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

Super sweet Christmas gifts...and a visit from the Christmas Bunny..

My sweet mama made me a beautiful gift.  The most beautiful gifts are handmade aren't they?  As soon as I held these in my hands I couldn't wait to share them with you.  These really inspired me to make kitchen-y Christmas gifts for the ladies in my family this year...which I haven't actually started sewing yet.  Of course.

Look how sweet!  Fabric adorned kitchen towels and a potholder to match.  Love it.  Mom bought a few yards of this kitchen toweling at a quilt shop last year and this is what she's done with it. 

These go perfectly in my kitchen.  Which I would show you, but it's a mess.  I will show you my sweet new gingham curtains though!  I've had the fabric for these for ages, but never got around to them.  Somehow they magically appeared on my windows when my mom was here visiting this fall.  Funny how that happens.

Unfortunately, the trim around my windows didn't get magically painted while she was here.  The trim was finished this summer, but and are still the primer white.  They look nice until you get up close, then it's quite obvious that they need to be painted. 

See above?  Totally needs paint.  Which I have and has been sitting in the kitchen for months.  I'm a loser. 

Thankfully even though I'm a loser, my sweet German friend Sabine loves me anyway.  And she surprised me with THE most lovely gift this week.  I opened this and almost fainted.

She stitched and framed this for me!!  It's hanging near the kitchen table right now, so that I can see it all day while the girls and I do school.  It's a bit dark in the kitchen, not good lighting so I haven't gotten a great picture of it yet.  I'll do a proper photo shoot soon, but couldn't help but get it up on the wall as soon as possible!  It kills me it's so cute. 

I love this so much.  Making dinner has been so much more enjoyable since I take little trips to see my new Christmas stitchery!  I can't thank you enough Sabine!!  xoxo

Now, making dinner is also pretty fun because I get to hang out with the Christmas bunny.  Charles aka Foofy is his name(s).  This month he is officially known as the Christmas bunny.  Soon he will be the New Year Bunny, then the Presidents Day bunny and let's not forget the Easter bunny. 

It's a bit difficult to get a good picture of an active Christmas bunny.  The next one is blurry, but you get a good idea why I call him Foofy.

He's a fluffy little angel.  His cage is actually in the kitchen/dining area.  It's really the best place for him.  He was in my daughter's room, but he likes being in the kitchen so much, and uses a litter box every time he has to go potty, so it made sense to move him down here.  When we're home he literally just hangs out in the kitchen.  He LOVES attention, especially head rubs. 

It's so hard to get him still for a picture!  So I asked my daughter to rub his head so he'd sit still for a minute.  As soon as she stopped,

Christmas bunny on the move!

We put this rug down on the tile floor in the kitchen.  That way he can get traction for his acrobatic jumps, since he has such fluffy feet that slide on the tile. 

Ok, time for me to get back to work.  School, then into town for the girls' dance lessons, then home to make dinner with the Christmas bunny.  Then, if I can push aside my loser-ish tendencies, I will head to the sewing room to get started on some Christmas gifts.  That or sit on the couch with a glass of wine.  x

 

 

Happy Halloween from Prairie Dog Rosie!

This year Rosie is a prairie dog.  She's so happy about her costume, can't you tell?

What kind of a face is that?  I think she was mocking me.

Oh how I do look forward to Halloween.  When I get to put a hat on my dog and take pictures.  What's the fun of having a patient little dog if you don't take embarassing pictures of her?  She's such a good girl!  Now it's time for some treats and cuddles for playing along. 

Happy Halloween! x

Crisp air, chimney smoke, cozy quilts...

Fall makes me so happy.  I feel like I wait all year for the leaves to start changing.  Happiness to me means cool crisp days, smoke coming out of chimneys, fog in the mountains, apple spice candles.... you get the picture.  I could go on forever.  I always have a quilt hanging behind the couch, one for each season.  I was so excited to put up my fall/Halloween quilt this year.  Which is actually a sight to see cause I'm barely tall enough to stand on my smooshy couch and clip the thing up there.  I have to use my mind powers to finish the task.  

