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Birds and Thank Yous

I made a quilt for my mom a while back. Originally I was thinking of just making a wall piece with a couple of large blocks but I didn't feel satisfied with that so I made another set of the blocks and then realized that putting just about anything else in between them would be too busy (due to my fabric choice).

So in the end I decided to just put white in the middle and sew on a few birds and branches with red buttons on the ends.

This was also my first try at hand quilting. It was a bit of a mess in the back but I really enjoyed doing it. Plus, I figure that if anyone is going to be inclined to love my sloppy quilting, it would have to be my mother. Mother's have a habit of loving your crafts no matter how amateur they might be.

One of the other reasons I wanted to do some hand quilting (specifically my first) on a quilt for my mom is because all my life I've watched her quilt. I always have this image of her in our living room, watching shows or playing scrabble with me while quilting.

I think quilting to her is like writing to me and when I moved to Sweden I realized how much I miss seeing her do it. The only thing I could do was learn to do it myself.

I suppose this quilt is a thank you of sorts, for being so artsy and raising me around such beautiful and intricate things. My mom and her whole side of the family are incredibly artistic and crafty people, a tradition I'm more than happy to learn and uphold.

Music Quilt

This is the music themed quilt I made for my dear friend Malcolm. He has quite a love of music and I absolutely loved making this for him. I avoided all frilly prints, though he might never care about such things, I decided to use blue and black in hopes that it will remain a favorite even during his teen years.

The piano at the bottom was a bit of an endeavor. I cut out all of the white keys and then sewed them together with the machine. The black keys I sewed on by hand, though I fear for their longevity since I realize now that I did not at all do that correctly.

I suppose if the black keys or the notes come off his wonderful parents could mail it back to me. I would happily fix it, though I'll probably hold it hostage to make them come get it just to get another hug from Mr. Malcolm.

For the back I used the left over materials. I made the quilt pretty large because I suspect Malcolm will be quite tall when he's done growing.

All of the fabric I had the fortune of finding in the sale pile at the local fabric store, Ohlssons.

Physics Quilt

So this is a quilt I was working on last year for my youngest brother, he's in university now studying mathematics and physics (don't worry, I don't understand any of it either).

This is actually the first quilt I ever did on my own. As you can see even in this picture, it doesn't really line up perfectly but I feel like that's a part of it's charm.

I made it particularly long because, well, he's particularly tall.

I wanted to use fabrics that were specific to him so I managed to find this amazing site called Spoonflower where people can design their own prints and sell them through this site, the Spoonflower company prints the fabrics on demand and mails them out, kicking back a percent of the profit to the designers.

One is a light blue Fibonacci Spiral and the other is Equations.

This was really fun to make and I'm happy to have sent it to him.

Grass and Rejection

Where have I been this time, you wonder?

Well, I finished a Swedish gardening and greenhouse program (Swedish due to the language not the style in which the growing of plants was done) and, much more importantly, I finished the book I was writing. It's the first of a series I've planned. I didn't even chicken out after doing the read through. I wrote up a lovely query letter, did some agent hunting, and sent it in to the first of many. I started work on the second book, though have admittedly lost a little steam after receiving the first rejection letter from the first agent I sent a query to.

I fully prepared myself for the fact that seeking an agent was going to be a long and painful endeavor (especially since most want you to wait until they've rejected you before sending in to another) but no amount of logic can sooth the pessimistic poet in you when your work goes unwanted.

But fret not, my attempts will continue. I have a whole list of potential agents here that I intend to bother with my hopes and dreams.

Wontons

Wontons are a labor of love. Either you love wontons or you love the person you're making them for.

They're incredibly easy to make, just chop up whatever you want inside and mix it in a bowl (I used carrots, mushrooms, vegetarian ground beef, and onions). Lay out some wonton raps, flour side down. Put a little of the mixture in the middle and then wet two sides before folding it into a triangle and pressing. Some people make them into little packets instead of triangles by bunching the sides but I think the triangles are easier. The only thing about wontons is how tedious they can be. You can only put a little in each one and it takes a bit of time to set out and seal each of them.

We boil them real quick before eating but you can always fry them... lets face it, you can fry anything if you really want to.

Forslunda

The winter wonderland that is my new school! We finally hit minus 20(celsius) this week. It seems that the prettier it is outside in the winter here, the sunnier and brighter, the colder. It's a strange trade but it offered me some really nice picture taking moments. My classes are going well. The students are all really nice and I'm hanging in there with the Swedish.