Penguins

If Antarctica were to have a mascot, it would surely be a penguin.  During our trip we saw seven species, each charming in its own way.

We encountered Magellanic and Rockhopper Penguins on our very first landing, on Sea Lion Island in the Falklands.  Magellanic Penguins are the Hobbits of the penguin world, making their nests inside snug little holes in the ground.

Nesting Magellanic Penguin

Magellanic Penguins

Rockhopper Penguins are the punk rockers, with their black eye feathers and angled yellow eyebrows that look like the coolest of shades.  As their name suggests, they are adept at hopping up and down steep rocks.

Rockhopper Penguins

Macaroni Penguins are real dandies, sporting flashy yellow eye feathers and deep red bills.

Macaroni Penguin

King Penguins were the largest -- adults are about three feet tall -- and most numerous of the penguins we saw.  They have showy orange coloring around their heads and necks and, as their name suggests, a regal bearing.   When on land they spend most of their time standing straight up, even when nurturing eggs and chicks which they hold on their feet beneath a flap of skin.

King Penguins

Adolescents, affectionately referred to as Oakum Boys for their fluffy brown feathers, are another story.  They display all the awkwardness one would expect of teenagers.  This juvenile was among the colony of several hundred thousand penguins at St. Andrew's Bay on South Georgia Island.

Juvenille King Penguin

This photo gives a sense of the remarkable size of the colony.  We walked nearly an hour from shore to reach the toe of the Heany Glacier and found penguins not only right at the toe, but actually on the glacier.  Since all of their food is in the water, they face a long hike whenever they find themselves or their chicks hungry.

St. Andrew's Bay, South Georgia Island

I heard one of my shipmates refer to Gentoo Penguins as "gentle gentoos" which seemed appropriate given how carefully they tend to their young.  We had some of our best opportunities for observing them at Port Lockroy because their nests were so close to the buildings and walkways it was impossible to observe the "five meter rule."

Gentoo Chicks

Gentoo Nest at Port Lockroy

Chinstrap Penguins are easily identified by a distinctive narrow black stripe across their throats.  They seem particularly athletic, hopping across boulders and in and out of the water with ease.

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguins

For sheer cuteness, in both look and behavior, Adelie Penguins win hands down. We were fortunate to see the enormous colony at Esperanza Station/Hope Bay at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The receding tide made jumping back up on shore a challenge. Photo credit for these two goes to my husband, Steve.

Oops

Adelie Penguin

While I am on the subject of penguins, here are the fabric postcards (5" x 7") I made for the end-of-trip auction to benefit the South Georgia Heritage Trust's Rat Eradication Project.  Of course, these depict Emperor Penguins, which we were too far north to encounter during our expedition.   But no matter, they served their purpose by adding a nice sum to SGHT's coffers.

Mysterious Antarctica

I made an amazing trip to South Georgia Island and Antarctica with my family in January. In this and in subsequent posts I will share highlights along with some of the needlework the trip has inspired.

We boarded our ship, the Akademik Ioffe, at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, spent one day on Sea Lion Island, and then sailed to South Georgia Island for a week's worth of landings. From there we headed to the Antarctic Peninsula and the surrounding islands and finally crossed the Drake Passage to the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia, Argentina.

The overwhelming impression I now have of Antarctica is that it is a place of great mystery, reluctant  to reveal its secrets. I don't mean to say that we didn't see a lot.  From the deck of our ship and during our many landings we saw an incredible abundance of wildlife, beautiful outcrops, and countless glaciers and mountain peaks.

But we never got more than a half day's hike from shore as we had to return to the ship every evening.  (No, there are no hotels or B&Bs in Antarctica.) Even though we were blessed with remarkably fine weather and views of rarely seen peaks, beyond the glaciers and snowfields and snow covered mountains that we could see lay another three thousand miles of ice, snow and rock that we couldn't see.  In order to see beyond the outer rim of Antarctica one would have to make an journey such as Ernest Shackleton attempted with the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition back in 1914. As you may know, his ship, the Endurance, was ultimately crushed in the ice and neither Shackleton nor any of the crew ever reached the continent, though through Shackleton's and their own efforts they were all eventually rescued.

I know that some people return from Antarctica feeling they can cross it off their list of places to visit. But I feel drawn to return and I'm sure a lot of that has to do with its mysterious nature and its inaccessibility. While it is always a pleasure to return to place that you know is beautiful, it is more compelling to go someplace where you are sure of finding something new and unexpected.

The following photo, taken late in the evening along the Antarctic Peninsula, embodies this mystery.  What is beyond that snow field, behind the clouds of snow carried on the wind? This photo also shows some of the surprisingly brilliant colors of the continent. When I used to think of Antarctica I thought of snow and when I thought of snow I thought of white. The reality is full of color, some subtle, some brilliant, but always changing.

Shortly after returning from this trip I took Valori Wells' class "The Signature Quilt" at QuiltCon:  the Modern Quilt Guild Show.   The materials list suggested using a photo for color inspiration and I chose this one.  Here is the resulting top (26" x 35").  I wouldn't say it captures the mystery, but I think it does capture the colors.  It reminds me of Gee's Bend quilts, which I have admired but not yet modeled my own quilts after. I am still trying to decide how to quilt this one, though I do intend to do it by hand.

