Mostly Thimbleberries

I was chatting online with my friend Eileen about the Thimbleberries Club block for this month and it occurred to me to share the block I made and an earlier club "extra" project.

I'm a little tired tonight, having been up until 2 a.m. the past two nights, and then awake at 6:45 a.m. for work--it takes much longer than you'd think to kill your mom and bury the evidence. Okay, I'm just kidding--actually things went more or less okay when my husband and I went to visit her last night. Oh, except that apparently I won't "let" her get her teeth cleaned, buy new prescription eyeglasses, or get a perm. Of course, I explained to her that it's not a matter of me letting her do anything, it's simply a question of what she can afford once we figure out what her income will be. And if there's not enough money for everything, it's certainly her choice whether she'd rather have a perm than pay for telephone service. Well, I'm sure you can see where this all went--which was pretty much nowhere.

Since I'm a little lacking in energy and imagination tonight--I know this because about all I managed to do while watching TV was to stare at fabric without doing a darn thing to it--I thought I'd just share with you these couple Thimbleberries things. In January, following our first club meeting for the year, I made this binder cover--it was the "extra" club project.

If you've ever done a quilt-as-you-go project, these are constructed very similarly. You just layer backing and batting, and then on top, sew the first strip and press back; sew the second strip and press back, etc., until you get the length covered. From what I recall, I think I pretty much made the stripped piece fairly long--something like 36" to 42"--and then after trimming, I used those cut-off pieces as the pocket on the inside front cover and another as the strip to slide the back cover through. A binding was added around the edges and a loop and button closure. It really dresses up a plain, old binder and makes it individual--it sure looks a lot nicer sitting on one of the shelves or the desk in my sewing room!

Here's a photo of the inside as well as this month's block. I'm making my blocks half sized and I've modified the block a little from the original pattern--so if you know what it's SUPPOSED to look like, you'll see there are a couple minor changes. Once I've put the quilt top together, I'll add some decorative touches to the house--maybe a few plants and flowers, etc. The pattern shows embroidery on the windows to separate them into panes, and I'm sure I'll add that too. And I think that upper window might need some shutters or something--what do you think?

OH! P.S.: I almost forgot to tell you! Hey, do you read Confessions of a Pioneer Woman? Ree's writing is wonderful and entertaining and I think hers is the only blog I read regularly that's not about quilting--and she has fine photos and many of them include even finer men--in chaps even! Anyway, for dinner tonight, I made her steak sandwiches--if you go to her blog and scroll down, you'll see them on the right side. Men love them. I love them. My husband loved them so much, I think I've convinced him to wear chaps. Yeah baby! So I'd better go check on him . . . .