Liebster Award

I won my first blog award!  I am so excited.  I think it is an award for bloggers with less that 200 followers to help more people find them.  And if you found me, I am so happy you are here.  

This award was given to me by Eva who is super talented and has a beautiful blog that you better go look at if you haven't seen it yet. 

So now as the award dictates I will tell you 11 facts about me.  I tried to give facts that aren't on my more about me page. 

1. I am allergic to most animals (including dogs) and the list keeps growing.
2. I love animals.
3.  I have had two dogs in my adult life and plan to get another when we have room.
4. I have my Masters in Social Work.
5. I work two days a week as a clinical social worker.
6. My first sewing machine (which was pretty basic)  was an impulse internet purchase when I finished graduate school and started working.
7. Before I had kids,  I worked occasionally as a farm feeder and used that money to buy my current sewing machine (it does automatic buttonholes and has decorative stitches).
8. I love to make puppets with my kids and do puppet shows.
9.  We are starting to make costumes and do plays to.
10. I love ice cream.
11.  I tried making ice cream once and it was gross.

Here are Eva's questions and my answers:

1. Which country would you live in if you had the choice ? Why ?  I think I would stay where I am now in the United States.  I love the town I live in.  It is on the coast but not too far from some cities.  And our family is here.  I don't think I could be happier anywhere else.  I am sorry to have such a boring answer.
2. If you were to have your last drink, what would that be ? I don't drink alcohol so it would have to be a chocolate milkshake.
3. If you were a season, what would that be ?  This is a tough question since I love them all.  Probably the fall.
4. What is your earliest memory of crafting ? Do you remember what you made ? I remember in the first grade we made what I think was called a scented spice rope.   We braided yarn which was when I learned how to braid.  I had forgotten all about it until just now.
5. What is the film you have watched over and over and still could watch over and over  and how many time you have watched it so far ?  The Sound of Music
6. What is your favourite book ever ? The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
7. What is your favourite colour ? I can't pick one.  Red and blue are tied for first place.
8. Which time of the day is 'your' crafting time ? Very early in the morning every day.  When I am not working nap time is my crafting time too.
9. If you had to interview a 'crafting' or blogging 'hero' for you, who would that be ? This is also a tie.  I would love to interview quilters Sarah Fielke or Mary from Molly Flanders.
10. Louis Vouiton or Cath Kidston ? This is the easiest question.  Cath Kidston!
11. When it comes to interior do you go for: Modern or Traditional ? neither-I go for a country/cottage style. 


Here are my 11 nominees:
1.Sharon @ Sweet Peas and Pumpkins
2. Grace @ Fun Little Things
3. Chigu @ Chigu's Handmade Time
4. Delilah @ Love.Laugh.Sew.
5. Where is my Instruction Manual
6. Carmel @ Solomon Sewing
7. Emma Louisa @ Emma's Bloglet
8.Nana @ Ein Quilt für die Rechte der Frauen!
9. Lisa @ Stuff Mommy Makes
10. Cristali Designs
11. Cindy @ Siestas and Sewing

And here are my 11 questions:

1.  What is/are your favorite craft book(s)?
2. What are your favorite craft magazines?
3. What are your favorite craft materials ( ex. what are your favorite fabrics, yarns, threads)?
4. Do you have a favorite gift that you made someone? What is it?
5. Do you have a favorite handmade gift that you received? What is it?
6. What is your favorite room in your home and why?
7. What TV show can you not miss?
8. Did you have a favorite toy as a child or have a favorite toy that belongs to your child? What is it?
9. Which do you prefer? Mountains or the ocean?
10. What is your favorite cookie?
11. Where is your favorite place to shop for clothes?

I can't wait to read everyone's answers and get to know everyone better.
Thank you Eva for picking me!  I think you should have to answer my questions too :)

Simple Sewn Gifts

This is the latest craft book I have bought.  It is Simple Sewn Gifts by Helen Philipps.  She has a new book out.  This isn't her new one which is called Pretty Patchwork Gifts.  I am trying to get caught up and will be getting it soon.   This book has so many beautiful projects in it.  I have quite a few gifts I do need to make people and I plan to make many of the projects in this book.  Here are three of my favorite projects.

