Boreal Witch

Oh, my...has it been another year already? Another year where I didn't really get as much quilting accomplished as I wanted to? Another year where I started a bunch of projects and didn't really finish any of them?

My love of quilting has spread throughout my family as well. I even helped my sister Blythe start one (and if she's anything like me she has yet to finish it!). This was a gift for her soon-to-be sister-in-law, blue and orange because she is a big Chicago Bears fan. Arthur, after coloring a quilt pattern of his own, insisted upon making his own quilt. I had hopes that we were going to finish it before Winter Break was over but we did not. Oh, well. It was still fun to show Arthur how to use the sewing machine without sewing his fingers, iron without burning a hole in the ironing board, and pin without pricking his fingers too much. His preferred activity was sewing. He didn't care for ironing and he loathed pinning. Can't say that I blame him; pinning is a repetitive task.

Actually, I am surprised I managed to finish as many as I did - five quilts, hooray! Several more were started and finished but remain unquilted, so I will have to wait until next year to show them off.

There were a few other things that happened this year. My Aunt Joyce
caught wind of my interest in the Civil War and called one August day asking if I would be interested in joining a Civil War quilting club at Attic Quilts, my local quilt store. It sounded kind of fun but I was worried that the members would be a little too serious about quilting...which I am not. I try to have fun with everything I quilt because if I went back and made everything perfect...well, it just wouldn't be fun anymore. It would become tedious and frustrating. I'd rather have imperfect seams and scrappy colors than tears. The ladies are a lot of fun (despite the thirty-year age difference!) and have the same quilting philosophy: HAVE FUN!

Even though this has nothing to do with the club, I received Civil War Legacies and Civil War Legacies II for Christmas. I am so excited to begin some of these lovely quilts (and there are so many pretty ones that I can't decide which one to make first!).

The unfortunate part of being part of a club now is that I am expected to create something. It took me five months of membership before I actually finished something. The scrap fabric came together perfectly and I had just enough to finish the quilt. I will probably make another one (in different colors) and send them to my lovely nieces just because.

After saving every penny from watching my neighbor's daughter, I finally bought a new quilting machine. I have yet to take it out of the box (I've been either traveling or sick) and take it for a spin but I am excited to compare its capabilities with my little Singer. I will also need to get a quilting frame and learn how to use it. I never thought of myself as being one of those people who had a lot of "accessories" but quilting sort of requires it!

Finally, I have stumbled upon something called "leaders and enders." I see this term thrown around a lot on various quilting websites but had no idea what it was until I did a bit of research. It's actually an ingenious method: take some scraps and sew them onto the beginning and ending of a chain. The scrap blocks are eventually sewn together to make another quilt. Obviously, this process takes time but the idea behind it is that with a bit of sewing here and a bit of sewing there, a whole new quilt is made with minimal effort! It's such a great idea that I'll probably give it a try, though I know I'm such a quilter that I'd need to have an idea in mind before I sew up a whole bunch of scraps.

Quilt #1: Basic rectangular nine patch. A few year ago, my friend Mona had spent some time in Hawaii. She returned and brought me some lovely blocks precut into rectangles. I made her a quilt with most of those blocks and decided to make the rest into a wedding quilt for my college roommate. She had gotten married in February of 2013 (oops!) but I reasoned that since seven years had not yet passed, I was probably okay. (Right?) I bought an especially vibrant Hawaiian print for the sashing but decided I hated it as soon as I got home. I isolated it to a thin border and the binding. It worked, though I still had so much of that fabric left over. Ugh. At least my friend loved it!

Quilt #2: Pineapple Blossom. This quilt was, quite literally, years in the making. I had originally set aside green, brown, and orange strips to make this quilt for a good friend who had moved out of state. He had picked it so I knew he would like it. Well, then life got in the way and the quilt was never started. Then he moved back. Then we moved out of Alaska. Then he announced he was getting married. Out came the giant bag of scraps and I finished it in about four months - a record for me! It was quilted and sent a few months after they were married. I'm not the biggest fan of the original quilt but I happen to love the mix of earth tones in mine.

Quilt #3: My Blue Heaven with additional sashing. I made a quilt similar to this one for a friend who had gotten married but the original quilt was so big...I quit. I had so many extra triangles I put them in my triangle bin and forgot about them. I even had one block leftover that I couldn't fit into my friend's quilt so I saved it. (Why not, right? A quilter is good at making new quilts from old blocks!) A friend from college was having her second baby - a boy - and I started cutting blocks for a quilt when I realized that I had almost everything for another My Blue Heaven already! The quilt came together (no cutting and very little piecing!) in no time and my friend loved it.

