New Year's Eve

The Mystique of a Quilt

This time of year, the only thing that can give knitting a run for its money, in my book, is quilting. I can’t help but thinking, as I sit at my sewing machine, that I should quilt and knit all summer so I actually have the cozy products to warm us through the winter months, but c’est la vie, the urge never hits until my toes get cold during the day and I wake up in the morning with a red nose.

A few years back I stumbled across this photo: 

  [ Photo Credit: Cluck Cluck Sew ]

An amazing stack of quilts. Often I think about that photo, and attempt to dream  it into reality in my own home. I envision cuddling up on our second hand sofa with a huge quilt, a cup of tea and a book during the Fall rains, or of hastily piling them on our bed before a February snow storm or of our future children building forts out of them, sprawled across dining room furniture. Then I realized that if I spent as much time quilting as I did entertaining these fantasies I would be half way there already!

So, the quilt a year project came into being. One quilt, in twelve months… sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. I started this little goal in 2008 and the 2012 quilt  is only the second completed quilt.

  [My Finished Quilt Top]

When I say 2012 is completed, I mean the top piecing is done… the quilting is still under deliberation. I’m struggling, weighing the cost of having it beautifully long arm quilted vs. the total pain in the butt and possible disappointment of finished product of attempting to quilt a queen size quilt on my 1962 Kenmore.  What would you do?

Welcome to our home!

Welcome to The Red Homestead, home to my redhead future-hubby, our two orange cats, Simon and Marvin and me, your redheaded hostess. After a two year hiatus from blogging I find myself here, craving participation in the online community, but with very different things to talk about than what we did at my old internet home. 

Future-hubby and I have recently moved from a quaint Northern Michigan farming town to a bustling urban area on the shores of Lake Michigan, for future-hubby’s new (dream) job. We went from tight knit community and sprawling green spaces to 900 square feet (with beautiful original hardwood floors!) and a 10x10 ft patio. In our attempt to reestablish home and become a part of our new community we are sticking to firm convictions about eating local, “making do” and using the skills our parents and grandparents have taught us to be self-sufficient (together) in this world. 

As we approach the new year I hope you will join me in my homesteading attempts. Be a voice in conversations and correct me when I am treading down the wrong path (as I do quite frequently, usually with humorous results). What’s on this year’s agenda? Quilts, making aged cheese, building a potato tower, finishing multiple pair of knitted socks and finding a local dairy in our new hometown.