The last few days have been very relaxing, just hanging around the farm.    This is a stork, whose large nest sits atop a utility pole.  Storks mate for life and come back to the same nest every year.  There are 2 babies in the nest.

On Monday, we attended a service at the local ceremony rededicating a monument to those who gave their life for their country.  Monday evening, we attended a celebration in the town square complete with folk dancing, singing and the first official bonfire in the area.

 

Yesterday was Jaaniõhtu – the shortest night of the year.  After Christmas it is the biggest holiday of the year.   Bonfires are lit all over the countryside and family and friends gather to eat, drink and be merry!  This time, we brought along some American traditions that seemed to go over very well:  marshmallows and glow sticks.  The glow stcicks actually resembled a type of worm that is found in the forest at this time of year that glow similarly to our lightning bugs (which they do not have)  Needless to say roasted marshmallows and s’mores were a big hit with the children!

This was my third Jaaniõhtu in Estonia and it was very comfortable for me now that mostly everyone that was here was familiar and just like visiting with family that you only see at any large holiday family get-together.  Three years can go by very fast! 

For my husband and kids, it was also more comfortable since there is quite a bit more English being spoken, especially by our generation and younger.  Estonian is a language only similar to Finnish and also difficult to learn.  The boys have picked up a few key words, but the Estonians like to practice their English!

More pictures later! 

Helle-May

This post is coming 4 days into our trip, but there just hasn’t been time!  So a bit of catching up to do! 

The first leg of our trip to Oslo went very smoothly.  It is impossible to fly directly to Estonia, so you must make a connection in Europe.  Used to be that only meant Helsinki or Stockholm, but now you can catch a connection nearly anywhere in Europe.  We chose Oslo this time for the reason that my Estonian cousin (my cousins’s daughter – so that makes her once removed?)  is working for an American company in Oslo and living with her Norewgian boyfriend she met in South Africa!  How’s that for international!  We found a reasonably priced flight that allowed us to stay overnight and leave Friday night for Estonia.  Fortunately the weather cooperated and we toured Oslo a bit for a day and a half.  Oslo is right on the Baltic Sea and has a beautiful harbor. 

    

As I have mentioned this is the land of the midnight sun!  Here is a clock to prove it – 9:00 and no hint of sunset!

On Friday, we took a boat ride to an island right off the mainland where there were several museums.  We went to the Viking Ship museum.  On display were 3 viking ships that were discovered in the late 1800’s.  They had been buried in the 800’s along with high ranking officials.  Similar to the Egyptians, the Vikings must have believed in an afterlife and buried their dead along with food and tools.   Also of interest to me was the fact that only the wool and silk weavings remained somewhat intact but not the linen.  They were small fragments but amazing nonetheless for their intricacy.

Before we left the harbor area on Friday, we bought some freshly caught and cooked prawns off a boat.  Evidently that is one of the first signs of Norwegian summer.  As a send off, we enjoyed a dinner of fresh Norwegian prawns and salmon.  Yum!

We arrived just before midnight at the Estonian airport in the capital city of Tallinn.  I think we literally closed the airport, being the last people off the plane.  Even the passport control agents were so eager to go home that they met us at the plane. When I couldn’t find our passports fast enough, they waved us along. 

Saturday was our day of rest.  It is a sure sign that we have visited often enough now, that we are not barraged by countless receptions upon arrival by my many relatives.  Each time I come it feels more and more like coming home to visit with relatives that I just haven’t seen in a while rather than meeting people who are more like related strangers. 

Estonia has caught up quickly with the west in the past 18 years and so the cultural and economic differences between us are also not so great.  For example, I am writing this from the 100 year old farmhouse that survived with the family through Soviet occupation and am connected to the internet via a wireless router.  On my first visit here in 1994, there was barely indoor plumbing!  Amazing!

The sheep have come home!  More tomorrow!  Helle-May

Our retreat ended Sunday after a filling brunch.  By all accounts it was a very productive one.  After getting the binding on my queen size block exchange quilt, I spent the rest of the weekend working on diagrams for the Treasure Chest pattern.  It’s still taking me longer than I’d like, but it is getting easier.   Here’s a pic of all of us.  Not a very flattering picture of me on the right side. 