Quilt #4: Leftovers from Pineapple Blossom. One of my favorite things about Bonnie Hunter is that she knows how to use extra pieces from her quilts to make new quilts. This pinwheel quilt was pieced entirely with extra pieces from my Pineapple Blossom quilt and a just-under-a-yard remnant I found at Jo-Ann's. I believe that this is the first quilt I've made that I turned leftover pieces into a whole new quilt. Most of the quilts I've sewn involve digging through my scraps or buying new fabrics. It was actually a really fun process and I hope to do it again - perhaps even making a leaders and enders project of my own! (My 2-inch and triangle bins are overflowing...hmmm....there's got to be some fun triangle and square blocks out there...)

Quilt #5: Faux Log Cabin. Another friend of mine had her second baby but when she discovered she was having a girl, she wasn't very excited about it. Not because she didn't want a girl; mostly because she was not crazy about pink. Or about the possibility of having a princess. Or a diva. But, purple was fine. So I went through all of my scraps and found enough purple to make this fun quilt reminiscent of a log cabin. The quilt ended up being too narrow, so I sewed a border on two sides from the leftover green and brown pieces. The quilt came together quickly even though I felt like this thing sat around for a while. She loved the finished product! (But who doesn't love a green-brown-purple combination?)

I said last year that I'd be making a quilt for myself. Well, that didn't happen. It was started and now I've decided I don't like the pattern I chose. I do have something else in mind which I think will be absolutely marvelous! There's also a possibility I'll be able to reuse some of the blocks I've already started making. (Don't you just love the frugality of quilting?) Happy quilting!

Blessed be!

My cousin, who spends half his time in Chicago and the other half in London, planned to be in Chicago for most of December. He suggested a sleep-over at his Chicago apartment. Gloria and Byron would be there, too.

Dear Fairbanks Friends:

I really should start planning to never leave the house from Black Friday to New Year's Day.

I figured if I was speedy enough, the boys and I would be past West Des Moines and the half-way mark of the trip. Mother Nature, however, had other plans.

We left on a Tuesday afternoon. The snow, sticky and wet, had been steadily falling since about 10am. No problem, I thought, I've driven in worse weather than this. After spending about ten minutes entering the freeway and another ten maneuvering around the slowest of the slow cars, I finally made it to a point where I felt I was getting somewhere. I was driving far less than the maximum of 70 and far slower than I actually wanted to, but with the weather conditions as they were, I didn't want to risk an accident.

We saw three semi trucks in the ditch that night. The last one, outside Iowa City, stopped traffic for twenty minutes. By then I was so exhausted that I pulled over to the closest motel I could find - which turned out to not be such a good idea. The place was filthy and I hardly slept knowing that I'd probably awaken with lice or bedbugs. Thankfully, though, and surprisingly, we had no little friends sharing our beds.

By the next morning, the snow had stopped and we drove through Des Moines and Kansas City without difficulty. I forced the boys to have lunch at Toot-Toot in Bethany, Missouri. They cried because they really wanted to go to a Sonic. Does Sonic have a stuffed raccoon in a miniature birch bark canoe? Or fried pickles? I thought not. 

In retrospect, Sonic would have been the better choice: after spending two days in the car in addition to being in a new place, the boys bounced off the walls in excitement. I think the waitstaff and the customers were glad to see us go, especially after the embarrassingly horrendous meltdown outside the bathroom.

We pulled into Joyce's driveway at about 4pm - far later than I anticipated, but was she excited to see us! She had met Arthur long ago, when he was two, and had never met Balin. Arthur, of course, was too young to remember Joyce, but both boys quickly warmed up to her. They marveled at all of the Christmas trees and played on a rusty swing in her yard. (What is it with these boys and rusty yard equipment?) They admired the "kitty pancakes." Balin, still on his Astro kick, insisted that a sea lion pancake be made. Joyce told me I'd be making that one (which I did), but it looked less like a sea lion and more like a melted cow. Balin was still satisfied.

The boys enjoyed visiting Ft. Scott. They have done an incredible amount of work on the grounds since the last time I was there. It's become more interactive, with lots of kid-friendly exhibits. Arthur and Balin loved combing the horse's tail second to running around the grounds.  Those boys.

