I Can't Get Off!

Remember when we were kids back in the 50s and everyone had a train that went around the bottom of their Christmas tree? Well, actually, our family never did, but I saw it on just about every Christmas movie made during that era (not to mention the fact that at 29 years of age, I'm MUCH, MUCH too young to know anything about the 50s!).

So anyway, I was thinking on my drive home from work tonight that around this time of the year, I feel like I'm a passenger on one of those trains just going around and around in circles. My days seem to consist of a never-ending loop of JoAnn's, Michael's, the grocery store, JoAnn's, Michael's, the grocery store. Despite having gone grocery shopping on Friday night and thinking there wasn't anything else I could possibly need between then and the day after Thanksgiving, guess what? I spent more quality time tonight in the grocery store, racking up another triple-digit grocery bill. On what?! Sheesh! And during my lunch hour? JoAnn's, yet again, hoping to find silicone-dipped light bulbs but coming up empty--except for that bag I hauled out with me of stuff I didn't know I needed until I saw it. ARGH!

This snowman toy was one of those things I didn't know I needed. An obvious impulse buy. He reminds me of childhood toys--you push on the bottom and he collapses forward. Hours and hours of entertainment, particularly on whatever night I decide to try that Red Christmas Glog I've been "aging" in a large container in the kitchen. Ah, and this brings me to tonight's crafty activities. Remember the bottle brush trees I bleached? (Fun with chemicals!) Tonight I glittered them by painting glue on the brush tips and rolling them in micca glitter--micca is that old-fashioned looking glitter that comes in flakes. I bought a baggie on eBay or Etsy last year, and having no idea about the weight/volume ratio of micca glitter when I ordered it, I didn't realize I would be getting enough micca to glitter the Sacramento skyline. I foresee a lot of trees and other glittery goodies in my future!

Kind of cool, though, huh? The last step will be adding "ornaments" to the trees. See the red "ball" poking in on the left side of the photo? I think that will be one of them--I've been looking for something appropriate and I think these are it. And my other little project tonight? Finishing up the bon bon bags I mentioned the other day. Now I have that cute little original stitchery version as well as four holly leaf and berry versions.

Seriously, I have a whole design wall I've pinned "containers" on; now I need to come up with stuff to fill them.

Finally--are you still with me?--the winner of the Bon Bon pattern is . . . Anonymous (aka Zel)! Hubby picked number 21, and that turned out to be Zelda's entry. Please send me your snail mail address, Zelda, and I'll get the pattern in the mail to you! (If anyone else wants info about the pattern, it's called Christmas Bon Bon by Australian designer Hatched and Patched. If you're here in the Sacramento area, Bearpaws & Hollyhocks carries it--or if you're outside the area, you can call the shop and arrange to order it from them.)

Thanks for stopping by to visit! See you again soon!

Old Stuff

No, this isn't old. But I "found" it at the thrift store a couple weeks ago for 49 cents. It's silver-plated and needed some polishing up. Any idea what it was supposed to be used for? It has a hole in the top, so a ribbon could be added and it could be an ornament, although it's fairly heavy. The bottom is wide open--it's not a salt or pepper shaker, but it's about that size. I might just "park" it on a shelf or windowsill for the holiday season.

As I was polishing up my little snowman, I started thinking about the difference between me and Hubby when we thrift store "hunt." I most often like to look for vintage "treasures" while he looks for stuff he can use that's cheap. Cheap is important to him--if something costs more than he thinks it should, back it goes even if he thinks it's just what he wants--he's sure he'll find it cheaper somewhere else. (Never mind that he'll spend twice as much on gas during the hunt and never find it.) But he never specifically looks for anything "old."

I think--and this is a generalization here, of course--that most men don't appreciate "old" and "vintage." Gran and I were talking about that at the American Country shop we went to last weekend--how our husbands wouldn't understand the whole grungy primitive look and the idea of paying so much money to have it. And I'll admit it--some of it doesn't appeal to me much either. Still, I like old and vintage things.

Here's a small example of the difference between my thinking and Hubby's when it comes to "old." A year or two ago, we needed to replace some of our backyard fencing. I asked Hubby to save a few boards for me. "But they're no good; they're rotten! You don't want any of THIS wood." "Yeah, I do," I replied. He didn't get it. He didn't understand that I planned to just cut off the "bad" parts and I'd be left with some nicely aged and weathered wood for all sorts of projects. Maybe it didn't make good fencing material anymore, but it was perfect for other things. And no matter how I tried to explain, he just shook his head and muttered.

