If You Give a Moose a Muffin......

 We had a Mama Moose and her calf stay around the house for four days! That never happens. And  honestly, I didn't even try to give them a muffin! It certainly made things difficult, like trying to walk the dog, or even go outside. My shoveling got put on hold. The Mama wasn't aggressive, but the calf was, he charged my husband and our dog once. We had a couple of sleepless nights when they decided to hang around the front door and even came up on to our side walkway that leads to the carport. Poor dog! I am sure she thought  was protecting us with all her barking. LOL They finally left when my husband moved our truck, they saw that and ran off.  Of course we took lots of photos and videos. It was interesting to watch them. Who knew moose groomed themselves. They also seem to be adapting to the deep snow, they would climb up on our huge piles of snow to reach higher branches on the birch trees. 

In quilting news I redid the la st block for the Ladies' Aid BOM. Below is the one I prepped, but I was just not happy with it.

This is the new version, all finished. Much happier with this one.

I have also gotten a little hand quilting done on a very old project, Spring Time Album. I will be working on this today for "Slow Stitching Sunday".

Next block marked and ready to quilt.

This is my little sewing box I keep my hand quilting items in. 

Photo chart I use to keep track of my progress.

Not as much sewing this week as I would have liked. so much snow to shovel. Now that the moose left am back to it. I keep working at bit by bit. I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching group, HERE Happy Quilting, Rebecca

Icemageddon2021

Warning: Long Post

Icemageddon2021 is what Alaskans in the Interior are calling the winter storm that hit us in December. It started with record snowfall, then freezing rain and then more snow. The freezing rain left a 2 1/2" layer of ice on top of the snow. With the layer of ice and so much snow we were snow bound, unable to drive out of our driveway and then more snow came on top of that. We are breaking records for snowfall this winter. The roof collapsed on our local grocery store and one of the gas stations in town on December 26. There isn't another grocery store for 90 miles, in North Pole AK, but the roads were too dangerous to drive on, Condition Red. Many people were in dire straits. We are okay, we normally keep a good supply of food on hand, especially for the winter months. We had to hire a skid-steer to plow us out, the normal plow trucks could not plow the deep snow or break through the ice layer. I have been doing a lot of shoveling on the deck, the roof, stairs and around the house. 

The family that owns the grocery store also own the liquor store and they have begun to stock some basic necessities for the community. People are slowly getting plowed out. And I know we are not the only ones having issues this winter. This is nothing compared to the tornadoes and fires others have experienced.

Skid-steer getting us dug out

My Jeep I drive in the summer is buried!

Our driveway with the snow berm from the plowed snow.

The moose are having a really hard time dealing with the deep snow and ice. They are having trouble getting to their normal food sources and are becoming quite agitated. One cow moose attacked a women in her driveway and left her with a broken leg and a concussion, she is still in the hospital. They are hanging around town in the parking areas. People have been warned to not try to feed them and to stay out of their way. The wildlife biologist do not expect the calves to survive the winter. The wild bison heard in our area is also struggling.

(Not our car)

In some quilting news I have pulled out a project I worked on last year. It is a queen sized quilt for one of my adult grandsons. I have made this pattern before and it goes together pretty quick. I have all the 16 patches  done. I just need to make the star parts. I hope to get all the star parts done this month and get a start on sewing the rows together,

On the applique side of things Block 10, Carolina Rose for Cassandra's Circle BOM is almost finished, just need to do the star in the center.

The next block for Cassandra's Circle is prepped. This is Block 11, Charleston Star. There are 13 blocks in this quilt.

I finished the squirrel block for Ladies's Aid  BOM. I had to make the squirrel block, because we have so many squirrels on our property!

This is the antique block it was taken from.

The next block for the Ladies' Aid BOM is prepped.

And since I am going to need some extra blocks, the BOM pattern has 12.  I am going to try to turn this one into a moose by altering the antlers a bit, or it could be a caribou. I found this block in Barbara Brackman's book "Encyclopedia of Applique".

So I hope all of you are well and surviving your winter! Happy Quilting Rebecca

Free Pattern - Offer Ended

 In case you are interested Becky Goldsmith of Piece O'Cake Designs is offering a free pattern, Butterfly Garden. I made this quilt for one of my granddaughter's for her baby quilt. The offer is good until December 29,2021. HERE is a link to the pattern. This offer has ended.

Mt version of Butterfly Garden

Becky Goldsmith's quilt.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

Merry Christmas and Some Quilty Stuff

 

Hoping all who celebrate Christmas have a wonderful day. It will be just me and my husband today. I will be making a small prime rib and baked potatoes for hubby and I baked a pumpkin pie yesterday. It will be a quiet day today, I will probably do some hand quilting, watch the Christmas Carol and do some blog reading. I thought there might be others on their own today too and you might enjoy a quilty post to read.

