Happy Valentine's Day!

 After all the prep for the magazine in December I was totally NOT feeling like decorating for another holiday. A few weeks ago the grey grey grey all the days grey blahs got to me and I hauled out some pink. I didn't make the kids school valentines this year either - grabbed some at aldi while buying bread. And it's fine! No heart to heart swap this year for the first time in 11 years (I do miss that one a wee bit). Just low key.

We will eat our favorite indian take out in  between my shuffling kids to and fro from all the things and move onward.

 (Jack top, Sam rainbow, Grant black)

 Jack was too busy crying to cooperate for a photo. Sam was freezing. Grant reports he totally did NOT feel like smiling.

 They are adorable anyway. And I took the pictures anyway. Because time is fleeting.

So. Happy Valentine's day to you and yours!

Flea Market Sundays

Every year in Feb there is a "worlds largest garage sale" event near us. It's not actually large at all, but it always treats me right.  This year was no exception.  I was buying things at a 3 for $x stall and needed a third thing so I randomly grabbed this stork bank. When I got it home I realized gah! It's so cute. It's huge too.

Pots? yes please.

My cake topper collection is growing a little lately. It's a sloooow collection.

My picture does not do this sewing basket justice. It's so nice. It's missing a handle though.

Old contact paper.

I bought a bag stuffed with hankies, but this! Oh this is the best treasure in that Ziploc. It's a scarf.  I want to frame it?

The hankies.

I debated these bunnies because I'd like them to be more colorful. But beistle and cheap, so in the bag.

There are four honeycomb eggs in there. More beistle.

A huge pile of sewing stuff. Needles and pins from England, handmade trims, zippers.

An advertising gem.

Just the trims.

A little widget...

for your scarf.

A vibrant tablecloth.

A duvet cover that will yield LOADS of vintage fabric.

And a stinky pile of vintage fabric (a few feedsack pieces).

Not too shabby!

Super scrappy log cabin

Since I knew I was going to the fabric outlet at the end of January I set out to make a few quilts only from the stash in order to make room for new fabric.  There are a lot of DS quilts prints here. I just kept pulling and pulling until it felt right and then went to town.

After I made the first block I realized I had cut my fabric according to a pattern that did NOT have a center block. It was not the look I was going for, but scrappy is as scrappy does - I went with it.

There were moments when I thought this might be the ugliest thing I had ever made.

It turns out that I LOVE IT! It's so super fun. It turned out way better than I expected.

This print was PERFECT for the binding, but I only had 18 inches of it and this is a huge quilt. I had to cut it 1/2 inch skinnier than I usually would, but again, scrappy is as scrappy does.  The dark color helps ground the brightness a little.

The back is pieced - which I hate doing because it means lining it up (and this is NOT lined up well) - but it used up a bunch of fabric.

Details:
Fabric from stash, lots of DS quilts prints
Cotton batting
Cotton couture backing
80x90
Finished in Jan 2017
Traditional pattern

Hello elmo

He eats chocolate peanut butter sandwiches and sings along with Elmo and I notice (with a pang) just how short the preschool years are.

The strangest winter

We are having a strange winter. Warm and grey and dry. Not even a single snowflake has flown from the sky. Sunday morning it was chilly in the morning, but the flea was calling me loud and clear. I'd not been since November (!). It's mostly guns, ammo and camo this time of year, but what the hell, I needed a good walk. 

To my surprise I picked up a quilt (my first since dec 14) and a sweet picture frame. 

This morning it's a bizarre 70 degrees. As soon as we get Sam on the bus I think grant and I will go for a walk. (Sam has been having some health issues. Her eardrum ruptured last week not even twelve hours after the school nurse told her it was fine AND didn't phone me to say she'd been in the clinic. This is an ongoing issue.)

Flea market finds

This past Saturday Dave and I went to the big garage sale in Springfield again. I was really looking forward to the mental break from the kids (and the world), but Sam woke up burning up with fever so my trip was rushed a bit to get back to her. (It's a LONG drive and she was crying on the phone about wanting mommy.)

I did pick up a few things I really love:

Those are three candle holders and maybe a napkin holder? The napkin thing is dated 1942. I buy the German stuff from a very german woman named Ilsa.  She knows a lot about all of her things and is always happy to talk about them.  She said the candle holders were maybe a little earlier, but also black forest things.

This is a French poster. I think it was a school aid? It has wooden things at the top and bottom for hanging in the classroom.

And a whole gaggle of birds. These ten might have doubled the size of my flock in one swoop!