About a year ago, a friend gave us a 6 foot length of old black-painted wrought iron fencing that she'd been using as a headboard but no longer wanted. It was a little rusty, but that was to be expected since it was supposed to be quite old and brought to the US from England, I believe. Well, I kind of have my doubts about the origin of the piece, because there's really nothing particularly special or ornate about it that would justify the cost of shipping it this far, but who knows? That's not really the point. The piece has a little age on it, and that's fine with me. Rusty? That's okay too. It adds to the character. We've had it in our back yard since we got it but my plan is to use it in our front yard landscape re-do, which Soccer Son has been working on the past couple months.

Of course, Hubby thinks we need to strip the paint off it and paint it white. "Oh, no," I said, "It's fine as it is, and it needs to be black."

Yesterday Soccer Son was here, doing a little more work in the front yard, and wanted to talk to me about what I had in mind and what he planned to work on next. The fence was mentioned. He confirmed that his dad wanted to sand it and paint it white but he thought white wasn't a good idea; he DID, though, think it needed to be sanded and repainted black. While I don't think so, I'll take another look at it. But really? I think it's just that neither one of them understands the appeal of old, rusty, vintage "stuff."

Me, on the other hand? Well, I spent a little time today mixing some chemicals together with silver bells and setting them out to rust. I imagine Hubby's probably shaking his head and muttering again.

At The Quilt Show . . .

Of course we all go to quilt shows to see the quilts, but I'm pretty sure many of us go to see the vendors, too, don't we? Which types of vendors attract your interest?

For instance, in my first few years of quilting, I loved visiting the vendors who carried fabric. After all, I was getting a late start and needed to catch up quick, and what better way to do that than by visiting every fabric source possible? After a couple years, I STILL loved the fabric vendors, but I gravitated more to the specialties--wool and hand dyeds--because they weren't widely available in the local shops.

Now? Well, I'd still visit the wool and hand dyed merchants but there were none at this show--or if there were, I sure didn't find them! So what drew me? A button vendor!

A few months ago, I was reading Andrea's blog, Under a Blue Moon, and she was talking about using clear, glass buttons to decorate a tablerunner--the clear glass would catch the sparkle of candlelight. I was hooked by that image and "collected" a few clear glass buttons for a "someday project." (I'm still collecting.) I've always LOVED buttons, and the opportunity to collect a few more clear glass buttons and other lovely things sidetracked me at the quilt show; before I knew it, I was pawing through boxes and flipping through cards. I knew I was in trouble when the vendor handed me a small basket. Yes, I found some clear glass buttons, and I also found these lavendar glass buttons--

There's something about that particular shade of purple and the semi-see through quality of the buttons that just hooked me. No, I have absolutely NO idea what I'll do with them, but someday I'd really love to use them in a project--and I'm not even a "purple person"!

As I was paying for my buttons, more buttons caught my eye. These were carved from a nut and looked much like carved ivory. Because I collect rabbits (in a small way), I was particularly interested in the rabbits, and one came home with me--this was my big splurge of the show! (You can't see the button hole, but it's in the bunny's tail.)

And here are the last couple photos of quilts from the show--some minis. They had lots and lots of minis this time but I didn't photograph more than just a couple. I'm not sure whether they may have been part of the quilt show challenge project or whether people are just getting very interested in making minis, but I wanted to show you some--they were all wonderful small pieces of art.

And here's what I've been doing for the last day or so. I'd seen this little project made up (by Gran) at Bearpaws and Hollyhocks the last couple times I'd been in, and it's the cutest thing! (Candies/treats or other goodies go inside.) The shop also had additional "kits" with the fabrics. So when I was there for a class on Wednesday evening, I finally gave in and bought the pattern and fabric kit.

Here's the pattern--it's by Hatched and Patched.

And now that I've made this project, I think it's time for me to pass the pattern on to one of you--if you're interested, please leave me a comment telling me you'd like to be entered in the drawing. I should tell you that the pattern came with the design pre-printed onto a small piece of muslin, and I've used that in this project, but you can trace another one onto muslin yourself, so it shouldn't be a problem. I think I'll make a couple more, but instead of the stitchery, I'm going to substitute some wool holly leaves and button berries on a muslin background.

Oh, and the final thing I wanted to show you since we're talking about the quilt show, vendors, and Bearpaws & Hollyhocks--BP&HH had a booth and gave out these cute snowman pins and a little "kit" to make some small, simple gift bags. I don't recall a vendor giving out free swag like this before, so I think this is really special that they did--and it's not because I'm biased since I teach at the shop!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend and, if you're here in the States, preparing for a wonderful Thanksgiving later in the week. There are so many things still to do here, but I'm mixing in a little play time too. I'll draw a winner for the pattern on Monday evening and announce the name on my Tuesday post, so stop back by!

ENTRIES CLOSED--WINNER WILL SOON BE ANNOUNCED!

It Has Come to My Attention . . .

