, brace yourselves for some extreme cuteness.  My girls have new pets.  We just got them yesterday.  Please meet Cher and Mindy, they are two months old.

 

Oh gosh.  Little guinea pigs, or as my friend Sabine calls them, Meerschweinchen. 

Meet Cher, she has crazy red hair and she is very outgoing and eats a lot.

Cher is a cheeky little punk. Now please say hello to Mindy:

Look at her little face!  Mindy is quiet and more sensible than her friend.  She is taking us all in and not showing off like you know who.  And she looks like a teeny little beaver!!

We are already having so much fun with these girls!  Do you think they'd snuggle under little piggy sized quilts?

Have a wonderful Thursday my friends! x

Once upon a time...

... there was a shiny new sewing machine.  Fresh out of the Elizabeth, NJ factory in 1923.  She was a sturdy gal, and ever so lovely.  She was powered by a treadle, and was always reliable while mothers made clothes for daughters, and patient while little girls spent hours learning to sew.  She was loved for many years and was brought from house to house and even traveled all the way across the country.   She was happily handed down to grown up daughters.  

 

When this precious sewing machine was about 50 years old, she was sold to a new family.  She would miss the kind family that she was used to, but bravely moved on and did her job proudly. 

 

As the years went by, she seemed to spend more of her time sitting quietly in the background, and was used less and less.  Finally she was replaced all together by modern electric machines.  Each year she continued to gather dust, dirt and spiderwebs.   She wasn't so shiny and lovely anymore, but she didn't care too much about that.   What she really longed for was to sew, to be useful again. 

 

Then one foggy fall day she found herself in the back of a car!  She was being moved again after all of these years. 

She was set in a special spot in a warm sewing room, and her new owner got to work, carefully scrubbing her clean.  She was beginning to feel like herself again.  Even her wood was polished, and each gear carefully oiled.  There was something familiar about her new owner, she reminded her of her first family.  She couldn't believe she was being fussed over so!   And then it happened... she began to sew, happily purring along with every perfect stitch.  She was home.

 

 

Please say hello to my new sewing machine my friends!  I am over the moon.  I still can't believe how she came to be mine.  Not too horribly long ago my family was visiting an old church in our little town.  It's not our church, but the one that my grandparents belonged to when I was a baby, before they moved from Oregon to Texas.  While we were there a kind old woman came over to say hello, and in conversation I told her who my grandparents were.  She fondly remembered them and then she asked me a question. 

"I have your grandmother's old treadle sewing machine, would you like to have it?"  ---

I can't believe it, after more than 30 years of selling the old machine, that has been in my family ever since my mom can remember, and that could have been gone forever, is in my sewing room.  My great-grandma Martha's machine.  The very machine that my mother, and probably her mother, used to learn to sew on.   My mom was so exited when I told her.  She can't wait to see it. 

 

It's got an electric light on the back.  Ooh so fancy!  The plug was all smooshed so my sweet husband got right to work and attached a new plug for me.  Good as new!

 

 

 

 

She really does have perfect stitches!  My little girls even took her for a spin.  They told me that this is the only machine they want to sew on from now on!!... Unless they get a Hello Kitty sewing machine... of course.

 

 

 

 

There are even left overs in the drawers!  And some CRAZY looking feet.  I vow to learn what the french toast they are for, and how to use them. 

 

 

Can you tell that I'm beaming?  While playing with my great-grandSinger I came up with a little idea.  I like being able to have patterns for whatever project I'm working on up and out of the way of my work space, but so I can still see them while I'm working.  So this idea popped into my head this morning. 

Take one old wash board, (thanks mom!!) and some pretty magnets, and voila!

 

 

 

 

Enough pictures for ya?  Admitting I have a problem is the first step...

 I can't stop myself.  Here's one for the road.

 

Thank you all so much for spending a little bit of your day with me!  I'm hoping to crawl out of my 'I'm really far behind on everything and can't seem to catch up' hole and get caught up on all of your fabulous blogs this weekend. 

That, and do some old school sewing on my new machine.  Really it's not mine, it belongs to the wonderful women in my family, past and future.  I'm just thankful she made it back to us, and that I get to be her caretaker for awhile.  x