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

Cause it's more fun than laundry, that's why.

You know the feeling you have when you have a million things to get done around the house?  And it all seems to be growing exponentially?  If you're anything like me, you'll resolve to spend the day getting things done.  First up, the laundry.  You'll get on top of it today if it's the last thing you do.  With resolve you gather every last dark piece of clothing from around the house (or whites, whatever floats your boat) into your two arms cause you don't want to empty the laundry basket that is already full of clean clothes from last week... that you haven't yet folded, they're all wrinkly and such.  You try to get to the laundry room without killing yourself.  Of course you can't really see any dangers in your path (the cat) due to the huge amount of clothes in your arms covering your face.  But alas, you do finally get there, after many dropped socks (which are all properly cursed at). 

Now you feel like you've accomplished a little something, so you might as well go to your sewing room for a little break.  Then you end up perusing Etsy and finding the cutest embroidery pattern in the world.  For only $4 you can't resist purchasing it.  To make a long story a little shorter, as soon as the pattern was mailed to my inbox I was tracing the pattern onto some muslin and happily choosing felt and embroidery floss.  Did I have time for this nonsense?  No.  Do I really care?  Nope.  Am I happily stitching on an adorable cuckoo clock?  Yes.  Am I thrilled at the fact that there are jackalopes involved?  Absolutely. 

I love wool felt.  It makes me happy.  I ordered this stack from this wonderful Etsy shop.  She has so many gorgeous colors, it's hard to choose which ones to get!  My embroidery floss also makes me happy.  I won this super silky Cosmo floss from my friend Monica's giveaway last year.  Wow, it's sooo nice.  It costs more, but is so enjoyable to stitch with. 

I am messy.  But creative messes make me happy.  Unlike kitchen messes which were supposed to be cleaned up after the laundry.  Hey, that's what kids are for right? 

I'm slowly working on getting this quilt pieced too.  We're still (still!!) wrapping up the end of our homeschool year.  Only a couple weeks left!  Woohoo!  Then I'm hoping to get caught up on some quilts.  Of course, I always say that.  I know I'll be outside doing yardwork, going on camping trips, and canning jam.  Maybe finishing the laundry (that was a joke). 

I don't feel too guilty about stitching when I should really be doing other things.  It really recharges my mommy batteries.  Then when I do get back to housework, teaching my children algebra and cleaning up cat barf, I have more of a skip in my step, even a sense of calm.  After all, the little things really are the big things aren't they? 

I hope you give into some creative distractions this week.  Who needs clean socks anyway?  x

 

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

Getting in some sewing time.

I know I've been a little scarce around here lately.  Scarce visiting all of you fab gals too.  We're trying to wrap up our homeschool year, not that we're behind....ok, we're really behind.  But the end is in sight and my girls and I can't wait to start our summer break!

Here's my most recent Blythe doll creation.  A sweet little summer dress with an embroidered ribbon bodice.  Every girl needs a summer wardrobe, even really little ones with unusually large noggins.

Do you see all of that loveliness that Miss Josie is perched upon? 

Yes it's Monica's new fabric line!  And let me tell you this, it is divine.  You will love it, because I love it, and I think you and I have a lot in common.  I can't tell you how exited I am to have this lovely stack sitting right here in my little old sewing room.  I put myself on the wait list to purchase some Happy Holiday at the Fat Quarter Shop when it is available in July, but then the fabric fairy smiled upon me and "Poof!" here it is.  I'll get to tell you more around Christmas time as there is a super special secret involved!!  :)  Anyhoo, head on over to FQS and put yourself on the wait list, cause you need some of this loveliness.  

So here's my latest project start, and soon to be finished, hallelujah.  For my baby nephew.

The little novelty fabrics are sock monkeys swimming.  I'll show close-ups later, they're so cute!

Thank you so much for visiting and as always for all of your thoughtful comments.  Have a wonderful week friends! 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