Did you know there's a lingerie football league? Sheesh! I was at work today, and I stumbled upon photos and a story on the internet. Lord knows what I was looking for--I certainly don't remember! Here's a photo, just to give you an idea of what it's all about.

People do the weirdest things, don't they?! Who would want to play football in their underwear? And how did someone think it up? (And, more importantly, what happens when it SNOWS?!) Want to see more? (Or distract your Hubby while you're smuggling those bags of fabric from the car trunk into your stash?) Click HERE for quite a few photos from two different games. Oh, and I asked Hubby tonight if he'd ever heard of it. Yes, as a matter of fact, he had but he didn't think they still played it. Huh. I guess I should pay more attention to those sports update shows he watches!

Okay, so back to the quilt show for a few more photos. OUR kind of eye candy! This first one was a quilt done in memory of someone or something--I kind of think it was in memory of a cat--at least that's the impression I had at the time. But what I liked was the way it incorporated embroidery and piecing and had meaning to the quilt maker. The color layout is pretty cool too!

These next two quilts caught my eye just because they made me feel happy! I think it was the use of color and the scrappiness of them.

That one just above--well, I love scrappy quilts and this certainly was. I never noticed it at the show, but when I uploaded my photos, I saw a couple of "humility blocks" in this quilt. They may have been intentional or they may not have been, but it's a wonderful quilt either way. I'd love to make one.

Finally, there are these two patriotic quilts--I'm a sucker for patriotic quilts. I like the way some of the stars in the quilt on the left are so light they almost disappear--isn't that neat? And then there's the illusion of circles in the one on the right. (Seeing these quilts really makes me want to make myself a new one to replace the one that turned yellow HERE.)

That's it for tonight. I have just two more photos to share and then I wanted to show you a couple things I bought from the vendors, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the LFL (Lingerie Football League), click HERE for Wikipedia. Apparently there's a game every Friday night. I wonder who won this week?

I Dunno

The quilt show is here! The quilt show is here! My friend Jacquie and I went to the first night of the local guild's quilt show right after work and we had a wonderful time looking at lovely quilts and vendors' fine temptations. This year the theme was Teatime in the Garden, and I took lots of photos to share.

See that title up there? What that refers to is pretty much what I know about each of the quilts I photographed. Don't you hate it when you come home and realize you didn't take notes and can't remember anything? Yep, I do that all the time. You'd think I'd learn. The only problem is that NOW I'm getting to the age when memory isn't going to start improving--it's all downhill from here.

I'll do the best I can, but really, if you live in or near Sacramento, you'd be much better off attending the show yourself. You can figure what I'm showing here is just a little teaser, okay? Oh, and I think I'll need to divide this up into two posts because there's too much good stuff. So here goes.

We're going to start with my strengths. This is a quilt made by our featured artist, Laurel Anderson. Laurel has a pattern design business, I believe, called Whispercolor. This particular quilt was inspired by a Christmas card her grandmother (maybe) received (sent?) and I think it was from Germany (or a Scandinavian country--sad, I know, when you consider this is a quilt I actually think I know a little about, isn't it? See what you have to look forward to the rest of this post?). The quilt was just too darn cute and the quilting was spectacular!

Next up? Okay, don't hate me, but I can't remember the name of the quilter. I think this quilt won best of show or judges' choice by all the judges or something like that, and you can certainly see why! For some reason, I thought a lot of the info would be in the program booklet and I'm sure it is except I don't know the name of the quilt or the quilter, and when the booklet was printed, of course the winners weren't selected yet. If anyone reading this knows about this quilt, please leave a comment. It's too beautiful for such vague info! Check out the quilting too!

This next quilt was made by Chloe, Lindy's (of Bearpaws & Hollyhocks) granddaughter. Those of us who have been in the shop over the last six or eight months have seen Chloe working on this one, so it's a treat to see it finished and sporting a blue ribbon (and a green ribbon, but I dunno know what the green one means). When I started quilting, I took beginning lessons from Lindy, and Chloe was only a few months old. Based on that, I think Chloe is 10 years old now, but I might be wrong. I mostly am.

I loved the applique and the painterly quality of this quilt. Other than that, I dunno. I want to live there, I think.

Again, applique. I love applique and enjoy the more traditional subjects too, like these baskets.

So, there you go. The first part of the quilt show! Wonderful, isn't it? If you'd like to see it yourself and answer the questions I couldn't, the show is open Friday (9 to 5) and Saturday (9 to 4) at the Scottish Rite Temple in Sacramento. Oh, and the food's good too--I had a tri tip sandwich for dinner and it was served on a super fresh ciabbatta roll, and the tri tip practically melted. Yum! Well, now I guess you know what I DID pay attention to! More show tomorrow!