I have been wanting to make my kids stockings since they were born.  I haven't found one that I really felt like I had to make until I saw this one.

This doll quilt will be the first project in the book that I will make.  My niece turns two in two months and I think this doll quilt will be perfect.  It has little patches of cross-stitch on it.  Cross-stitch and I have had a rough start but I think these little patches are so small that it would be a great new starting point.  I already have a few yo-yo's made without a purpose and I think this quilt will be perfect.

I have been wanting to make a doll or stuffed animal of some kind for a long time now.  It is one of goals for this year to finally make one.  I am not sure who I will give this to.  Maybe the bunny will be a gift to me.  I think he would like to sit in the rocker on my porch. 

This is such a lovely book.  But I know you can already tell from what I have shown. 

Around the House

I can't believe it is Friday of my vacation week.  This week has flown by.  I have had so much fun this week playing with my kids, making food, crafting, and trying to fix up my blog.  I wanted to share some links for some delicious recipes.  I made this clam chowder the other day.  Don't make it if you are worried about calories or fat.  It has half and half in it and bacon.  But it is yummy.  I used chicken broth instead of water otherwise I followed the directions.  I should have decreased the salt because I added the chicken broth but I forgot.  This recipe I made this morning.  My husband and I both love it.  And today I am looking forward to making Eva's homemade pizza dough.  I have always wanted to make my own dough.

Yesterday we spent a lot of time making puppets, puppet show scenery, and doing puppet shows.  We had so much fun.  And then last night Luke and I couldn't wait any longer.  I started to teach him to sew (with a blunt needle).  I just gave him two pieces of the kid's (cheap) felt and a threaded needle.  He did a great job.

I think a lied a few days ago when I said the green and red quilt is my favorite.  I just like it because it came out with no visible mistakes.  But it doesn't have my favorite colors.  This quilt top I have made for Stella is probably my favorite although it is not finished.

I just really love the colors and the fabrics.  I used fabrics from the Cabbages and Roses Athill range and the turning twenty again pattern.  It was a quick and easy pattern.  You don't have to worry about anything matching up.  With the borders the quilt is larger than a twin size.  I have it folded in the picture so it looks a little smaller.  I might be tempted to steal this quilt for my bed but I don't think it goes with the bedroom furniture we have.   I have not been in a rush to quilt it since Stella is not even in a toddler bed yet.  She is still in her crib and hopefully will be in it for a while.

This weekend I plan to a review a very beautiful book.  Please come back and see it.

My First Wordless Wednesday

Finished scarf

 Here is a scarf I have been working on and finished yesterday.  I don't think I had mentioned it because there wasn't much to knitting it.  I picked it out so that I could have an easy project to work on while in the same room as my kids.  And when I saw the sample at Knit Wit I knew I wanted one for myself.  It is just 19 stitches of garter stitch until I ran out of yarn.  I used size 15 needles and two different stands of Berroco yarn.  I wish I had kept the wrappers so that I could tell you which yarn.  I may go to the shop this weekend and if I do I will try to find out what yarn it is.

The scarf came out very long.  It is taller than I am.  I like that because I like to wear my scarfs folded over with the tails pulled though the loop (pictured below).  I wore it last night to my crafting group with friends even though it wasn't that cold and actually ended up raining.  I don't usually get to go to my Tuesday night group because I am working but I am on vacation this week.

So in between the fun with my kids today I will be working on the quilt (I have more fabric to cut) and my mittens.  I think the kids and I may be making robots.  And I will be putting clam chowder in the crockpot later.  If it is good I will share the recipe.

  I just linked up to Ginger Snap Crafts.  Happy Wednesday!

