Thankful

There's lots to be thankful for this season.

Like my family (Mom is slowly getting better).

And my great friends.

And the ability to stay in touch with them.

And funny pets.

And  things I learn at school.

And for talents and creating.

And for my callings.

And for the gospel in my life.

And for our warm home.

And for no snow yet (soon to change!).

You can get inspiration anywhere- these were the table decor at the youth activity last weekend. Our stake YW has some talent!

Thought I'd share these pretty easy but great looking centerpieces!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Big Kid

Did you have these blocks at school when you were a kid? I loved playing with these geometric blocks when I was in kindergarten, it was so fun to make patterns and designs. I always was fascinated with how all those shapes fit together and all the things you could do with them. These days we've been using them in math class while doing stuff with fractions and while my teacher blah blah blahs, I like to horse around at my table and make patterns. And since I have a camera on my person 95% of the time, I can share these patterns with you.

With and without the orange blocks:

I liked this "flower":

Funky:

I liked the "wheat" coming off the corners:

Some of these would make interesting quilt patterns (especially the "wheat" one), though they'd be impossible to sew! Nowadays these blocks are made out of plastic instead of wood like the ones I had in kindergarten. One of these days I'll totally get a set for myself, just gotta find an educational catalog for kids. It's fun to play around and see what you can make- totally a creativity booster!

I'm totally a big kid, playing with blocks...

One man's trash...

...is totally another's treasure! I have so much fun antiquing, flea marketing, garage saleing, etc. It's always a treat to wander Goodwill, too. I like to see the potential in something that others can't. I have fun revamping things plus it's much "greener" (and cheaper!) to buy things that have already been made rather then to cause new things to be manufactured, not to mention you are keeping stuff out of landfills! If I had my own place I think it would be Salvation Army Style all the way! Here's the latest finds:

I love to collect vintage dishes (and they're aqua! Double score!):

Aren't these vintage bride dolls the sweetest? I love love love them! I will use the one on the right to decorate with at the upcoming bridal shower I am throwing my friend (she is a brunette). They were only $2 each and I estimate they are from the 40's or 50's at the latest:

I also found this wooden house, it looks like it was made to hold a chotchke or two, but I like it on it's own as a sculptural element. It now sits by the phone.




Another steal was this random of random quilt top...a random quilt for a random girl, eh, Angela? Ha ha. It's actually rather difficult for us humans to create a random thing, our brains want to organize things so badly- I was rather impressed at their randomness. I guesstimate that this quilt top was made in the 60's or 70's as it has some very funky fabrics! Some even have butterflies, it was a sign.

The fabrics aren't actually pieced together, but zigzagged onto a backing.

Sometimes a steal really is someone's trash, like the other week when my parents found this antique sewing machine sitting outside an Amish house. They asked about it and sure enough it was out for the trash. And it's in great condition too- the paint still looks great, no rust. We have a Singer treadle machine that my mom bought when I was little (she sewed us a lot of costumes on that machine! Way to go Mom!) so we have an appreciation for them. I'm curious as to what happened to the cabinet this would have been a part of.

I was surprised that this was out on the curb, it'd be worth a pretty penny in an antique shop, especially since it is in such nice condition.

The silver detail is quite Art Deco, this machine is probably from the 1920's or 30's. It's newer than our treadle machine. Us Chaneys like to rescue cool stuff, lol. And you wonder why we have too much stuff....

Thought I'd show what can be done with a thrift store find- I bought this gold plastic frame a few weeks ago and finally revamped it last weekend.

Before:

I spraypainted it black- when you remove color from an object it becomes all about its form. I LOVED the design that was left on the cardboard! So ghostly! Next time I'll have to remember to put a good piece of paper down to preserve the design.

I let it dry and hung it in my room, no other place for it now!

Can you tell I like butterflies from my pic? Ha ha. I really like "Mod Victorian" items so I liked how the frame turned out. I think it would look great with some Haunted Mansion wallpaper!





Stay tuned, folks for more craftiness!

Chautauqua Quilts

Last weekend I went to the Quilting Around Chautauqua quilt show at the Chautauqua Institution in NY. There's this neighborhood of beautiful old homes, many of them are summer homes on the lake. They also do cultural events, I've been there twice before for performances. It was nice to get out of the house, and I definitely got my exercise- 800 quilts were spread out in buildings all over the general area. It might have been nice to have had someone with me, but I had fun and got to explore and see what I wanted. Both the houses and the quilts were inspirational. I love old houses and quilts so it was a great match.

Wouldn't you love to live here?

This little church was unique and really cute:

A tiny public garden that was cute, had some pagodas around:

A beautiful, huge hotel:

I think I found my house:

You know you're in a nice neighborhood when this is the "homely" house in the neighborhood!

And on to the quilts:



A beautiful 1800's fan quilt:

Cute to use log cabin squares as pumpkins:

I'm not always a fan of batiks, but they work well in this:

A cute Christmas log cabin, it'd be cute as a big quilt:

I love the log cabin/stars combo, but I'd do different colors:

What a cute snowman!

I don't always like "mod" quilts but I like this one (Basic Grey does scrapbook paper and fabric):

If you don't want to do a whole big quilt you can do a framed one, it could be cute:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE 30's fabric...here's a cute chicken wallhanging:

and 30's butterflies! The whole thing was like 18"sq.

1930's baskets were sweet in a wallhanging:
The mini quilts were amazing...this whole quilt is 11 and 3/4 inches square...each bear paw was tiny and amazingly exact! Whoever did this was really talented:

It was a fun afternoon, I was definitely the youngest person there! It was funny because the "soundtrack" for the day was listening to women ohh and awww over everything.

There were a lot more neat quilts but those were my faves. I'm trying to get into quilting, been reading books, hoarding fabric and collecting patterns for a few months now. I really have a fun time putting fabrics and patterns together...now I just have to actually do it! I really wish I had more space to do stuff like this!