Look what I bought the other day when I was antique shopping with my daughters-in-law (we had left the kids with the dads and Papa!).  Bob’s mom had a whole set of this Samsonite luggage, which I now have, but she didn’t have this piece.  I just love the shape of it.

I just had to have it–and it wasn’t very expensive.  And, after an afternoon of shopping, it was the only thing in the back of the car.  Bob was so pleased to see that I hadn’t bought a lot of “stuff.”

Of course, what he didn’t know is that as we shopped, I stuffed my stuff into my new trunk!  And boy am I a good stuffer.  Here’s what it looked like when we got home and I took it into the guest room to open it.  Of course as we unloaded the car, and Bob started to pick up my new suitcase, I quickly reached in front of him and said, “Oh no, I’ve got this,” just in case the weight gave it away!  So, what did I manage to get in there?  One very lumpy (but cheap) quilt…

…some adorable building blocks with letters and images…

…and sweet clothes pin holder…

…a wonderfully illustrated children’s book called Merry Murphy that stars a potato.  The end papers were beautiful.

It was a rebus book!  Some of the words were replaced by pictures.

I also bought this apron…

…and this apron…

…and this Hey Diddle Diddle crib cover.

Lastly, there was this rolling cookie cutter that I couldn’t resist–and I still had a little room for another treasure in my trunk!

Good thing Bob doesn’t read my blog!

We still had Sunday left, and, as promised, we started it off with a bit of a sleep in.  That was followed by Orange Rolls and Quiche–and I forgot to take pictures!

But, can you believe they’d been here two days and we hadn’t even walked across the lawn to the Quilt Studio?  I’m sorry they never got to visit Anna Lena’s, but this was the next best thing.

They were quite impressed by the rick rack holder Bob had built!

Kasi wanted to finish her wonderful Owl Quilt, so I gave her a quick lesson in stippling and off she went!

Didn’t it turn out fantastic!?!

Kasi intends for it to be a floor quilt.  Some of the squares are Minky–so it will really be tactile for the baby.

While Kasi was quilting, Kathleen was busy trying on my aprons.  Here’s the Saucy Circle Apron.

And the Lilly Apron made with my Butterfly fabric.

This one’s reversible, so she had to model both sides.

Kasi had seen my Garden Trellis quilt in Studio post, and had to bring the first quilt she ever made–a Garden Trellis quilt!  She made it for her mom many years ago.  It was easier to pin hers up than to take mine down!

Since she had only stitched in the ditch when she made it, we decided to put it on the long arm and quilt some flowers in it.

Won’t her mom be surprised!

Here’s Kasi getting a binding lesson.  I wish I had a photo of what Sally was doing during this time–she was Swiffering the floor!  Not that it needed it, of course!

Don’t you love Kasi’s embroidered jeans?  Melissa, this one’s for you!

We had a great late lunch at Full Circle Cafe in Ocean Park,then drove through historic Oysterville. The old church there is so charming.

And here’s one of my favorite houses.

It was all over too soon,but, let’s check Kasi’s list and see how we did.

Kasi’s list.

Tour a cranberry bog ?
Visit the beach ?
Meet Monica ?
Meditate in that fabulous craft space ?
Meet Poppy (now Lola)  Oh no, poor Lola!
Tour the little Swedish cabin ?
Sleep in ?
Stay up late ?
Drink wine – well, I think Lemon Drops count! ?
Eat yummy fun food at fun yummy restaurants ?
Shop all/any cute little stores in downtown Long Beach ?

Well, I guess it’s best to leave something undone–that way there can be a next time!

What I really mean is The Generosity of New Friends!

There are so many nice people in this world, and now I know three more of them–Sheri, Regena and Jodi!  Here they are with my “old” friends Connie and Robin.

I’d met Sheri and Regena oh-so-briefly when they came to the final Anna Lena sale, and I knew Jodi from her blog.  After my recent post about the apron program at Pomeroy House, Sheri emailed to tell me about a stack of aprons she had that had belonged to a friend, and I said, “Oh, I’d love to see them.”  That led to a visit yesterday from Sheri and the two others.  I was quite excited–a day of looking at old aprons and making new friends!  What could be better?  Well, sharing it with Connie and Robin seemed like a good idea, too!

I promised to make lunch, and the girls arrived just before noon.  It was fun to set a fall table.

I couldn’t believe that Sid’s Market still had strawberries, and they were nice ones, so I figured one more strawberry whipped cream cake was in order–probably the last one of the season.