Big things and little things

First for the big thing.  I have finally finished the quilt I began back in 2010 to give to my parents for their 60th wedding anniversary in March of 2011!  The machine piecing went quickly, but the hand quilting took a while, mostly because I simply didn't have much time to work on it.  It is sized for a queen bed and so not the kind of thing to work on while waiting in the car pool line or at the sidelines of a lacrosse game.  Anyway, I designed it for my parents' mostly blue and yellow, traditional-style bedroom.  Among the quilted motifs are their initials in the center medallion (though I think the small initials should have been larger to be more visible), the years of their wedding and 60th anniversary, vines, flowers, hearts and feathers.  It also has the signatures of all their children and grandchildren.

While working on this quilt I also finished a few little things.  I find it helpful to have smaller projects going on along with big projects to add interest and to give me something I can carry around in my purse for unexpected free moments.  If I have something to work on those moments of waiting feel like a gift; if I don't have something to work on those moments feel wasted.  Two of those little projects are shown here.  I knit the socks using Melissa Morgan-Oakes' Tuscany pattern and toe-up, two at a time method, which I love because when I am done, I am done. No second sock or kitchener stitch finish required.

I made the dollhouse quilt and the fire screen needlepoint (note the quarter) because working in such a small scale seemed like fun, which it was.  And I think having a dollhouse would be fun.  Now I just need the dollhouse.  Oh yes, and the furniture, and the dolls.

Trip to the Pioneer Valley

I traveled to Massachusetts last November to visit my daughter and to run the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race which has been held at her school, Northfield Mount Hermon, every fall since around 1890 and is considered the oldest foot race in the United States.  It was great to see my daughter and to run the race, especially since I finished under "pie time" and consequently won a freshly baked apple pie.

But with five days on my own with no household or childcare responsibilities it became a week of total rest and indulgence.  The rest came from staying at the lovely Centennial House Bed and Breakfast in Northfield, MA where I was treated to delicious breakfasts every morning and equally delicious quiet every evening.  The indulgence came from visiting a number of local yarn and quilting shops and from touring around the area which I found quite beautiful in the late fall light.

I found Pickering Farm Quilt Shop tucked into a restored eighteenth century barn in the woods of Richmond, New Hampshire.  It is jammed full of cotton quilting fabrics along with wool for rug hooking and braiding, all beautifully displayed.  I also stopped at A Notion to Quilt, which has a wide selection of quilters cotton, on my way back from a visit to the charming little town of Shelburne Falls.

Shelburne Falls Bridge of Flowers

I got my yarn fix at Webs in Northampton, though made the mistake of leaving myself too little time to do any serious shopping.  Webs is HUGE!  Besides the main shop in the front (where they offer nice discounts for purchases over $60) you can go into the warehouse in back and find even bigger discounts on fabulous yarns.  So now I have at least one destination for my next visit.  Another great stop was Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Vermont.  The tiny shop is in the same building as the processing facility and the earthy odor leaves no doubt that they are spinning wool.  I picked up the yarn and pattern for Emilie's Hooded Scarf, a perfect, and quick, gift for my daughter who has been transplanted from Texas to New England.

The other great thing about visiting in mid-November was the short days which afforded me ample quiet time in the evenings to work on the projects I had brought along.  I made significant progress on my parents' 60th anniversary quilt and now hope to have it completed in time for their 61st anniversary.

Anniversary Quilt

I'll post a better picture of the quilt when it is done.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos of the Pioneer Valley.

Northfield Mountain, Massachusetts

The Schell Bridge, Northfield, Massachusetts

Beginnings

I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but have been shy about starting.  I've finally decided just to jump in and see how things look. My initial idea was for this to be a way to chronicle my various needle projects, and still plan for that to be a big part of the blog.  But nothing, including needlework, is done in a vacuum.  Life influences everything.  So this will also be a personal journal about all the other things that make up my life and determine what kinds of projects I work on and the design choices I make.

For example, I made this quilt last year as a gift to my father-in-law.  He bought a condominium here in Austin and I thought a quilt would be a nice way to welcome him to his new home.  I had long admired a quilt of similar design in Roberta Horton's book on scrap quilts and thought this a good opportunity to try it out.  I picked bright, but not feminine colors from my stash.  I was amazed at all the odd sorts of fabrics that I could work into it.  I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed hand quilting this piece.  I did all of the geese and the long bars between them by hand and used the machine for only the border and in the ditch between the columns of geese and the bars.

I think the other reason I have hesitated to start a blog is that my daughter has a blog of her own and I suspect that hers is and will be far better than mine.  She is just such a darn good writer!  But, I am finally going to post this because I think it is important to try things in spite one's misgivings.  And, she has encouraged me to do this, partly, I believe, because she wants to know what I am thinking and partly because she wants to get even with me.  I have been sharing her blog with friends and family and she wants to reciprocate!  So there, my dear!