About the giveaway…I had a few folks contact me via e-mail and had eight comments left on the blog post. I did a random drawing of names and Carolyn will find the drawstring pouch and balsam sachet in her mailbox soon. (I must confess, though, that after double checking my notes, I found that the sachet was actually dyed with avocado skins and pits, so it’s not really super local. Ooops.) Thanks to all of you who left sweet comments (I have responded to them in the previous post)…I will being doing more giveaways in the future, so you may have another chance…
A dinosaur quilt for Maggie.
I found this very cute dinosaur fabric panel in the fall and knew it needed to be sewn into something for Maggie. Like most kids her age, Dinos are a big source of fascination. I pulled all the other fabrics out of my cupboards and put together a very simple quilt. Now that Maggie is no longer in Brooklyn, her subway days have turned into travel in her family’s car, complete with car seat. I made this quilt to snug around her on chilly winter mornings.
The back of the quilt also came from my fabric stash, so no trips to the fabric store were required for this gift. I thought they were kind of wild and reminded me of prehistoric jungles.
This was a super quick and fun quilt to put together and it was such fun to see Maggie open it while she was visiting us here in Vermont in December. Making it was yet another way to put my love into something that will be with her in the days and months ahead.
This quilt had a long and winding journey on its way into being.
Much like our Hannah and her Lauren, G and J had to postpone their wedding and then eventually, celebrate their vows in a tiny family ceremony. The daughter of very dear friends of ours, G is part of our “family by choice”. My design ideas went through several permutations until inspiration hit. Before I left Instagram, I followed G’s feed, filled with gorgeous photos of the National Parks she and her fiancé had visited over the past few years.
I dug deep into my fabric scraps and pulled anything that reminded me of the woods, the beach, the desert, and of course a bit of homegrown, hand dyed indigo sky…
The natural color solid used for the “negative space” is Kona’s “parchment”, an homage to G and J’s yellow Labrador who I suspect might enjoy the quilt, too.
The fabric with the little rust colored berries was a gift from the bride’s mother years ago, and I was delighted to include a few bits of that, for sentimental reasons.
The birch fabric finds its way in so many of my pieces. It’s sort of an emblem of dreams come true for me. It really needed to find its way into this quilt!
One of the things I love most about quilts is that they can tell stories. This one documents some of the true intergenerational aspects of deep and reliable friendship. It hints at adventures had and at adventures ahead. It’s being used in a living room on the other side of the country, but our bit of earth is reflected in it as well of all of those beautiful National Parks. And this quilt was sewn with love and hope. The frosting on the cake? G and J’s baby girl is due this spring, on my birthday. How exquisite is that?
Looking east, from Green Harbor as the sun set behind us.
Looking south, Green Harbor, MA,
Duxbury Beach, MA early yesterday morning, looking for snowy owls. No owls spotted, but a bracing walk, for sure!
In a total spur of the moment rescue, I drove to MA and back in a day on Friday to fetch my Mumsie from the path of the blizzard. She stayed here with us for a few days and after we dropped her back off at her house, we went on down to the South Shore to stay overnight with my brother and sister-in-law. They live a block from the beach and their neighborhood was slammed by the blizzard. Power has been restored, their boiler repaired and their street is now passable. WHEW! Good walks, a fine dinner, and a fun movie were unexpected perks from our rescue dash. We love living here in Vermont, but…wow…we love to visit Doug and Ra at their place!
And now all five of our immediate family’s households ( in VT, MI, OH) are under a winter storm warning…
Hope you are safe and snug, friends. I love that you are all in far flung places, but feel so close via this wacky thing called the internet. xo