Greetings from Alaska
 

Hello Everyone,
My name is Enid and I live in Wasilla, Alaska. About 4 years ago I fell in love with quilts after my house burned down and the Red Cross donated some things to my family to help us out while our new home was being built. It was our first home after 21 years of marriage and 5 children and within an hour all our worldly possessions went up in smoke. By the grace of God no one was hurt and everyone including all our pets made it out safely. One of the things that we received from the Red Cross was a beautiful quilt that was made at an Alaska Women's Prison. Ever since I received that quilt I was determined to make one on my own. I think I have bought enough fabric in the last year or so to make a king size quilt for every man, woman, and child and maybe even a few moose and possibly a family of bears living in the state of Alaska. I have yet to finish my first quilt for 2 reasons one I'm a perfectionist who more often then not stops on a regular basis to check for any mistake and then HAS to correct it right then and there, and two I have lupus and more often then not my hands swell and it's hard for me to maintain any energy for longer then 2 to 3 hours. I have to admit that even though lupus can be hard on me at times when trying to quilt because of the pain, quilting can also be so therapeutic for me. I love when my packages comes with all the beautiful fabric and even when I can't cut or sew I use my EQ7 to plan out my projects using the fabric I have already downloaded on to my library on my EQ7 then on good days I enjoy life doing what has become one of my newest loves...Quilting. I am really happy to have stumbled on to this site. I have learned so much and am hoping that sometime after the snow and ice melt that I can meet other quilters in my area and hopefully learn a lot more. Hopefully my intro. wasn't too long but I must say I love reading about all the things both old and new that are posted on this site.

So very sorry you lost your home. Welcome to the board there are so so many wonderful quilters here that will help if you have a problem. This is such a great place to chat and get feed back from other quilters. Good luck with your quilting and we will be looking forward to seeing some of your work soon.

Welcome from Al. Enjoy your days even when you can't sew. my sister had lupus and yesterday would have been her birthday, I empathize with you.
looking forward to seeing your projects.

Welcome from Arizona

Hello from Wisconsin!

Welcome to the board. Looking forward to hearing more from you and seeing your projects.

Welcome from Japan!
This is a great resource and full of nice folks!

Gaijin

Hi from Ohio!

Hi from New York and welcome to this wonderful message board. I lived in Anchorage for 14yrs. and LOVED it. I still miss seeing moose.

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

Welcome from Texas

Welcome from Michigan!:)

Welcome from S CA!

Welcome - I too am From Alaska. I moved there in 1960, lived in Southeast and then Anchorage. I also have property in Willow. Anyway, It is goo t see a fellow Alaskan on here! I will be in Alaska this summer to pack up and sell my house I Anchorage and finish my move to Walden, NY. Boy do I miss the quilt shops in Alaska. There is only one close by a I think it is about 10 to 15 miles me.

:) welcome from se TX

Hello Enid, welcome from Nevada!

Welcome from your neighbour to the east - I am in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Your post has a scary meaning to me. The last week has been a heat wave in our State of Victoria Australia with over 1,000 yes 1,000 fires burning here last Wednesday. There is still one nearby out of control and after fighting fires with my husband this week we are over the heat (over 120o each day) and are ready for a spell. So I have come to my favorite place to relax for a few moments and sadly read about your misfortune. Quilts have a way of bringing us together and helping us heel. Sounds like you will fit into this family nicely with your stash of fabric already in place. Welcome.

