Baby Jesus Is Back

Once upon a time, many years ago, maybe thirty years or so, the mother in the family spotted a tiny wooden manger scene in a holiday catalog. The carved figures, none taller than an inch and a half, were brightly painted. "This set would be perfect for my children to play with at Christmas," the mother thought. 

And verily so, she ordered the toy crèche and throughout the children's growing up years the miniature figures became a part of the family's holiday times. The children would set up the manger scene on the kitchen table or under the tree, and, in so doing, the Story was told again and again. 

But the children grew to be adults and one Christmas, in setting the tiny figures out in the kitchen windowsill, the mother noticed that Baby Jesus was missing. "Lost," she thought. "We have lost the baby." Like all mothers, when their children leave home, even though mothers know that children must grow up, the mother felt the loss of the tiny carving for the little creche had found its way to the family's Christmas celebrations.

She knew it was just a representation  of the Christ Child, just a piece of painted wood, yet every Christmas she would take out the little figures and, fingering them and remembering, she would wish that they would somehow or another find the tiny painted figure somewhere in the big empty farmhouse. 

Christmas after Christmas came and the mother became a grandmother. The little toy crèche moved to another house. By now the grown up children talked about how Jesus must have been tossed out with wrapping paper some year. Jesus was probably in a landfill, or worse, incinerated. But maybe, the mother thought, the little wooden piece is stuck in the cracks of the oak flooring in the old farmhouse. 

Finally the mother thought and thought about the Story. Baby Jesus was still in the manger. The problem wasn't that Baby Jesus was gone. The problem was that the tiny painted piece of wood was gone. The mother knew a famous woodcarver and a talented Artist. "Maybe I could ask the Carver and his Wife if they could make a new baby for the very old manger scene," she thought. 

And so she dared to ask the famous Carver if he would gently carve a new Baby Jesus. And she asked, too, if his wife, the Artist, could paint the baby so Mary and Joseph would have their baby back.

And it came to pass that the Carver and the Artist, using their magical talents, created a new manger and in that manger they fashioned a Baby Jesus for the Holy Family. When Christmas time came, they bundled up the little creche with all of its brightly painted figures and packed them safely into a postal box.

The Mother, upon opening the box, carefully pulled out the figures, one by one, until she came to the Baby. Yes, a new Baby, but still the Old Story.

And so the figures returned to the kitchen windowsill where they remind the Mother, when she pauses in a day's work, that Baby Jesus really isn't lost. In fact, Baby Jesus comes back every Christmas, making the Old Story into a New Story, again.

Walk To White Rock

White Rock in the background -- Dec. 26, 2014

A bunch of us walked to White Rock on the day after Christmas. Our walk was a repeat of our hike to White Rock (the rock, out on the Shoal) last year, but this year we had to stay on the shore since there is no ice on White Rock Shoal.

The town of White Rock is one mile south of our lake house and so we walked to White Rock (the town) along M-25 on a cold and sunny day. Here we are on the lookout on the base of the stairs at the roadside park just south of the junction of M-25 and Atwater Road.

Walking on the ice toward White Rock -- Dec. 26, 2013

Lake Huron was so iced over last Christmas that we could walk on the ice out for about a half mile. This year the water levels have been up since the start of the summer and the temperatures have been moderate, so there is no snow and no ice.

What a difference a year can make.

Christmas Quilts Day Five: Winter Pines and Sister Quilts

Fifth in a series of five blog posts about Christmas quilts, today's post is about quilt with pine tree blocks. 

During the years that I owned a quilt shop I had to give up the idea of ever finishing many of the quilt projects that I started. Part of the energy of selling quilt fabrics comes from always having something new coming into the shop, and so I had to be moving on to the next best thing, even if that meant putting really cool quilt ideas and projects aside.

I did manage to complete one quilt and that is my "Winter Pines" quilt. The tree blocks in this quilt were cut using a tool called Easy Angle that my mother enjoyed using. I saw how much she enjoyed making pine tree blocks with the tool and sewed some blocks of my own.

Those blocks ended up in this quilt. Several of my friends also made the exact same quilt using the same tool. Their quilts were finished way before my quilt was done. I know that Carol Bain and Gloria Bush are enjoying their winter pine tree quilts year after year, and I consider their pine tree quilts as "sister" quilts to my quilt.

I used red quilting thread in the loops that arch through the trees in this quilt. It is entirely hand quilted, by me, and is one of the quilts that links me to my quilting sisters, those many friends who came to the quilt shop and sewed right along with me.

Christmas Quilts Day Four: I'm Pining For Christmas

Fourth in a series of five blog posts about Christmas quilts, today's post is about a quilt with wool batting.

This little quilt, finished in 1992, has wool batting from the sheep that we once raised on Graywood Farm. Hand stitching through a wool batt is like stitching through butter; the needle and thread glide effortlessly.

The quilt is a single Irish chain with a pine tree block in the center of each chain. I am thinking that I used cardboard templates to cut the blocks, which would mean that this quilt predates my ability to use a rotary cutter.