Vacation

I finished up a little work (paying job work) last night and now I am on vacation until the 26th!  I only work two days a week usually but it is still really nice to have this little stretch at home with the kids.  I really just plan to laze around the home with them and maybe venture out into the snow if it gets warmer.  It is very cold and windy here today.  This morning we made pancakes, painted in our pajamas, had bubble baths, and played with our dolls (I mean the kids' dolls).  I also made a very pretty vegetable salad and fruit salad for lunch but I was so hungry I ate it before I could take a picture.  I am looking forward to being home for more naps this week which means more crafty time for me.  Maybe I can finally finish my mittens.  I also plan to fix up my blog a bit too.  Although my blog may only be read by one person I am still really enjoying taking pictures for it and writing about my home/crafty adventures. 

Before I Blogged Part 2

     Well Friday night I realized what I was doing wrong the cross stitch.  I was leaving little spaces between the crosses.  I felt like such a fool.  And then I tired to do more cross stitch yesterday afternoon but I realized I just don't enjoy it.  I'd rather be knitting, doing crochet, quilting, or sewing.  Those are enough hobbies I think.  I did finish my first mitten shell Friday afternoon.  I just don't have a picture yet.

     We are having a busy weekend.  Well it is busy for me since I just like to stay home.  I went to a sewing class yesterday morning to learn how to make children's clothing patterns out of clothes they already have.  I learned a lot.  Right now they don't really have any clothes that I would like to make patterns out of and I have so many patterns already that I don't plan to make a pattern like that right now.  But I learned a lot about sewing in general and making changes to patterns I already have.

The four of us went out to eat last night for the first time as a foursome.   I know some people go out all the time but we stay in for different reasons.  Going out to eat is expensive and we just didn't think it would be relaxing taking the kids out.  But we had so much fun.  The kids were so good and the pizza we had was delicious.  We just went to casual pizza place where you order at the counter but they make the best pizza.  We did a couple errands after and it was so much fun.

And tonight we are having friends over for dinner.  I am making a kid friendly meal.  The brownies for brownie sundaes are already baked.  The pork is in  the crock pot.  All that is left to make is the macaroni cheese and salad.  It is snowing this morning so it is feeling very cozy to stay in and bake.

So since there are no completed projects to show I thought I would show something I had made in the past.  This was made way in the past - 2006.  It is one of my favorite quilts.  

I made it while taking a class called Beyond Beginning Quilting.  I don't know what the pattern is.  I used mostly Kaffe Fasset fabrics with a few Amy Butler fabrics thrown in.  I made it to go with the colors in our living room.  I quilted it grid style with red thread and there is a story behind the quilting.

The instructor taught me to put lines on my quilt to use washable crayola markers because they come right out in the wash.  This was before I had kids and I assumed that all the crayola markers were washable.  I made one black line across the quilt and then it occurred to me that I should check to make sure that the markers were washable.  They were not.  There were many tears and phone calls to people asking for help.  My husband went to the grocery store and bought as much stain removal items as he could find.  We got most out of it.  I couldn't put it in the wash yet because it wasn't quilted and bound.  My instructor suggested I quilt it in red so that it would be dark and possible hide the black marker.  Well when it was all finished the marker did come out.  My husband loves to tell that story whenever anyone comments on the quilt.  And I am pretty sure I haven't used crayola marker on a quilt since but maybe I should try again.

Moving On

Who knew crafting could be such an emotional rollercoaster?  This morning I woke up way too early (3:45) excited to get some crafting done before my little cuties woke up.  They actually slept through the night which is very rare and the reason I think I felt refreshed at 3:45.  They have been waking up all night long lately.  So I had my tea, went on the computer, and got out my cross stitch.  I was doing this cross-stitch sampler and had been spending all my free crafting time since last Monday working on it.  Did you notice I wrote "was doing"?  It is over.  After all that time I realized that all my frames weren't going to fit.  I don't have the patience or the desire to start over.

It was suppose to be beginner friendly but I think I would have been better off doing something really small for my first project.  I am sad about all the time and money wasted but I am deciding to think of it as practice.  I am sure I will want to do a little cross-stitching at some point in the future.  This beautiful book arrived last night and it has cross-stitch in it . I can see myself trying all the projects in the book.  And then this morning I saw this blog post.  So I do see myself trying cross-stitch again in the future but I doubt I will try a sampler again for a very long time.

