Christmas Tomte Quilt

This is a great quilt that I had a lot of fun making during the holiday season. It was an instagram sew along. It was my first sew along on Instagram and I actually won the grand prize…AWESOME!! I got a bunch of cute stuff and fabric.

The patterns are by Moss and Lotus …she is on Craftsy and Etsy if you want to purchase the blocks. They are paper pieced. They finish at 6 inches. I decided to put them in “economy blocks”. If you want to do that as well you will need 2 each of 5 inch squares and 7 inch squares to get them set in blocks like this. I also added this cute border called Gnome for the holidays by Michael Miller. I had the cotton in my stash…but I ordered the flannel so I could have it for the back. I quilted it on the computer with all over snow flakes.

So the Scandinavian Tomte is their version of Gnomes. 2 years ago Rob and I submitted our DNA to ancestry. I knew I was part Scandinavian because my Maternal grandma is from Iceland and she is very proud of those Scandinavian roots. However, I found out that I am also Swedish from my dad’s side. :) so I am all sorts of Scandinavian. I have been fascinated about the whole thing….finding my roots looking at my art ect. Tomte’s are very Scandinavian and there are many folk tales about them. So this sew along just captured my attention.   I am totally enamored by them.

I am very proud of my heritage because I know everything my grandma has been through coming to this country. I am getting familiar with my other side of the family. I honestly felt like I shouldn’t be proud….I shouldn’t write about my heritage because I am struggling with all of the polarization happening. If I am a “white” person am I allowed to be proud? But the truth is –yes. I should be. Because none of us are without struggle. We all need to own and accept who we are. I should be proud of my roots. I would rather own my heritage than my white trash humble beginnings, for sure. LOL! Natural selection saved me….for some reason.

Anyway….I think everyone should have their DNA tested. It really does help you discover things and learn. It’s amazing to me.

I hope you all have a Happy winter!

xoxo

Charisma