 

Despite both sons being home sick all week (again! – it’s been a rough year!), I managed to finish the pattern and approved the proof on Thursday.  I should have the pattern in the shop just before I leave for Estonia.

Best laid plans…  I promised more about Estonia, but it’s been a little crazy here.   We will be staying with family on my father’s side.  Despite being an only child with virtually no family here, I have a pretty good size extended family in Estonia.  Our trip is planned to get there just before one of the best holidays – Jaanipaev.  It is  a summer solstice celebration, complete with family get togethers and big bonfires.  Unfortunately, this year the weather does not seem to be cooperating.  It’s still pretty chilly, reaching only into the 60’s during the day and back down to the 30’s at night, with plenty of rain.  3 years ago, it was 3 weeks of sunny nearly 80 degree weather. 

In addition, we will also be there for the National Song and Dance Festival.  Estonians love to sing and dance in their national costume.  The song festival has been going on since 1869!  The song festival will included 1,000’s of people singing on stage at on outdoor ampitheater in the capital city of Tallinn.   Learn more about it at www.laulupidu.ee/eng.

Each area of Estonia has a different national dress and it differs by century.  The women have beautiful full skirts made from woven striped wool – the colors determined by region.  The blouse is made from white cotton, and embellished with beautiful embroidery.    At my wedding, I changed into the national costume for a portion of the reception and my cousin who attended from Estonia, wore a costume from the 19th century.  Everyone danced to some traditional Estonian waltzes.  It was a really neat part of the wedding that everyone remembers. 

Estonia is an interesting country in that although mostly an agrarian scoiety, the people are very highly cultured and have a great appreciation for the arts, theater, music, and art galleries abound.  I am sure it has to do with it’s strategic position on the Baltic Sea and the fact that it is been an important part of trading routes for centuries.  Estonia has only been independent for small pockets of time, having been ruled at diffeent times by the Germans, Russians, and the Danes.  Nonetheless, Estonians have still managed to maintain a strong sense of national pride.  We are a strong and stubborn breed – my husband would heartily agree to that!

Best get back to laundry and packing!

Helle-May

One more little trip before the big one!  I am writing from our guild retreat weekend at Bryn Mawr Mountain Retreat and Conference Center.  (www.brynmawrmountain.com)  We are just north of Honesdale, PA at the tip of the Endless Mountains. 

Fortunately the rains cleared up overnight and it promises to be a beautiful weekend.  This is my second time here.  I am with a group of 10 other fantastic quilters and we have the whole place to ourselves this weekend.   It is primarily a summer camp for girls (think Parent Trap!) but they host all sorts of groups, including weddings.  It is beautiful, family run facility.  I would highly recommend it to any group looking for a retreat center.  We have a beautiful sunny room to sew in and delicious and nutricious meals served buffet style right outside the room.

          The Retreat Center Main Building

        The Sewing Room       

        Pajama buddies:  Annie and Carol

I don’t have a lot to sew on right now, so I’m using the time to finish the pattern for Treasure Chest.  I did get the binding sewn on a block exchange quilt that I finally put together at last year’s retreat.  I came up with my own setting for the blocks, so I’m thinking about patterning the quilt. 

Back to work!  More pictures later!

Helle-May

When I started this whole idea of going into business, it was predicated on the fact that last September, my youngest son started full day Kindergarten.  Where did the time go?  Yesterday was his last day of Kindergarten and I will admit that I cried! Not because he won’t be in school for the summer, but because I can’t believe my baby is a first grader!  He spent his Kindergarten year at St. Paul’s Christian School which houses pre-school through 1st grade.  Next year he will attend public school.  The only year he and his brother will actually be in the same school.  I am looking forward to that!

I asked him on Thursday if he was sad that school was ending.  His response was classic:  “No, Mommy”, he said, “I’m going to first grade in September and there will be even more work!”  No, I did not make that up – he really said that!  He loves school and loves learning new things!  Fortunately, 2 of his best friends will be attending the same school with him in the fall.  I, on the other hand, was very sad to be leaving such a wonderful school.  Each day, as I would bring him and pick him up from school, I had the opportunity to interact daily with the teacher, other children and parents.  Putting him on the bus every day will just not be the same!

