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Tee-Niny

Being tee-niny is an old southern expression. It's all about being small, tiny, and usually cute. At least that's the way I think of it. And the way I remember my mother and grandmother using here in the sweet south. I've always been drawn to creating and collecting tee-niny art pieces and quilts. This one is for my sister. She's battling breast cancer and is beating it down with courage and strength and plenty of laughter!! I would hope to be that brave if that's where my life took me. I made her a lap quilt in the hopes it would wrap her in love and comfort during her treatments. Called it Save the Hooters and here's a miniature version, framed for keeps! 

Hang in there Sis. We're all still praying and hootin' for you! XOXO, Rose

Mom sent me two of these foundation pieces she never used. They came in the mail on a day I could really use a quick project like this one! She must have bought them while visiting us out on the Oregon coast. That was our second duty station for this Coast Guard family. What a beautiful place!

Of course I knew exactly what I wanted to use one of them for. Thanks for keeping them Mother! :) And muslin, you're so much better than paper piecing. Have to remember that. You can see the larger lap quilt on my Flikr page.

The green of the gulf meets the sky of blue.

I'm making progress on a new fave! Just some machine quilting left to do for the wide border. Would really rather be back enjoying the Emerald Coast today...

Button up your...

shower curtain! 

Time for a new look for the bathroom. For the fabric obsessed like me that means using fabric and why not some from one of my favorite turquoise and green fabric. I had originally covered these buttons with Hometown fabric. This 2" size isn't cheap! I had to find a way to reuse them. Turns out changing the fabric was much easier than I thought it would be. 

My favorite seam ripper to the rescue.

I cut a large X on front and pulled the fabric to the back. Next I grabbed the fabric and slowly tugged all the way around while holding on to the metal button in my other hand. Bingo! Naked buttons, good as new. :)

Next I used the circle guide on the button package and my favorite pinking shears to cut out the new circles. 

The button kit makes every thing super easy. The small brass safety pin is what  attaches the button to my shower curtain hooks. To me they were a little more flexible and easier to use than larger safety pins.

Quick, easy, and beautiful thanks to my stash of the Kaffe Fassett fabric.

This fabric needs no fussy cutting. Love the way it dances along.

Work in Progress

Finally got back to hand quilting a half square triangle lap quilt. Fandango charm pack and lots of scraps in this one. The perle 8 thread is still wonderful, but not as easy to pull through the Warm & Natural batting as a poly/cotton blend.

Christmas in July

Time to do something besides watch the stormy rainy weather outside again. It's starting to feel like groundhog day. I found a bit of petit point cross stitch that I made back in probably 1989. It was supposed to be rolled around and made into a windsock Christmas tree ornament. I made one just like it for a gift, but never got around to finishing this one. Felt like Christmas when I found it in a box last month!

I decided to be a little nostalgic and make a bell pull with it. Goes right along with the vintage cross stitch. :) I found a nice little stack of Christmas fabric scraps and some 5" charm squares in my stash. The little holly berry fabric is really vintage. Loved using it! 

I wanted to add some more needlework, so I used my new book, S is for Stitch by Kristine Czepuryk of Pretty by Hand. I stitched Noel up at the top and a turquoise snowflake near the bottom. Her blog is always very inspiring to me! Absolutely pretty. Sure do miss my nights of embroidery and cross stitch. Quilting has taken over, but I still miss it.

It's tough to get a full length picture of this 41" bell pull. I'm waiting until December to add something special to the bottom. No way am I going to go in the attic searching for it now. Hello. July in a Louisiana attic? No way.

Have a merry day! Only 154 days to go and a few more Christmas projects to finish!!

My New Favorite Tool

So what do you do when the doctor says don't lift anything over 5 lbs for weeks? Improvise! My regular iron just won't do. My mini iron just wasn't working fast enough for these hst's. Not sewing isn't a fun option. Flat iron to the rescue!

Works like a charm. :) Just like a rotary cutter though, be careful. Especially around children!!! I was able to use it to put my first ever churn dash blocks together. Why did I wait so long to sew such a classic block?