Sunday Sundry - Vol. 14

I wish you could smell these scented pine cones.  Heavenly.  These were some of what we unpacked from Dad's moving boxes recently.  My mom had hand-dipped each one (some 15 or more times) in scented wax.  She mixed the scents herself, so what you might imagine might smell like straight up cinnamon actually smells like soft sandalwood with a cinnamon undertone, or evergreen with a hint of berry and cedar.  It's hard to describe in words just how amazing they smell.

These went into fabric baskets that she made and sold at craft fairs.  I spent time this week deconstructing those baskets that were abandoned in various stages of production when she had her stroke.  It was a bittersweet task, but I felt she would have wanted me to do that, salvage the fabric to use or donate, and move on.

The Lighter Side
I clicked on an ad in my Gmail account today, something I rarely do, but this T-shirt had caught my eye.

"Will sleep with every quilt I meet," just cracked me up.  The site is Block Party Studios, and it looks like they've got a number of cute and fun gift items for the quilter, as well as for the quilter's significant other.  If any of my family is reading this (psst, M.?), this shirt is near the top of my Christmas list.  Hey, I'm easy—to buy for, that is!

Thrift-O-Rama!
I have no idea what that means, but we did buzz through three thrift stores on Friday afternoon and snagged a few treasures, viz:

I love that bright undersea print!  The middle fabric is a vintage print that has a feedsack type texture to it.

Also found some red rick-rack.  Say that three times fast, and you will sound like the child of Barbara Walters and Elmer Fudd too, I bet!

My husband gets credit for spying two very cool finds of the day—a double-scoop sundae dish and a Royal Haeger (#128) ashtray in the gold tweed glaze.

Neither of us eats ice cream anymore (sadly) or smokes (thankfully), but his idea is to put a couple of vintage Christmas ornaments in the sundae dish.   Fabulous, right?  

I know there has to be a novel way to display something in the ashtray too.  Jane, help!  I'm thinking it'd be interesting to maybe have it hold vintage cards or photos where the cigs used to sit, maybe on some kind of tubular placecard holder type thing, but I don't know how to make that happen.  Any other ideas?

My heart went pitter-patter when I saw this little tin recipe box.  I'm not sure how old it is exactly, but I'm guessing the Flower Power era.  Back before they abbreviated states with two letters, anyway, as it says it was made in "Penna." on the bottom.

Getting in the Groove

I might have palpitations of another sort if I think about all the things I want to sew or quilt before Christmas.  It's going to take the old nose to the grindstone and some solid concentration over the next few weeks.  Please pass the Focus Factor.  I will have to resist being derailed by all the other brilliant projects happening in blogland, but it's going to be hard.

Speaking of brilliant (and distracting, but in a wonderful way), have you seen the free Quilting Tutorials page over at Cluck Cluck Sew?


You can peruse the various tutorials linked from there and post your own.  Did I mention brilliant?

Parting Gift

Ray LaMontagne is getting regular rotation on my favorite radio station lately, and I do not mind at all.  My husband tends to want to change the station when this song comes on, but I shoo him away if he tries.  We both agree there is a Joni Mitchell quality to it, with maybe a nod to early Neil Young as well.  I hope you enjoy it!