The Social Porcupine

An era of my life is finished.  Last night I tied the last knot on this quilt, a project for my hope chest that's been with me since February 2018. A friend said it must feel like a child after all this time. Not really, it is more like an unanswered thesis. But it is written, and for that I am thankful.  This quilt is something I began to dream at twelve years old when I found the embroidery pattern, a bunch of baskets of flowers, at a quilting shop. When I "won" a Janome sewing machine (pretty sure the woman just liked me and drew my name and called it a "second winner". She also copied out the pattern for me, because I'd admired it for so long, and told me to someday use it.  Years passed, and then one day, a little over five years ago, I needed something to lift me out of a mindset. The s ong based on Psalm 42 by the Sing Team was my current favorite song. It felt like I was eating a lot of tears and would be for the rest of my l...

I haven't worked on my quilt a whole lot this last year. Last year  I'd nearly finished the quilt top. I finished it not long after sitting in a cozy cabin as men and women worshipped God all about me. What joy! Having it all as one piece at last was a great feeling.  But then I didn't work on it for a few months. A house fire, a busy summer of work, personal writings, barefoot wanderings... a busy summer, too full to for my quilt.  A lovely woman gave me a quilting rack. And one free summer day I asked my brothers to help me repair it and set it up across my couches.  I ironed the top, they brought over some extra bits of wood and their drills, and we had a party. Montana Wool Barn  began their operation a few years ago. We used to attend church together, so when she heard I was searching for a wool batting... she gave me one!  It was in many pieces. I whipstitched it together and made it fit over my white muslin, then p...

Some of you may remember that I posted two years ago about a King sized quilt I'm doing all by hand. Last year I shared about the things I'd made in Germany, and gave a brief update on the quilt .  I started this quilt in February 2018, giving myself five years to finish it. We are at the three-year mark! And how lovely it is looking!!  Stitching in a German Church Four of the five finished strips I began to sew all the blocks together into strips in February 2019. September 2020 I was nearly done . . . just one strip left! I brought this strip to Germany with me, along with the final bit of lace to knit. I wasn't able to do a lot of sewing in the German churches, because many that I attended were the sort with dimmed lights and fancy smoke. But there were a few churches that I offered enough light for sewing ;)  Finished in the States Sewing in Germany while listening to some Jane Austen book— please tell me you don't notice the black speck on my teeth ;p Made and fi...

Wool yarn I bought from a little German store and took with me to the Black Forest.  When I came to Germany I planned on being so busy doing who-knows-what, but probably taking care of children, that I figured I would have little time for actually making things. Even so, I took a huge project with me that I've been meaning to do since I was fourteen or fifteen: a rayon scarf with a dragon embroidered on it. I also brought along my fifth and last quilt strip. Two huge projects that I hoped to have time to finish.  Turns out, I finished both of them easily along with many other things. WARNING: I tried to not use too many pictures ... but that was impossible.  Project number one was technically my embroidered scarf, but I made many things in between of working on that. Somehow, when I came to Germany I forgot to bring a stocking hat with me. So, naturally, I bought some yarn and knitted one on my way to the Black Forest with my first Au Pair family.  ...