But then, to my surprise, I discovered they had each brought me a gift!

Regena brought me her world famous chocolate chip cookies.  They are absolutely delicious and I’m wondering if I should hide them from Bob!

Now, amazingly, Sheri brought me a giant bag of vintage aprons.  The aprons I thought I was just going to have a look at–she gave them to me!  There were so many of them–more than two dozen.  And they were all different styles and eras.  Well, here, have a look!

There’s this wonderful aqua and orange one set off with the black panel in the middle.

And check out this vintage organza one that has a fancy hankie in the front.

And I love the patchwork style apron.  One of the fabrics is a novelty print with pianos and musical notes on it!

Every apron collection should have a gingham apron in it–and this one did–an aqua one!

It was decorated with ric rack–and the way the ric rack was stitched down was so adorable.

And here’s a pretty pink floral.

Do you remember cobbler’s aprons?  I do.  When I was a teenager working at my dad’s grocery store, I had to wear on everyday!

And look at this bib apron.  It has gathers over the hips.  Not the area I usually want to accentuate!

The print in this little pink number was sooooo cute–and the double rows or ric rack were sweet.

This bib style just says “grandma” to me.  The print was very pretty, but you could see by looking in the pocket how much it has faded from the original brightness.

Don’t you love the red and aqua print in this one?

The red insets in the side of this one made it look classy!

This one still has its tag attached–look by the left pocket.

This bib apron was made from quite a complicated pattern.

And this circle apron had a scalloped bottom edge.  Why didn’t I think of that for my Saucy Circle Apron!?!

Simple but classy.

There were lots more, and I love them all!

And, last but not least, I opened the bag from Jodi.  Inside was this adorable house wall hanging!  Of course the colors are perfect for my studio!

It was a delightful day.  Thanks, ladies!

I had so much fun a few nights ago–I sewed something just for myself!  I made a Lilly Apron.

This pattern was designed by my friend Michelle at Busy Bee Quilt Designs. I bought the pattern back last May at Quilt Market, and have been meaning to make one for myself ever since.  Good intentions, you know.  Well, I thought it would be fun to have an apron to wear when working my booth at Northwest Quilting Expo, so finally got my fanny in gear and sewed.  This is the result.

Michelle’s directions were great.  I think if I hadn’t decided to make it reversible, I would have been finished in about two hours.  As it was, it seemed like a good idea to make it reversible.  From start to finish, I spent no more than three hours on this.

I liked it so much, I didn’t take it off for two days.  Bob thought I was crazy, but, hey, it’s important that I keep up my image!  I want to make one out of each of my fabrics.  Wow!  That would be one big stack of aprons!

P.S.  I just found this photo of Michelle at Market, wearing the original Lilly apron.  Isn’t she adorable???

Our two oldest grandkids, McKenna and Justin, have been here visiting for a week.  Little brother, Jason, wasn’t very happy about being left home!

On our way home, we stopped in Seaside to break up the trip, and took time for a ride on the carousel.

I just love this photo.  We had to stop to watch the Young’s Bay Bridge be raised for a fishing boat to pass under.  Must be a guy thing!  McKenna and I waited in the car.

The favorite and most requested activity during the week was Gator driving.  I use it to water and fertilize around the yard.  As you can see, Justin liked being in charge of the spray nozzle!

While McKenna and I did a lot of Gator driving, Bob and Justin spent a lot of time on the John Deere A, now named Henry.  Bob was trying to fire it up one day and said, “Come on, Henry,” and after that, Justin called it Henry!

We baked Snickerdoodles, Papa’s favorite.  Okay, so I had a few, too!

McKenna made an apron from my Daisy A Day apron panel.

Here she is modeling the finished product.  I was so proud of her.  She did all of the sewing except attaching the waist band.  Her top stitching was lovely!

She chose this fabric for the reverse side, and we added the ric rack.  How fun!

We spent one whole day at Vista Park on the Columbia River.

It’s amazing how kids can spend hours at the water’s edge.  And grandparents can spend hours watching them and enjoying every minute of it!

We had a picnic and used the same plastic picnic plates that I ate off of as a child when we’d go to Chinook Park.

Now this was a bit of a stretch.  I had to put curlers in McKenna’s American Girl Doll’s hair.  Heck, I don’t even put curlers in my hair!  If it takes more than four minutes, then it’s not the hairdo for me!  But, it was in preparation for a very important party.  We invited the dolls and Great Grandma Bette for a tea party in the log cabin.