So I had been very sad this morning.  I even felt too sad to blog but I thought I should try to and try to stay positive.  Crafting is suppose to be fun not heartbreaking.  So I took some of the blocks I had been making for Luke's quilt and brought them upstairs to photograph.  And like magic when I saw them all laid out I felt much better.

Those are just some of the 64 blocks I have made so far but the picture does show all the fabrics.  I only have 80 something more blocks to make.  I sewed for about 2 hours this morning and got 10 blocks made.  I am slow but I am very happy with it.  The fabrics are just a variety of different ones from my stash some of which I have had for a long time.  And the background is Essex Linen in Natural.  I wasn't sure how it would look but so far I am very happy with it.  I wasn't sure about the bright yellow fabric at first either but now I am starting to like it.

Now that I scrapped the cross stitch I can go back to my mittens.  Hopefully I will finish the first shell at nap time today.  Pictures of the lone mitten soon to come.

edited to add  - that I am linking up with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday 

Before I Blogged Part 1

Well it is going to be a while before I have any new finished projects to share.  I am really trying to get caught up to this mystery monthly cross stitch sampler I am doing and I am so slow at cross stitching.  I don't know why I chose my first cross stitch project to be something really big.  But the pattern is so cute I know it will be worth it and I am enjoying trying something new.  It is just taking so long.  And then I am working on Luke's quilt but it hasn't been good sleeping nights here so I haven't been able to get up early to work on it.  And then I have those mittens too but I haven't worked on them in a week!

 Eva recently suggested I show some of my older quilts.  And I will but I have such cute pictures of Stella from her first birthday that I thought I would show these makings instead:

Before Stella was born I made her this matching jacket and pants out of some flannel from my local quilt shop (Kathie's).  I used this pattern and this pattern by Jackie Clark.  Both patterns were easy and I would like to make another outfit for Stella with them.   I did put her in the outfit the fall after she was born but it didn't really fit well until she was a year old.  I really wanted to make her some presents for her birthday.  Two of the presents matched her outfit. 

The bunny was given to Stella for her first Christmas by her Aunt Dawn.  She came wearing a brown linen looking dress.  Some friends on facebook had given me the idea to do a matching outfit.  So I took apart the dress she came in and figured out how to make a new dress with some leftover flannel.  And I was so happy that I had so much left over flannel because I was able to make this bed too.

I used the Flossie Teacake Pattern for the bunny's bed.  It was easy and I had planned to make many more of them but there is only so much time to do make things.  I wrote a little note on the inside of the sleeping bag wish Stella a happy first birthday. 

I made her an apron for her birthday too but maybe that will be another post.  Her 2nd birthday is in a little over two months.  I think I had better figure out soon what I will be making her this year.   I have too many ideas to chose from.  That is always my problem but it is a fun problem to have. 

Special Delivery

I came home from work last night to a large cardboard box filled with notions, trims and all sorts of sewing goodies, and a bin of fabric!  My husband's godmother who is a realtor came across all the goodies in a home she was selling and held onto them for me.  They were delivered yesterday when I was at work.  The above picture is just some of the goodies that were in the box.  I could have displayed the items better to make prettier pictures but I am feeling super lazy today.  I would give in to the laziness but the kids need baths and dinner has to go into the crockpot.  So back to my goodies....

I am very excited about the ribbon.  It is so pretty and there is so much of it!  I am in the middle (well the beginning) of Luke's quilt so I think it will be a while before I use it.  I am really looking forward to making pretty things with it.

   

 There was a little cardboard box of old patterns.  Here are a few of them.  I love the holly hobby looking costume.  Stella has already been Raggedy Ann.  I hadn't thought of Holly Hobby.

And then the bin of fabric.  Boy I could have made the fabric look a lot better.  Did I mention I am lazy today?  There is corduroy, denim, home decorator weight and some other fabrics that I am not sure what they are.  