It is hand quilted with stitches tracing the outline of each tree and forming a gentle curve in the border fabric. My cutting skills may have been minimal, but I was working toward even hand stitches in my finishing work.

The label on the back of this quilt names the quilt as "I'm Pining For Christmas," a very apt name for a precious little quilt.

Tomorrow's quilt -- a tree block from my Mom and sister quilts.

Christmas Quilts Day Three: Star in Star

Third in a series of five blog posts about Christmas quilts, today's post is about a rescued star quilt.

Fifteen or so years ago we were strolling through the Bay City Antiques Mall and I happened to spy a quilt that was red and green and pink. The pink should have been white, but the quilt had apparently been washed, and the red dye had stained the white fabric pink.

"I think I could rescue that quilt," I told Ed as we both handled and looked over what seemed to be an irreversible situation. Susan Fuquay, the designer of yesterday's Simpleworks quilt had just written in her magazine, "American Quit Retailer," about her saga of having the reds run in her first sample of the red and green Simpleworks quilt. She told about "moving the dye" which meant using a surfactant like Synthrapol (think, mild soap) and submersing the quilt time and again until the pink water turned clear.

That Christmas, I found the damaged, pink stained star quilt, the one in the photo above, under the tree with my name on it. "You said you thought you could fix it," Ed said. "Now you can try."

The end result, after about six or eight washings, was this delightful star in star quilt that we enjoy so much every holiday. The pink is gone and I often wonder about the quiltmaker or maybe her child (daughter? son? niece? nephew?) who abandoned this quilt.

Surely there is a story that lies in these stars.

Tomorrow's quilt -- tiny trees and some wool batting.

Christmas Quilts Day Two: Simpleworks

Second in a series of  five blog posts about Christmas quilts, today's post features a hand appliqued beauty. 

Here's a quilt that is based on the Baltimore Album quilts made on the East Coast in the 1800's. Called album quilts because each block is different, like a photo album, Baltimores are a genre reserved for quilters who are willing to tackle the hard stuff. Usually consisting of red and green designs on a white or cream background, Baltimore Album blocks are hand appliqued with one block taking anywhere from ten to twenty hours of stitching time.

This album quilt, designed by Susan Fuquay of the Dallas area, is called "Simpleworks" and was one of the many block of the month quilts that were sold at my quilt shop, Pigeon River Mercantile & Wool Co. The Mercantile opened in November of 1992 on Main Street in Pigeon, Michigan, and was a mecca for quilters for almost ten years.

Pat Smith of Cass City, Michigan did the careful applique and piecing work on this sample. I love the sawtooth borders and the subtle gold touches that Susan's design worked into the quilt. This Christmas, Simpleworks is hanging above a console table that is on the backside of the fireplace at our lake house.

The dessert plates are already stacked on the table and Mary Gettel's hand woven basket holds the extra flatware that we use for desserts. I made an old fashioned frozen fruit salad for one of the desserts. Tomorrow I will bake a maple pecan pie for the other dessert that will be served on Christmas Day.

The Simpleworks quilt, stunning as it is displayed this holiday, has its roots in Baltimore, is touched by a Texas designer, and has found its home in Michigan. This Christmas I am displaying this quilt as a reminder of people like Pat Smith whose loving stitches and smiles graced the quilt shop for many years. Customers and friends, their support made The Mercantile a special place and I am grateful for that.

Tomorrow's post -- A quilt found at the Bay City Antiques Mall, and then rescued.

Christmas Quilts Day One: Glad Yule

This is the first in a series of five blog posts about some of my Christmas quilts. Each post will feature a bit of story telling about the featured quilt or quilts.

My holiday quilt book, "Glad Yule," was published by Graywood Designs in 2007 and remains one of my favorite design collections. The ideas were percolating for quite a few years until they began to take shape as stars and trees and houses and flowers that peppered the table runners and wall quilts in the book. This collection was introduced at International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City in the spring of 2007.

These two designs use an easy five inch tree block that features Thangles, an innovative notion that helps quilters make successful half square triangles. Thangles are an invention of my clever quilting sister, MB Hayes. Making Thangles is a little like eating potato chips -- you can't stop at just one.

The wall quilt, "Starry Yule," has several dozens of Thangles that make up the central tree and the side borders of trees and stars. A smaller size, it ended up just the right size for the limited wall space in an apartment or kitchen or a hallway.

I can't look at these quilts without thinking of Danielle Damen, my able helper and editor, who sewed so many of the samples as the book took shape. Danielle's expertise rescued me in those months of design and layout and editorial work, since it was in those months that my mother, Val Hayes, entered her end-of-life months, and then died in January, just as the book was taking shape.

Quilts can be very communitarian, in that they join you to other people who touch your life as a quilt takes shape. That quilting community certainly surrounded me in the days and months of publishing this book. From a sister's clever thought, to a colleague's careful work, to a mother's final days, and then to the many quilt shops who sold this book, these quilts let me touch, again, those whose lives have made a difference in mine.

Tomorrow -- from Texas to Michigan to Baltimore, the Simpleworks quilt.