Class Finale

Monday was the last day of class and the ladies were working of their sashing. I almost forgot to take pictures again this week- luckily I snapped a photo of one of Kris' blocks just before she left and I got a shot of some of Jennifer's blocks when they were layed out on the floor. The picture only shows 12 of her squares but she actually has 20. They were both using the pattern for Beautiful Batik but as you can see it's the fabric selection that makes the quilt - Jennifer ended up with a gorgeous bold quilt for her daughter, and Kris ended up with a sweet and soft baby quilt.

Turning Green

I've been slowly going green since my daughter was born. It started when she began eating food- only buying organic baby food and recycling all those little glass baby food jars (obviously I could have been a lot greener by making my own baby food from locally grown produce, but like I said I'm S-L-O-W-L-Y going green =P ) I thought that I've been doing pretty good- almost everything we buy is organic, I started buying local produce in the summer (this is Alaska, there is a very small window when this stuff is available!), we recycle everything that is accepted in town, we keep the heat at 65...okay on the coldest winter days I think we went up to 67, but for the most part it's 65 and off in the summer (and no A.C. is required up here), we have a new 95% AFUE furnace and energy star water heater, dishwasher, clothes washer & dryer, I've even modified my driving habits to try and get better gas mileage- all in all I felt I've made quite a few improvements- and then I took the Ecological Footprint Quiz and realized how much farther I need to go. I got a score of 190.22- which means if everyone in the world lived my lifestyle we would need 4.9 earths to provide all of the resources consumed. This is better than the national average (which is sad) but a LOT of room for improvement! My biggest downfall on the quiz is that I usually have meat or dairy with every meal. So even though it's kinda late in the year for resolutions here are a few things I plan to improve on: try to eat less meat and dairy, grow some of my own vegetables and berries, ride my bike to the grocery store instead of drive, take the bus more often, install more water saving fixtures, start composting and attempt to dry some clothes outdoors on nice days. I'll take the test again this fall and let you know if I've made much improvement- I'd love to hear your scores and suggestions for improvement.

Victims' Rights Week

Monday was the Annual Tree Ceremony on the Park Strip down town- part of the National Crime Victims' Rights Week. The ceremony involves people tying ribbons on a tree to represent themselves or others who are victims of violent crimes. There are different colored ribbons to represent different crimes: red for drunk driving, green for robbery, mint green for child abuse, white for hate crimes, orange for assault, teal for sexual assault, purple for domestic violence, yellow for kidnapping and hostage, black for homicide, red white & blue for crimes against those who serve in uniform. I try to go every year and tie ribbons in remembrance of my cousins. I took a couple photos while I was down there this year




This event is put together by Victims for Justice a nonprofit organization that helps victims of violent crimes and the survivors of victims of homocide.

April Class Part 1

Monday night was the first session of my class out in Eagle River. It was just me and 1 student- I had 1 no-show and 1 student is in Hawaii and will join us next week. My student (Ms. Kris Miller) decided on the "Beautiful Batik" pattern which has 5 cuts. She is making 12 squares which makes a nice lap size and is using flannel fabric from the line "Baby Talk". I took a couple of work in progress photos to share:


I found out Kris has her own quilting business-she has a nolting long-arm machine that you can rent (after taking a class on set-up) and quilt your own quilts using her machine- no more trying to wrestle your quilt through your home machine. I may have to try this out in the future- of course only on those that aren't quilt-as-you-go ;)
I'll give you another update after next Monday when we work on the decorative stitching.

Bye Bye Snowman

I thought this meant winter was done. and then it snowed again this evening.

Snow in April

Breakup was going pretty well, our grass was even turning green, and then it snowed Saturday night. It dumped several inches overnight. When we woke up Sunday morning the sun was shining, it was a beautiful day and everything was covered in a layer of bright white snow- so we made a snowman.



A little celebration of winters last hurrah (I hope!)

The Sugar Spoon

I went to the Sugar Spoon on Sunday for the first meeting of a book club that my mother-in-law started (We are reading "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver). The Sugar Spoon is a cute new little shop in Spenard that only serves desserts and coffee. The desserts we ordered were so pretty I had to take some pictures:




I think the pictures speak for themselves- you should definitely check out the Sugar Spoon if you are having a sweets craving.