We spent the morning cleaning the cabin and picking flowers.  Of course picking flowers involved Gator driving.

Melissa and Kerstin wore matching dresses.

We had tea sandwiches and scones.  Our table had a daisy theme–daisy fabric in the table cloth, daisies on our bouquet, and daisies on my 1974 wedding china.

When Grandma Bette arrived, she was chauffeured to the cabin in –what else– the Gator!

She brought hostess gifts for both McKenna and me.  McKenna got a piece of cut glass that Grandma Bette has had for over 40 years.  What a treasure!

We didn’t forget dessert.  We had a strawberry whipped cream cake!

Yesterday, before heading out, we took one last Gator ride.  We went to the neighboring cranberry bog.

We took a little trip down a grassy road into the woods, and guess what we saw–a black bear!  It might have been this one, that son Doug snapped a  phone photo of in our yard last spring!  The bear ran off into the woods, and we turned around real quick!

We met their parents in Portland yesterday for the exchange.  Looks like Jason is happy to have his siblings back!

Today was our Redwork Club meeting, and we started by going to tea at All The Tea and China.  

Then we came back here to Studio Anna Lena for our “meeting,” which is really just show-and-tell!  It’s always fun to see what others are working on!  Linda has taken my Through My Window panel and embroidered it.  Don’t you love how she’s doing one extra little thing on each block?

Loretta brought a completed quilt top that she started in 2006.  She wanted our opinion about the dark blue border.  Everyone thought it was too dark, so she bought some of my Cornflower solid to replace it.  It’s a much better match.

Here are some of my favorite blocks from her quilt.

Loretta says this is her stitching.  I hope those are pins in her mouth and not chin whiskers!

We share more than just stitchery.  Robin just finished hand quilting this vintage 1930′s top.  She’s a wonderful hand quilter, and this quilt was a challenge because it didn’t lay flat.  But look at it now!  Amazing.

And here’s something very special.  Linda bought this hand crocheted apron at a garage sale and brought it for show-and-tell.  Then she gave it to me!  Thank you, Linda.  You know it will have a special home here.  And it’s nice to know that someone years ago liked orange, too!

My new fabric line has arrived. Yeah! This is my first line with Timeless Treasures Fabrics, and I’m soooooo pleased with it. The colors came out just like I wanted. I’ve been designing 1930′s repro prints for a while now, and with this line we’ve gone a little more hip with the colors. They’ll still work for those people who want to recreate the look of vintage quilts, but they are also young and fun and chic! The blue is a little bit dusty, the orange is true (that’s me, true to my orange!), the green is a little bit apple-y, the purple not too red and not too blue and the yellow is sharp and crisp. I’d love to know what you think of the colors.

As always, I’ve done a panel, but this time, it’s not blocks or a wall hanging, it’s an apron panel – the Saucy Circle Apron! Circle aprons are so flattering, and I think this one is adorable, although while I was trying to arrange the ties for the photo, I kept getting images of the Trix bunny in my head!

 

It’s done with the Daisy May print and has the Duo Dot for the apron strings. You can make this apron from the pre-printed panel. All you need is a little piece of fusible interfacing for the waist band, and everything else is printed right on the fabric – including the instructions!

If you want to make it reversible, you can buy two panels or an extra yard of fabric and have two aprons in one! It took me just an hour and a half to stitch this one up. Here are some photos I took along the way.
I used one panel of orange and one of green, stitched them together, turned them right-sides-out and top-stitched.

Then I did the same thing with the apron strings. The top-stitching is important so the apron still looks good after you wash it, and it doesn’t take any time at all. (If you’re not doing the reversible version, you only have to hem the edges!)

I don’t have a lot of experience garment sewing, and it always amazes me that you can stitch something round to something straight and it works! Here I’ve pinned the waistband to the apron. The anti-pinning voice in my head says, “You can do it without pins.” But the anti-ripping voice is louder and says, “If you don’t want to rip, pin!”

Once that’s stitched on, it’s just a matter of flipping it over to the other side and stitching again. More pins, please.

Almost finished! It’s just a matter of slipping the apron stings in the end of the waistband and top stitching everything.

Wasn’t that easy! If you’ve been thinking of having a handmade Christmas, think about a few Saucy Circle Aprons!

I’m Karen Snyder and I approve this message!