A New Quilt

It has been many months in the making, but I have at last finished Susanna’s quilt.  I confess, I am quite happy with the end result (as long as I don’t look too closely at the binding).  I want to thank my quilting neighbor who now lives in Santa Cruz but whose faith in my abilities turned a frivolous thought into an actual possibility, my mother-in-law who gave me the sewing machine and therefore the ability to undertake this project, my mother who kept telling me that imperfections will give it character without which encouragement I would not yet be (and in all likelihood would never be) finished, my husband who supported me in every aspect of every stage, and who is the greatest support all my endeavors, and Susanna who has won my heart, and for whom I, who had hardly hemmed a pair of pants, would make a quilt as a physical representation of my love.  May she always see it as such.

Hale Family Gingerbread House, 2009 Edition

The first batch of frosting was impossible (luckily the second—we made it desperation halfway through the activity-- was quite good), the hand-cut house parts didn’t really fit together, and our friends’ house underwent a total collapse (I wish I had a picture).  Our friends were good sports, though, and I think Susanna may have preferred her house with the one inch gap between the roof and the wall it was supposed to meet: it was the only place the gingerbread men could get in and out of their home.