Since I had done the quilt project back in February with the kids during “Q” week, I thought it be would be great to make quilted teacher’s gifts to remember Andrew.  Each month, Quilters’ Newsletter prints a 3″ paper pieced pattern.  I selected 4 that would be  appropriate and asked Andrew to pick out the fabrics.  At the local Michael’s craft shop, I found these cute little wood frames and easles, that Andrew painted to match.  They were a big hit!

       

Helle-May

Now that Pittsburgh is just a memory, I am starting to get ready for my next adventure! 

It amazes me that I have only briefly mentioned my heritage to this point because it is a very large part of who I am.  My family emigrated to this country after World War II from a little country called Estonia.  I was the first one in my family to be born in the U.S.   These days many of you may have heard of it, because in 1991 it regained its independence after being annexed into the Soviet Union by means of the Yalta Conference  in 1945.  (That’s a history lesson for another day!).   But as I was growing up, the usual response was, “What and where is that?” See #15 on the map of Europe below. 

 

Caught between two sides of the war, many Estonians were forced to flee their homeland.  But Estonians are a fiercely proud people and even during occupation, never lost hope to regain their sovereignty again.  This was probably most true for all the Estonians that took up residence in the U.S. and other countries that gave this group of displaced people a home.  In the 60’s and 70’s, the Estonians, here and abroad lived in pockets of concentrated areas and formed social communities in which to keep connected and to instill a sense of national pride in their children.  I was one of those children.On my mother’s side, only my mother, her step sister, and my grandmother made it to this side of the world.  My father was the only one in his family to make it here.  My mother and father met in this country.  Unfortunately, we lost touch with my mother’s side of the family. 

However, my father managed to stay completely connected with his and so it is with his side that I still have family ties.  Once Estonia regained independence, my father made lengthy annual trips back home until his death in 1996. Fortunately, I was able to join him in 1994, when I met my extended family for the first time.  I have been back in 1996 to carry his ashes home and again in 2003 to introduce my new family to everyone.  With each visit, I become closer to the relatives, that in my childhood were only names in a very strange land where no one was free to move about.  Not anymore!

Once my children were old enough to make the trip, we decided that we would make the trip every three years.  Unfortunately airfare is so very expensive due to the low demand.  So here we are 3 years later, tickets in hand!  The best time of year to visit Estonia is in June.  Estonia is on the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.  The summer season is very short, but if the weather cooperates – perfect.  Low humidity, moderate temperatures in the 80’s.  And the best part:  virtually no darkness!  The sun sets only for a brief period around 3:00 a.m.  It’s like getting two days for every one! 

In 2003, we were especially lucky with the weather, when the bay of Riga, with its beautiful sandy beaches and shallow water made for a perfect beach vacation.  Very unexpected!  We have our fingers crossed for more beautiful weather!

I could go on and on – but suffice to say, we will be gone June 17 to July 9.  I am hoping to be able to post from Estonia.  Technologically, they are on par with the rest of Europe.  My cousin had broadband on the farm, before we had it in the suburbs!  There’s something to be said for coming in late on the technology curve – you start right with the latest advances, instead of struggling from the beginning!

Anyway – I have more to tell you about the trip before I leave, so stay tuned!

Helle-May

Here are a few pictures I snapped while at Spring Market.

I passed this guy on my walk to and from the Convention Center.  He was made of the bridges that symbolize the city – my guess he was about 20 feet tall.  I took this picture for my boys, of course!

Here is an overview of the show as seen from the catwalk on Sunday morning before the show opened.  This is just half of the show floor!

I tried to focus in on the area where the Island Batik booth was.  The arrow in the next shot shows my quilt. It was hard to get photos on the floor becasue the the entire ceiling was open to natural light.  This made fo a verywell lit and airy feeling to the whole place, but when the sun was shining in just the right spot, a bit too bright!

           That is one of Judy Niemeyer’s beautiful paper pieced quilts acting as the backdrop to Dandelion Wine.  The 2 quilts complimented each other nicely. 

Now that you’ve seen how big the show was, you can imagine how surprised I was that Mark somehow noticed my quilt!

