Boreal Witch

This is one of my favorite blog posts. Probably because I can show off some of my creations I've made over the year, but also because it involves one of my loves: quilting.

I started quilting about seven years ago. As with most of my hobbies, I threw myself into it. I didn't bother taking a class, I just cut some squares and triangles and started sewing. Most of my beginning quilts were less than wonderful, but as I kept going, I learned about matching colors, seams, sashing, binding, and even the process of quilting.

Almost all of my quilts are for other people. I haven't made myself a quilt yet (though I hope next year will be the year!). When my grandmother passed, I inherited the quilt I made for her. She never used it because it was "too pretty to use." I wonder what she would think if she knew I use it all the time! 

Even with the big move from Alaska to Wisconsin, I managed to make four quilts and bind and quilt one. I might have gotten one more finished if I had sent it to the quilters about a month earlier. Oh, well. It will be the first quilt finished of the New Year! 

Quilt #1: My Blue Heaven
(You can find the pattern here.) This quilt was for a dear friend of mine from high school. Heather and her husband had been married for two(?) years when I finally finished it. This quilt was monstrous. Normally I try not to make quilts this big because it takes me too long to finish them. I had cut everything out and started sewing it together...and then it sat for a really long time. Finally, I just said, "Screw it!" and made the finished quilt a little smaller. I did keep the extra blocks and will use them for a baby quilt next year. (I just moved to Wisconsin, so I don't know a lot of people, yet I find myself in the process of making three baby quilts!) I chose this quilt because Heather's eyes are blue and her husband's are brown. It was lucky I had a lot of blue and brown scraps. For some reason I must really love blue and brown quilts...



Quilt #2: Simple Hourglass
To be honest, I can't remember where I found this pattern, but it is super simple to put together. It only took me a day to complete. I made this for Ginny, one of the other IAC board members who was having her baby at the end of January.

Anyone else notice that I really seem to like scrap quilts?

(I think they are far more interesting than quilts with the same fabrics.) 



Quilt #3: Block-Within-A-Block
I did not sew this quilt. My friend Amanda made it for Balin's birthday. She had sewn everything together and had tied it with yarn, but couldn't figure out how to put the binding on. I offered to put it on for her since it probably would have sat at her house for months if I hadn't. (And there's no shame in that...my projects tend to sit for months at a time, too!) I ended up taking the yarn out and quilting before putting the binding on. It's a cute little quilt. I love the colors.


Quilt #4: Rails
I'm going to have to start making better notes about each of the quilts I make. I made this in February and it is now December. I'm embarrassed to admit (again) that I've forgotten where I got this pattern.

I made this quilt for the Boys and Girls Club Auction. I don't make a lot of red quilts, but I think I'm going to start. They are absolutely beautiful.


Quilt #5: Bento Box
I finished this for a friend who got married last November. When I told her it was a custom of mine to make quilts for weddings, she told me that she'd like a wall hanging instead.

Emily spent a year teaching in Japan and I thought the Bento Box pattern would be perfect. She had told me that her favorite colors were blue and green. I machine quilted it myself and am very proud to say that I am getting pretty darn good at machine quilting!

I expect to finish at least two wedding quilts and three baby quilts, but there is always the possibility of more, more, more!

Blessings in the New Year, dear readers!

Blessed be.

Yule is one of my favorite holidays. Actually, we have so many traditions that all of December seems like one big holiday.

Since we are living in an apartment again, we had to do things differently this year.

We don't have a fireplace, so our Yule celebration didn't include a bonfire this year.  We had some  sparklers that I picked up from a garage sale this summer and lit those instead. The boys had a blast. We also had a delicious dinner with the most amazing salad I've ever eaten (recipe here) and a caramel/butterscotch fondue for dessert. Sadly, Robinson was sick with strep throat and was unable to enjoy the food as much as he would have if he was well.

Our lease says that we cannot have a real Christmas tree, so we bought a large wreath to hang all of our ornaments and lights on. It was a bit crowded, but the boys enjoyed the novelty.

Their ornaments turned out great, too. Arthur chose to commemorate his holiday program; Balin, his time on the farm, Robinson, his journey down the Al-Can; and I chose to celebrate my new-found love of biking. 


We did, however, continue a few of our favorite traditions. Our gingerbread "house" this year was actually an AT-AT. There's a Lego Luke Skywalker on top (that was Arthur's idea). We had a tough time with it. Its first and second heads were too heavy and broke off, so we decided that this would be one of the AT-ATs that had fallen in the battle on Hoth. It took forever to finish this thing (mostly because of the combination of winter break and Robinson's illness), but the boys had a blast decorating it. Next year we're going to shoot for an X-Wing!

My friend Andrea made a special trip to visit us. She went to UPS with me and lived just down the hall freshman year. She's in Minnesota now. We haven't seen each other in (I kid you not) about twelve years, so it was wonderful to catch up. We also caught each other up on some of the things other UPS friends have been doing and worked on some wedding presents for our friend Rin, who got married February. There are plans in the works to visit her this summer...the boys were utterly fascinated and smitten by her. Isn't it funny how you can get together with old friends and everything's just like old times?

Our families are very generous and the boys received all kinds of gifts: toys, books, clothes. They spent most of the morning putting their new Lego kits together, with Arthur helping Balin.

I'm not sure where Balin's interest in fire fighters came from (he was a fireman for Halloween - maybe that's part of it?), but he got a lot of fire fighting gifts, including two pairs of pajamas and the Lego firetruck. (I didn't notice until now, but he's also sporting his fire truck t-shirt!)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Blessed be.