thrifting

Gosh, it seems like I am barely blogging these days. It's not really that I'm that busy, it's just that I haven't really done any creating lately. Anyway, we had a great Memorial Day weekend and I think I'm still recovering from it. We had a BBQ here on Sunday that I still have dirty dishes from. I'm hoping the magic dish fairy will come finish them for me.

On Monday, my sister and I ventured out to the thrift store because everything was 50% off. There were tons of people, but I managed to find some really great stuff. I don't know about you, but whenever I see pretty dishes I have a really hard time leaving them behind. If only I needed all of them! I did pick up quite a few, but I plan on listing them all in my vintage etsy shop. I just don't have the room to keep them around but I couldn't leave them at the thrift store! I really think there needs to be a support group for this problem.

Most of these items were designed by Ben Seibel and there were a lot more of his designs at the thrift store too. I was just imagining that someone was a huge collector of his stuff and that it was given to the thrift store. I mean there was so much of it there!

At the last minute, I also found this really cute apron which I couldn't pass up. It's reversible, the one side has lace and the other has the cutest bird print fabric with blue strawberries! It even has pockets on both sides. My sister looked at me like I was crazy when I picked it up, but I still love it! I guess she doesn't appreciate aprons as much as I do. It's a terrible photo, aprons are so hard to take pictures of!

I guess I'll go finish the dishes since it seems that fairy isn't coming today. What's on your agenda for today?

back

So we're back. Actually we got back from Milwaukee Tuesday afternoon and I have been playing catch up ever since. John went back to work on Wednesday for the first time since his transplant and he also had a PET scan today, both of which were really stressing me out! We got good news today though, so I'm feeling much better and feel like I can actually get something accomplished. I'm happy to have a long weekend coming up and my family will be in town so it will be good to just hang out and relax.

We had a great trip to Milwaukee although I never expected it to be so windy there! Thank you all for your suggestions. We visited the Public Museum, Lakefront Brewery, some great restaurants, and Isaiah and I went to the Children's Museums. All were great, especially the Brewery. They have so many delicious beers and it was very entertaining.

Anyway, I'm finally getting around to uploading the rest of the things from the craft fair. These are the remaining crayon rolls which were pretty much the only thing I sold at the fair. With any luck I'll get them up on etsy today. They'll be $12 each or 2 for $20, so if you like any, I'd be happy to reserve them for you.

Alright, that's all. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Road Trip!

We're heading off to Milwaukee tomorrow for my brother in law's graduation from college. John and I decided it would be best to drive out there so that John could avoid being in an airplane with who knows how many sick people. He still have the immune system of a baby, so we need to be really cautious. Anyway, I am very excited for many reasons. One, this is the first trip that we have taken since last summer, since John's relapse. It feel so good that he is allowed to go further than an hour away. Second, I've never been to that area of the U.S. before (well actually, I went to Chicago once, but I'm not going to count it) and I really love road trips. I'm taking along several projects with the hope that I'll get some finished objects. I'll be working on some Dear Jane blocks that need to be appliqued and then this luscious yarn that has been sitting around my house since the fall. I still need to find something to make with it though. Any suggestions?

Speaking of suggestions, anyone know of anything fun to do or an absolute must see while we're in Milwaukee? We'll be there for almost a week so I'm sure we'll need something to do! We might try to stop at Indiana Dunes on the way back. Has anyone been there? Just want to know if it's worth it.

I'll be back next week, hopefully with lots of finished things to show!

spring to finish

I've decided to join the Spring to Finish 2 hosted by Jacquie. I have so many unfinished projects and I really need the motivation to finish them. I figured if I write it down I'll be more committed to finishing them up. Among them are :

a special quilt for John
a quilt from Amanda Jean's first quilt along (how long ago was that!?!)
Isaiah's quilt
Mother's Day gifts
oh, and several bags and dopp kits

I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to focus on getting through this list first. I just checked and I can't believe that quilt along was a year and a half ago! Crazy. Time to get on it!

I have done some sewing the last few days. I finished up my 16 nine patches for the three by three swap hosted by Anina. These are a lot of fun to make and you can make a lot of them pretty quickly.

I also finished up these two reusable snack bags. One with this adorable owl fabric and one with some dinosaur fabric I've had around for a while. They're both in the shop if you're interested.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm headed to the farmer's market to get some fresh donuts and it looks like the sun is finally out. whoohooo! I'm sick of rain!

May Blocks

This month for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee we are making two blocks. Colleen sent these gorgeous fabrics from the Anna Griffin Darcey line. She likes stripes, squares in squares, white spaces, so this is what I came up with. I really love this fabric. I think I might have to get some of my own.

Allison sent fabric to make this circle block using the drunkard's path pattern. I was a little nervous about sewing curves, even after making my doll quilt because it has to be a particular size. Anyway, it came out o.k. and only a few parts don't match up. Allison promises that she doesn't mind though, so it's all good.

Both of them are going to have great quilts! Check out the rest of the blocks in the flickr group.

Doll quilt finished

I managed to finish up the doll quilt by Saturday morning and even got it in the mail. Usually I'm not so motivated to get to the post office, but since I was already a day late in mailing, I figured I had to. It is such a relief now to have it done and sent off. Now I have to wait to see if my partner likes it!

Here's the details on how I did this. Pretty simple really. I cut 6" squares of 6 different fabrics and stacked them together. Then I just used my rotary cutter to them into 4 different sections using curved cuts. Then I just rearranged the stacks and sewed them together. I had to do a lot of straightening after cutting to make them into blocks, but they ended up being like 4.5" squares. I used Kona snow white and 2 extra blocks for the back because I wanted to keep it simple and I quilted it using a circular "pattern." I tried doing this free motion, but it came out really, really messy. I really need to practice free motion because I haven't quite gotten hang of it yet.

I'm still patiently waiting for my quilt from the swap to show up. I'll be sure to show it off when it arrives. Have a happy Monday!