Helle-May

Got back from Pittsburgh yesterday just in time to attend our monthly guild meeting.  George and Virginia Sicliano were the guest speakers and I didn’t want to miss that.  Have you ever seen any of his quilts?  Simply beautiful and amazing!  He makes (and wins lots of awards for) foundation pieced miniature quilts primarily based on the log cabin and twisted log cabin blocks.  We’re talking 2,000 – 3,000 pieces or more in a 12 inch square or smaller quilt! OK – got a sense of how small those pieces are?  Now picture the man making those quilts: George,  a retired ex-Marine, a man in his 60’s maybe, at least 6′ tall.  Very serious, but very funny!  Very unexpected!

This weekend was full of the unexpected!  As you know from 2 posts ago, I had been very focussed on having everything ready to support my first pattern that would be showcased at Market.  On the 5 1/2 hour drive to Pittsburgh, I thought about how I would spend my time at Market.  I would visit the Island Batik booth to see what kind of reception the quilt was getting, I would drop by the Pattern Peddler booth occassionally to see if there had been any sales, and I thought I’d drop by the CK Media booth (the publishers of Quilters Newsletter)  to invite any of the editors to take a look at Dandelion Wine to see if there might be some interest (they had published/patterend Treasure Chest and Christmas Candy in 2007.)  Beyond that, I was just going to play it by ear and see what other opportunities might be out there.

Best laid plans of mice and men….   We (my husband came along this time to see what market was all about and check out the area golf courses)finally got to the Convention Center at 3:00 on Friday.  We headed straight for the Island Batik booth so I could see my baby.  As we approached the booth, I saw the quilt draped nicely between and over some other very nice quilts.  I thought to myself that it might not get too much notice hung that way, but at least it was displayed in this great venue.  Evidently I was wrong – very wrong!

As soon as we got close enough to re-introduce myself to Moira (the owner of Island Batik), I couldn’t take the news in fast enough – customers who had already been by the booth, loved the quilt and at least one had purchased the entire line of fabric that I had used.  If that wasn’t enough good news – Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilter’s Home Magazine and ambassador to the show (Pittsburgh is his hometown, afterall!) had also stopped by, fell in love with the colors and said he wanted to publish/pattern the quilt in the October/November issue and could he take it with him at the end of the show!  If my husband had not been there with me to take that all in, I think I might still be standing there with a dumb look on my face.  “Did I just hear what I think I heard?  This is amazing news, but what do I do now???”  My husband pulled me out of my stupor and said, “We have to go find Mark.”  Now ironically, on our way into the convention center, I had just seen him chatting with a few people (Mark was never not chatting or hugging someone!) and I had pointed him out to my husband – who knows how much I love reading his magazine.

Sure enough, we had heard right – Mark was interested in publishing the quilt.  He would need to take the quilt at the end of the show and keep it until the end of September to have it photographed and patterned for the Oct/Nov issue.  I couldn’t pay for better publicity than that!  Of course with things that good, there is often a catch.  Despite the great publicity, I would have to withdraw the pattern from the market until 6 months after the magazine was published.  Which means I can start re-selling the pattern again in April 2010.  Disappointing as that is, I’ve been down that road before with Treasure Chest and Christmas Candy, so it wasn’t a complete surprise.  However, at that time, I wasn’t up and running with my own pattern/website business.  Unfortunatley, I also had to tell Pattern Peddlers to take down the pattern.  That was the most difficult thing I had to do, since the owner also really liked the pattern and Island Batik had already started sending people over to order the pattern.

The rest of Friday, my feet never touched the ground as Greg and I perused the remaining 26 aisles of wholesale vendors!  What a great way to start the weekend!  I didn’t round up a whole lot more business during the weekend (What offer could possibly top a magazine spotlight?)  except to accept another offer to design a quilt for Island Batik’s fall market booth.  So, I spent a good part of Saturday, working up a design and selecting fabrics for their next quilt.   I am already excited about this next new design!

I guess I better start working on some of the other patterns in the line-up! 

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get!”  I think I got the cherry this time!

Helle-May

P.S.  I took some pictures at Market that I will post as soon as I can.