The border fabric is my favorite.  It's an old Thimbleberries print.  My next 'fall' quilt is actually my vintage sheet quilt.  The backing is an old floral sheet with nice fall colors.  I just fold it up with the backing out.  It's an accidental fall quilt.

It's summer on the inside!

I also have an old fall quilt on the little couch.  I think this is the second quilt that I made with an actual pattern, many moons ago.  While making this quilt, I learned about the importance of squaring up  blocks.  It was a nightmare, and I'm surprised it's swirly quilting doesn't include bad words.  Really bad ones. 

Rosie is happy that fall has come around again too, because she knows the fire will be going.  And she deserves some spoiling.  The poor thing had surgery in her mouth to remove a cracked, absessed molar.  Half of her little face was all swollen...it was sad.  But she's all better now, and content by the fire. 

Can you see the hot dog princess lounging?  She'll be there all day. 

As will this little one.  Only he likes to lay on the arm of the couch.  He's been angry with me because I've been having to give him medicine.  Poor guy has had more urinary tract problems.  :(

If you enjoy the little things, as I do, then you'll know how happy I was to find this little plate at Goodwill years ago. 

I was also happy to pull out my little crow door hanger.  Made a few years ago from a pattern in American Patchwork and Quilting.  I've had to re-attatch the bells though.  Neighborhood cats played with them and pulled them off.  I wonder if they'll find them again this year.  The little stinkers.

Happy fall, I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.  x

 

 

 

An oldie but a goodie, and look at that weird little dog.

Hello my friends!  I have been such an absentee blogger these past few months.  You're all so sweet to stick with my infrequent postings.  I seem to go through phases of frequent inspiration and blogging, and then bouts of....well the opposite of that.  The quilting inspiration is still there, but sometimes I can't make myself take pictures and get them onto the computer.  So today I said, enough is enough!  I need to get something on this here blog!  So I pulled one of my favorite old quilts off of the couch and asked my girls to hold it up on the front porch for me. 

Apparently, Rosie wanted to help hold the quilt up.  But she's just too short.  And she doesn't have opposable thumbs.

"A little higher on the right please!"  She's so helpful. 

"Yo de la hee hooooooo!!!!"  She also has a fabulous yodeling voice. 

"What's that?!"  Does someone dare walk down the sidewalk on this fine summer day?  She might have to give them a what's for if they recklessly decide to walk in front of our house. 

False alarm, wait, is that a bug?

Do I smell an earthworm perhaps?  I like to roll around on a nice earthworm. 

I'll go check it out. 

What's that!? 

Oh that silly little girl of ours.  She cracks us up.  As do all of our animals.  We have six now.  SIX!!  That's a lot for us.  Dog, cat, two guinea pigs, rabbit, and a bird.  Phew.  But we love them all.  Poor kitty had to go to the vet recently, turns out he has a urinary tract infection, and a yeast infection in his ears.  Horrors, poor thing.  I've been enjoying giving him his medications as you can imagine (to him, ear drops = pure hell, and to make it even more evil, the ear drops have to be refrigerated).  Good times, I just love cat wrestling.

Now I'm worried about all of the neighborhood cats who hang around my house, the little angels who poop in my flowers.  They're always outside, I think most of them are stray cats, so they have noone to take care of them.  Noone to notice if they aren't feeling well.  I worry about these things.  I wish I could round up all of the stray cats, put them on a kitty bus, and get them checkups. 

Anyhoo, sorry to bore you with all of that.  About the quilt, it's one of my favorite patterns.  Super easy, but looks interesting still.  It's made of 5" charm squares, with little 2 1/2" squares sewn diagonally onto two opposite corners, then flipped back to make little triangles.  I'm wanting to make another one of these for the summer, I have the perfect charm packs waiting, Rose Parade by Moda.  The fabrics are so summery and cheerful.  I'll do a quick tutorial when I start that quilt for any beginning quilters who'd like to see how it's put together.  It's really easy!

I hope you're having wonderful weather, and that all of your furry and feathered sweeties are healthy.  And thank you for all who told wonderful bird stories on my post about little Stewart, I loved reading them!! xo