My siblings and I used to tease my father about his multiple/serial hobbies. Hobbies that usually lasted about a year. There were the pirana aquariums, the bonzai trees, the angora rabbits, and the cross bows. And the dogs. And the tomato plants. And the fishing.( To be fair, the fishing and the bonzais lasted longer than a year. )

But just a couple of weeks ago, Benjamin looked over at the dining room table that was full of various craft supplies and declared: ‘you certainly have a lot of different interests….’ I laughed and had to agree. I have mentioned scrapbooking here on the blog, and card making. Then there is the knitting, the crocheting, the baby blanket sewing, the coloring, the jewelry making, the blogging, the training, the reading, the cupcake baking, the thrifting, the vegetarian cooking and the singing…

Not all of these have lasted that long, but most of them have! I can honestly say that I am never bored.

But the one thing  I never really got the hang of,  and never really got in to, was the quilting.

Mariquilt1

 

Mari, my super- best- friend-on- the- other- side- of- the- planet,  on the other hand – is a true  life, die hard quilter. (And a family historian, and a knitter and a reader and a master teacher to boot!)

Sydney is just too far away for comfort. But I have started saving up to  visit her in 2017. And just over a year ago, she visited me in Stavanger, and brought the most beautiful handmade quilt as a gift.

 

Mariquilt2

 

I totally tear up every time I look at it. The details, the stitches, the colors, the fabrics… It is really a work of he(art).

She knows me so well. My affinity for everything Japanese. My love of owls. The blue and the white.

 

Mari quilt 3

 

I do believe that it would be one of the few things I would save if my house was on fire. It is unique and absolutely irreplaceable.

 

Mari quilt 5

 

And what would a post about quilting be without a Carol Lynn Pearson poem? 😉

 

Support Group

 

You can fall here.

We are a quilt set to catch you

A quilt of women’s hands

Threaded by pain made useful.

With generations of Comfort-making behind us

We offer this gift

Warm as grandma’s feather bed

Sweet as the Heavenly Mother’s Lullaby song.

You can fall here.

Women’s hands are strong.

 

Thank you, Mari – for being my support group, and quilter.