Thank you so very much. Strange enough fires have never been something that I really feared for I have always been the type to make sure that everything was turned off to prevent a fire. Lord knows that practically everything I buy has an automatic shut off so that I would feel safe and not have to worry about any fires. My husband and kids always laughed at me because even though I buy things with auto shut-offs I still walk around checking to make sure everything had shut off like it was supposed to before I walk out of the house again to prevent a fire. When my house burnt down I was visiting my parents and one of my sons in MD and of all things my twins daughters, two of the family members who always enjoyed joking and laughing with and at me about my "OCD" of checking things to make sure they were off, were cooking themselves french-fries and forgot to turn off the burner on the stove and went outside to eat their fries and talk on their phones and next thing you know, Poof a fire started that they couldn't put out and because of where we live in Alaska we have no local fire departments and it took 45 minutes for the closest fire department to make it to the house. Needless to say the only thing remaining was the foundation. Lord only knows I was devastated beyond words and cried for many of months but I think that was the honest to goodness first time that I truly realized that as much as I loved my material possessions nothing in this world could ever mean more to me then the lives of those I love both family and my pets who to me are just as much family to me as the human ones are. Even though I have always loved all my kids it's horrible when you realize exactly how much when you lose one and know that when you lose a child, that is final, material things can be replaced. A fire is def a really bad way to learn such a lesson BUT every material possession has been replaced other then my photos but at least I still have my husband and family and instead of looking at pictures now we talk about the memories that were once on paper are now engraved in our minds and Omg it certainly does make for good conversations and def good family binding times. My daughters are not much for sewing but they love trying to help me make plans and my 25 yr. old son loves coming over with ideas of what I can make him and/or his son. Now I have a brand spanking new house, good old memories that I still cherish, my family, and thanks to the Red Cross and the AK Women's Prison a new fun and relaxing hobby, Quilting !!!!......Amazing how many good things can come from a tragedy if you can manage to make happiness your top priority. Thank you for your reply to my intro. it really gave me a warm feeling inside knowing that there are so many nice people out there. One more time, as with my intro my apologies for the length of this reply...

Hello NyGal, Thank you for welcoming me to the message board, it certainly feels good to finally be talking to other people who enjoys the fine art of quilting just as I do. I've only been in AK for I think 11 or 12 yrs and although I love it here I plan on moving back to the lower 48 as soon as we are able to but the house on the market and get it sold. To me it's kind of funny that you said you still miss the moose because the main reason that I'm leaving AK is because the ungodly sub-zero temps wit having lupus just doesn't work very well. Me personally I absolutely love those huge lumpy animals. They are kind of ugly but as strange as this sounds every time I see a Mama Moose with it's baby I always say how pretty they look. As a matter of fact I enjoy the moose so much that my husband and I fly to Montana about every other month to look for a house to buy so I can continue to enjoy the moose and also see the same bears that keep my lungs healthy because I damned near scream bloody murder every time I see one and Lord only knows my blood pressure goes through the roof and like to give me a heart attack when they creep out of my 10 acres of all trees looking to make my horse part of their meal. I don't know what it is about especially the moose but I love to get up in the morning, look out the window and 99% of the times there's at least 2 or more of them out there chewing away at the tree branches. I couldn't imagine not seeing them anymore.

Thank you so very much, I am very happy to be here !!!

Hello and welcome, Enid. Waving from NC. You are the first person I've known to have that name other than one of my great-neices.
Your story brings tears to my eyes. You have so obviously overcome so many hardships already and have come out of it with a wonderful attitude. God bless you. Kinda' puts things in perspective for the rest of us, doesn't it?
We all love reading and talking, and above all...quilting. You have definitely found a good home here with us.

Hello Enid and welcome aboard the Board from Vermont. We have ties to Soldotna, AK - we own a building lot there, but no specific plans to build. You will find much to learn here on the Board - and if you are like me you will need to remember to occasionally do some quilting rather than just reading about it here !

Welcome from NE Ohio.

Welcome from OHIO!

Hello and welcome to the quilting board. So glad for you and your family that you are safe. You sound like you have a very positive attitude about material things. Sorry about the lupus. Now when you are able, get going. When you are not able to sew, maybe you can look at all your fabric.

Greetings from another Alaskan
 

[QUOTE=NewbieQuilter220;6516154]Hello Everyone,
My name is Enid and I live in Wasilla, Alaska.

I live in Kenai but used to live in Anchorage and Juneau. So glad you are here. I just saw your posting.

Welcome from OHIO! Grant yourself permission to make a few mistakes on your "learning quilts" and each quilt you make will be better than the previous one. After you've made quilts for all of the people, moose and bears you'll look back on those first quilts and find they are very precious to you. Happy quilting!