I am still working on the Cassandra's Circle BOM. I have block 10 prepped and only three more to do to have this top finished.

The large center block.

The other eight blocks.

Block #10 is prepped to stitch.

A long lost applique project was found the other day. I was thinking about giving up on this one until I looked at the three blocks I had finished and fell in love with it again. This is the Sweet William  quilt. I have all the basket portions done, all hand pieced.

My three completed blocks

Three blocks prepped for applique.

All the basket portions, these were all hand pieced.

This is a photo of the Sweet William quilt.

My sister's neighbor decided to give up knitting and sent me all her knitting needles. So I made this scarf for her as a thank you.

These are all the needles she sent me.

If you want to see more quilty inspiration Quilt Inspiration blog had 12 days of Christmas quilts to look at HERE. Again, a Merry Christmas! Rebecca

Baby Quilts and Birds

 We made a trek up to Fairbanks on Saturday to deliver all the Christmas gifts and goodies. We had planned to go on Tuesday the 21st, but they were forecasting a foot of snow at least, so we thought it better to go up early. With a 200 mile round trip it is better to be cautious. It was so wonderful to see  all the kids, grand-kids and great grand-kids that we could. We also picked up prescriptions and did our monthly shopping, so it was a very long day.

I thought I would share a couple of baby quilts from this year. The first one was for our youngest son and his wife and their second little girl, Ivy, born on August 13, 2021.

You can see the quilting a little in this photo.

I made her second one out of some of the scraps.

The second baby quilt was for our newest great-grandbaby Allen. He was born January 4, 2021. Dinosaurs were requested!

You can see the quilting better in this photo.

Lynne Tyler of the Patchery Menagerie Blog (HERE) put out a call for student birds. Making some of her birds has been on my quilt bucket list for a while, so it seemed like a good time to try it out. You can find her pattern in her  Etsy shop HERE . My birds are really basic, but some of the participants  made some really unique birds. You can see some  of them HERE   HERE & HERE. Everyone was naming their birds so I gave mine names too.

This is Flatfish Barney, named after two nicknames for Halibut here in Alaska, flatfish and barn door

.

Ms. Aurora Borealis

Pippi Longstocking

Eventually I would like to make a whole quilt using Lynne's bird pattern.

The winter storm they forecasted has hit, at least 8" of snow so far. A good time to stay home and quilt. After I shovel the roof! Rebecca

Cold Again

 No sewing to show today, I have spent the last few days getting packages ready to mail. I was able to mail them  today even though it was -40*, my husband took me in to the post office. We don't normally go out after it gets to -25*. Interesting facts, the school is still open and the buses running until it hits -55*, though the library and city hall and others are closed at -30*. We have both wood stoves burning and are nice and toasty.

All my boxes ready to go.

Temperature at the bank next door to the post office.

I just have some fudge left to do and then, when things warm up we will head to Fairbanks to deliver all the Christmas goodies and gifts to kids, grand-kids and great-grandkids.

Praying for everyone who has been affected by those horrific tornadoes.  The devastation and loss of live are so tragic. Rebecca

Let's Try This Again

 Hello! I am going to try blogging again. I had been hoping our internet would have improved by now. They keep promising they are going to upgrade, but they haven't, at least not in our area. Still just a bit faster than dial up. I have continued to be busy stitching.  We have a new granddaughter and a new great-grandson, whom of course I made quilts for. I will post those next time. Lots to catch up on! Winter came early, out first snowfall was September 20, we  received 3-4". The next day we got 7" more. The weather man kept saying it was going to warm up. We were hoping it would and the snow would melt, but it didn't.

It appears the Blogger program is different, I hope I can figure it out okay.

My latest project was three I Spy quilts for three of my great-grandchildren for Christmas. I just need to get them mailed off to Minnesota.

The two larger ones finished at 48 1/2" X 66" and the smaller one for the baby (1 1/2 year old) finished at 40" X 44".

I am also doing Barbara Brackman's new BOM Ladies' Aid Album. She provides a free block the last Wednesday of each month. You can read more about this BOM on her blog HERE.

And of course it is Christmas time so lots of baking going on!

These are White Fruitcakes. I adapted a recipe from Joy of Cooking. They are more like a pound cake with candied fruit and pecans added. It is not my favorite but my husband loves it. After this photo I soaked them in apple juice (no alcohol here) wrapped them in cloth and then foil and let them set for a while.

Butter Ball cookies, another favorite. I think these go by a lot of names, including Mexican Wedding cookies.

Cinnamon rolls, a family tradition. I make dozens of these to give out. 

I still have fudge and peanut butter fudge to make. I have some other things I would like to do, but not sure I will have time. One, is this lovely Gingerbread Biscotti I saw on Barbara"s Cat Patches blog HERE. I will need to order some crystallized ginger first

And of course we have had moose in the yard.

That is all for now, but hope to post again soon. Happy Quilting! Rebecca