So, what has over 3000 pieces and has taken well over 5 years to complete?
The Memory Quilt!

It’s been almost two years since I first mentioned this project, making memory stars from fabric I would pick up along the way to remind me of the different places we’ve seen, SOWER projects we’ve worked, family and friends we’ve seen, and other things that I, well, just wanted to remember! I’d collect fabric, work on the stars about a dozen at a time, recalculate how many I still needed, and then keep on collecting! I had the main part sewn together (all 179 stars, in no apparent order!) by the time we left for Alaska, picked up the border fabric while we were in Alaska, and after the Christmas sewing rush, got back on track with sewing that baby together. And last month I finally got it to a local machine quilter. We picked it up on our way here (Palmdale, CA), and I got busy on the binding.

(Meals? Who needs meals!)
Yesterday, March 5, 2010 it was finally completed!
Here are some of my memories, up close and personal!

Some of the stars are pre-trip – quilting friends that contributed squares, or the base fabric from the wedding quilt for our son Toby and his bride, Tammy.

This one reminds me of our February 2009 project where it rained and rained and rained.

Ah, the sweet memories of a weekend with my nephew, his lovely wife and beautiful new daughter!

New Hampshire, Georgia
Arizona, Nashville

Gary’s flannel “lounging” pants (that finally wore out!), Cabin Curtains

I did have to add a couple of stars to cover our Alaska Adventure, but they worked well as corner blocks.

I’m really happy with the machine quilting! I had it done at Georgia’s Quilting Obsession in Beaumont, CA, and I think she did a really nice job!
See where the binding changes from blue to green in the above photo? Here’s a close-up-

That’s to remind me to always cut an extra strip of binding before you use up all your extra fabric on other projects!

Although I had planned to use it on our bed, now that it’s finished, I realize it’s actually a little more than our little bedroom can handle!

But even though it may not have a (visible) place of honor in this little house of ours, it still is a treasure to me.
Ah, the sweet memories……

Since we have a day or so until our March project really kicks in, I thought I’d share some recent crafty things I’ve completed lately. Ok, so actually they were from last year and were mostly Christmas gifts and yes, it is March, but somethings just don’t get organized so easily! (Like a “show and tell” post!). But, because some of my faithful readers are my quilting buddies from my previous lifetime, I thought I’d do a little sharing.
Today it’s all about Alaska. I know, I know, you heard about Alaska for 4 months. But this is about Alaska memories! Have you ever heard of a “Shop Hop”? A Shop Hop is where area shops (in this case quilt shops) join together in some group marketing plan to entice shoppers to visit all of the shops and purchase stuff! With quilt shops the plan is often to purchase a particular block kit at each shop that can be sewn together into one large quilt. In Alaska, the Shop Hop covered the entire state, and while we made it to lots of those shops, we didn’t make it to all. But that didn’t stop us – my quilting buddy Naomi and I still managed to pick up (or have shipped to us!) 12 kits! If I had followed their directions, I would have ended up with a quilt that looked (more or less) like this -

But I didn’t really want an Alaska quilt. So I decided to add borders and make individual wallhangings. A plan much more suitable for someone who lives in less than 400 square feet.
So, to help me remember the bears that we saw,

I made the bear wallhanging.

To help me remember the moose we saw (and oh, how l loved the moose!)

I put this together -

And my favorite fireweed…


The towering mountains -


The ancient glaciers -


the serene loons -


and while we never did see any Eskimos in kayaks, we did see some of those wonderful jackets -


Oh, and the outhouses…..


(This one is headed to our Vermont Cabin, where we do indeed have an outhouse!)
And then the last three -

Out of the eleven that I completed, five of them went to my unsuspecting family as gifts. The other six are in my wallhanging “stash”. And every time I pull one of them out, I’ll be reminded of the wonderful summer we spent in Alaska!

Tomorrow – the rest of the Crafty Story!

I know this is supposed to be about TRAVEL and such, but a certain part of this Alaskan Adventure has involved hunting down local quilt shops (and while Lara was with us, yarn shops as well). Alaska’s Quilt shops are REALLY BIG on Alaska fabric. Lots and lots of moose, bears, puffins, Alaskan Indian motifs, sled dogs, wild flowers and more moose. And along with wonderful selections of Alaskan-themed fabrics, many of the shops are participating in the 2009 Great Alaska Shop Hop, which of course is just a marketing ploy to get quilters into their shops. Back home a Shop Hop usually ran for a day or a weekend, and you would try to get to as many shops as you could in the allocated time. Often each shop would offer a block kit which when made would work into a larger wall hanging or quilt (depending on how many blocks you were able to collect). The 2009 Great Alaska Shop Hop goes from May 1 through October 31st! (Gives you an idea of how much territory you’d have to cover to get to them all. Not to mention that some of them are inaccessible by road, and we brought neither a plane or boat!) Naomi and I have been doing our part to support the local quilt shop economy by picking up blocks where ever we can. I’m not sure if I’ll be putting them together into one quilt or just making individual wall hangings. Each block has a pieced square and then an appliqué of some Alaskan highlight – bears, fireweed, mountains, trees, glaciers, etc. Here is one I have finished so you can get an idea of what these blocks are all about –

My one other sewing project has been an assortment of Alaska themed pillowcases. Shhhhhh – these are gifts for my little granddaughters. Hope they aren’t checking!

This one is for me –

I really do love those lupine and fireweed!
Aside from all the fabric fun I’ve been having (especially while Gary has been busy doing plumbing things), I have also just completed my first knit hat. Daughter Lara is an exceptional knitter (and that’s not just her mother talkin’ here. Check out the picture of the three of us at the end of this post – she knit the sweater I’m wearing. Really, she’s amazing!). Anyway, even though I couldn’t figure out how to finish off a dishcloth that I had started a year ago, she thought I was ready to move on to making a hat. And then she left before I got to the hard part – trying to figure out what “ sl1, k2tog, psso” could possibly mean! Thanks to the internet, a little common sense and a forgiving pattern –
ta da – ze hat!

And look – it even fits!

Who know what I’ll be knitting next!
Thanks for hangin’ in through my little show and tell. Sometimes I just need to get that off my chest!
And as a thank-you for sticking with all the gobbley-gook about hopping shops, here are a couple of Moose Creek area photos that are a little more back on track –
These were taken around Upper Trail Lake-

That’s it for today. We’ll be heading on to Soldotna tomorrow but I think we’re planning on stopping for a fish hatchery tour and a gold mine tour on the way. That’s one of the great things about Alaska – there’s always something “on the way”.