I think the woman who owned this must have passed away.  It is really something to go through her sewing stash.  There are tons of bias, fasteners, and zippers.  I haven't really had time to closely look at everything.  I have noticed the price on some of the fasteners is 15 cents so it must be pretty old.  Well I am treasuring and loving this woman's stash and wondering about her.  Did she make those costumes for her children?  for her grandchildren? nieces? nephews?  did she mostly sew for herself (there were adult patterns)?  I know she struggled like I do to fold the pattern neatly to get it back in the envelope.

Well I must drag myself out of this chair and tend to the things that have to get done today.  I think I will let the things that can wait (like folding laundry) wait.  Happy Wednesday!

Edited to Add on 2/11/13:  I found out more about the woman and the connection she had to my husband's godmother.  It is heartbreaking.  My husband's godmother was teaching 4th grade when 9/11 happened.  One of her student's mother was in the first plane to hit the twin towers.  She was nine years old then.  The mother's name was Susan MacKay.  Her family is/was selling their home and that is how my godmother acquired all the fabric and sewing notions.  I heard that they could have given it to Goodwill but are happy to hear that someone will be using it who loves to sew.  I am thinking of making them a pillow with some of the fabric and trim.  It is so sad it is hard to write about it but I thought that I needed to after posting what I had already written.  I didn't know anyone who died in 9/11 but now I feel like I do.  I still wonder if some of her stash was her mother's or grandmother's since it looks pretty old and she was only 44 years old when she died.  Maybe she had some of it since she was a little girl. 

Decoupage Hearts How To

 

We did a really fun project this morning.  I didn't really have much time to prepare so I quickly cut hearts out of cardboard.  I didn't even trace the heart first.  I thought rustic hearts would be just fine.  Then I cut and ripped some scrapbook paper in little bits.  I used mostly pink with a little white/multicolored thrown in.  They would like great in lots of colors.  That is just what I had on top of my pile.  The kids brushed Mod Podge (which I learned is non-toxic) on the cardboard.  Then spread with scraps.  They really needed help to get the cardboard covered.  Then they brushed another coat of mod podge on.  I did the last two coats (after each one dried - I waited about 15 minutes) because I already had everything cleaned up and didn't want to clean again.  I let the kids pose with them without the ribbon because I had a feeling that they would try to rip the ribbon off.  I have a ton of ribbon but only one that I would look okay with the hearts.  I tied the ribbon in the loop and duck taped it to the back of the hearts.  

I love that my kids love to make crafts.  I might enjoy these projects more than they do and I certainly love how they make the house look.  We just hung these a little while ago and Luke keeps smiling at them. 

She quilts!

Perhaps you have noticed this blog is called beanniequilts and there hasn't been any quilting.  When I first started my blog (a long time ago) quilting was my main crafty thing.  I still love quilting but I also love sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery etc...  I did a fair amount of quilting this fall.  I made a twin and a (almost) full size quilt top.  My plan had been to make three quilt tops by Christmas.  I thought that since I am so into quilting that we really needed bed quilts in our home.  I made a twin quilt top for Stella(who is still in her crib but I want to be ready).  I made Matt and I an almost full size quilt top (I did the swoon quilt and it fits just fine), and then I wanted to do a twin one for Luke.  But the Swoon took much longer and I didn't get to Luke's.  And then I started this blog right before Christmas and there hadn't been any quilting since.

Tomorrow I have an all day sewing day with my friends.  My plan is to finish cutting the fabric for Luke's quilt today and then get started on piecing tomorrow.  I am making this plus quilt.  I was going to do a pow wow quilt but I lost the pattern.  And I think after the swoon quilt that I am all set with triangles right now.  I am going to use linen for the background and lots of other random fabrics.  I am a little nervous about how these random fabrics will look together.  

I will leave you with a picture of the last finished quilt I made. You don't get a great look at the quilt but you can see it being enjoyed.   This is one of my favorite patterns.  It is the Tulip Wonderland by Kate Henderson.  I totally copied the fabrics (Wonderland by Momo) she used (except for the binding).  I really love her blog and everything she makes.

 oh and I just took this picture of them playing "library time".  You can see a really old scrappy quilt I made and the Tulip Wonderland quilt being again too.  It is also an excellent fort making quilt.  I just love having handmade quilts all over our house.