New book

Santa knows me well and left this wonderful book under the tree so I've been quite lazy since opening it and have enjoyed casually looking through it and exploring the patterns and in general just indulging my inner Norwegian.

The book contains thirty designs based on heirlooms in the collection of the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa, a place I hope to one day visit in person. In the meantime, this book is the next best thing.

Vesterheim means "western home" and the museum
helps to preserve the heritage of Norwegians that immigrated to the United States.

I first learned about the museum from "Piecework" magazine articles (of course!).

There are lots of wonderful pictures not only of the projects and the museum textiles on which they are based, but also photos of late-19th century Norway.

There are even a few recipes, but I doubt I'll be trying any of them out!