Aunt Joyce has always been a very busy person. She's involved in so many activities around Ft. Scott I could probably learn a thing or two about time management from her! This year, she had volunteered for Homes for the Holidays and planned to have all 15 of her trees up and on display for the whole town! (She has literally thousands of Hallmark ornaments - some that she's been collecting for decades.) It was a bit of a headache for her because there was so much to get done before next Saturday. Aunt June was helping Joyce decorate (June's always had a flair for design) and for whatever reason, Arthur loved helping her! He put ornaments on the trees and hung garland. He even put fake poinsettias in Joyce's flowerpots and helped me arrange them. June was quite impressed with his skills!

The last few days of our trip were quite nice. Temperatures were in the 50's and 60's. Joyce and I took the boys to a park. They spent most of their time throwing rocks into a nearby lake and climbing over and under the playground equipment. Both insisted that they did not need jackets (residual Alaskan living?) and Joyce joked that she would be wearing her sweatshirt. It was a too chilly for her.

That's the funny thing about kids, right? As soon as something sparks their interest, they forget they're hungry, cold, or bored. It certainly seems like my boys are bi-polar sometimes when really they just find a new activity that interests them.

Finally, on the very last day, we managed to make it over to a friend of Joyce's where the boys got to ride (and drive!) a little farm tractor. Excited is an understatement. Arthur was ready to hop on, but Balin held back, a little frightened. Once he saw how much fun Arthur was having pushing dirt around, he forgot about how scared he was and wanted to get on, too. The tractor wasn't the only machine the boys rode that day - they got to also mow the lawn!

I hope you spent your Thanksgiving with friends and family. Do you realize how lucky you are?

Blessed be.

Today, while at Robinson's office, I overheard one of his co-workers talking about a novel she was writing. She had an agent already, she explained, but now she was - at the advice of said agent - attempting to make her way through the first (of quite possibly many) rewrites. 

Dear Balin,

Someday you will be as old as your brother; an intelligent, no-nonsense, mature child of six going on seven. By then, you may have grown out of dressing up. You'll no longer be a kitty, a bunny, Sulu, Daisy, or even Max in his wolf suit. Whenever I suggest you put on a mask or a hat or even a full-blown costume, you'll say, "No. I don't want to. I'm not a (insert character here). I'm just Balin."

You'll just be Balin.

There's nothing wrong with being who you are. Because I love who you are. I love that you have an imagination like mine; that you love pretending to be characters you find so fascinating; that you have no qualms about dressing up in something that less enlightened people would consider "girly."

But, Balin, if by the off chance you still find some joy in dressing up when you are six or seven, then do so. I will happily dress up with you - because there's nothing wrong with letting your imagination run wild.

Blessed be.

When I was a child, Halloween was on October 31st. There might be a party at school a day or two before, but if and only if Halloween was on a weekend. Other than that, Halloween was simply a fun-filled day full of candy, cookies or cupcakes, and costumes.

Fast forward about thirty years. I have children of my own and suddenly Halloween has become not just a holiday but it's become a holiweek. Every single evening of the last week of Halloween, there were activities from trunk-or-treating to parties.

It was exhausting.

I'm all for dressing up and having fun, trick-or-treating and handing out candy, carving pumpkins and baking cupcakes, letting my kids stay up late and watching bad scary movies. That's what Halloween is all about - and I love every minute of it!

But as a week-long holiday? It was just too much. Keeping their costumes clean was a pain. Keeping them out of their treats was a challenge. And even though the boys were excited, they were a bit overwhelmed.

Every year, Arthur's school has a cute program called Spooktacular. Kids and their siblings dress up in costumes and visit different classrooms. Teachers host a ten-minute activity in their classroom - reading a book, dancing to music, the traditional feel-body-parts-in-small-containers - and then give out candy. It's a lot of fun and the boys really enjoy it. (Balin talked about the wiener dog book for days after the event.) Toward the end of the evening, they even got to take two pieces of candy. Score!

Robinson's work also held their traditional Halloween party. There was food and lots of candy. Everything was pretty much the same as last year except for the trick-or-treating. Last year, the employees passed out candy from their offices. The boys were particularly excited about the king-sized candy bars they received and they hoped for more this year, but alas, the "no trick-or-treating" party planners won. They were disappointed.

There was still more than enough candy to make up for it.

The boys also received their annual Halloween cards from Nana with the usual $2 and lots of foam stickers. Arthur promptly put his in the sand crawler fund and Balin stuck his in his piggy bank.

This was the first year we took the boys trick-or-treating. It was bitterly cold outside so Balin wanted to go inside after three houses, but Arthur lasted for several blocks. The strap on his pumpkin candy bag strained under the weight of all the candy.

So Halloween was a little crazy this year. It probably doesn't get any less crazy in the years to come.

Blessed be.

Oceans of leaves race,

As the oldest of three daughters, I often find it hard to just let things go. Everything has to be done just so - perfect.

Lately though, I have been letting things go. Things get done, whether or not they are done perfectly.

Blessed be.

Fall's here and that means...apples!

Today was a bit of a surprise. 

You are now in first grade.

The summer was fun, at times stressful, exciting, and exhausting. I think we both look forward to the routine tedium that school has to offer.

The night before school, you sat in bed, pensive and anxious. You said that you were a bit afraid. I reassured you that many of your kindergarten classmates were in your class. You had a class pet. You had two nice teachers who were excited to begin the school year.

As I watched you get on the bus the next morning, I felt a strange mixture of joy, pride, and more than a hint of sadness. It was the sadness that surprised me most, leading me to believe that I wasn't quite ready to let you go as quickly as I thought.

Dear boy, I don't know what this year will bring, but of one thing I am certain: you love school. You love learning. You love questing for knowledge. I do not know if this quality we share is inherent in you or if I taught it to you, but of all of your wonderful qualities, I relate to this one the most. It is a most precious gift, to be able to question and search for meaning. I hope that you keep it the whole of your life.

Love, Mommy

Oh, these boys. They love the Renaissance Faire.

Things have been rather busy here lately.

Well, not here. At the farm. My father is preparing to return to Alaska. Since Gloria intends to move into the farmhouse within the next few months, the whole place needs to be cleaned. Furniture needs to be sold. Items needs to be packed away.

All of this, of course, is something I am willing to do. I like being helpful and - given that I am such a nosy person - I like looking through other people's things, especially stuff that's been packed away for so long. It becomes a kind of treasure hunt.

My father, however, has a nasty habit of changing his plans. Quite frequently, actually.

This trip, which was supposed to keep us at the farm for only a couple of days, ended up keeping us here for a full week.

By the time Friday rolled around, the boys and I were more than ready to get back to Beloit and I'm pretty sure Dad was more than happy to sit in peace and quiet at the Amtrak station for a few hours.

Whew. This has been a really long summer.

Blessed be.

Balin and I are regulars at the Y. The desk clerks love hearing his constant chatter. The ladies at the Stay n' Play love his politeness and his creativity. He's gotten so used to everyone that I thought it might be time for something new. Something fun for Balin and something for Arthur and I to do - just the two of us. 

Robinson is quite adamant that you cannot have a vacation if you visit family.

This was the part of the trip I was most excited about, but - in all honesty - I was positive that the boys were not going to be as excited about it as I was.

I have mentioned once or twice in previous blogs that I am currently writing a piece of historical science-fiction that parallels the American Civil War. Most of the research I've done centers around the navy: the blockade (Anaconda Plan), the building of Confederate ships in England, the Hunley, Raphael Semmes, and the Alabama. Gettysburg was not part of that research - not directly - but I still wanted to see it with my own eyes: an actual testament to the most gruesome war in America's history. It's one thing to see pictures. It's another thing to actually be present.

In total, it would be a seven or eight hour drive to get there from Mystic. We promised the boys a stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Robinson's family had lived there several years before Robinson was born. His mother had said that the entire city smelled like chocolate. The boys especially wanted to see if that was true. (It didn't. They were disappointed.)

They spotted the amusement park in the distance. We promised to take them again - when Balin was older because "right now he couldn't go on any of the rides" - and made candy bars at the Hershey Museum instead, which more or less placated them. Balin was so exhausted that he fell asleep during the pre-candy making presentation. He did, however, wake up long enough to make a S'mores bar and eat all of his leftover chocolate.

We has hoped to tour an actual factory but all of them were closed down. Instead, the candy chef who had helped us make our chocolate suggested that we go to a nearby exhibit - "with free parking!" she exclaimed - where we could take a ride to see how chocolate was made.

At no time in my life was I prepared to witness such horror.

Look, I'm all for entertainment...but this was gaudy. Gauche. Cows - cows? - offered up a song-and-dance about how chocolate was harvested, processed, and made into candy bars. There were no specifics, nothing new to learn (the candy chef had done an excellent job explaining the process already), so half-way into the ride I was more than finished with the whole thing.

I would love to go back someday and take one of the tours. I'd also love to explore the little town of Gettysburg...but maybe when the boys are older. When they can really appreciate it.

Blessed be.