Bearly Winter

We finally, temporarily, got some winter weather.  In honor of the first measurable snowfall of the season, here's my mini-quilt on the theme of global warming.  The title is a pun on "barely winter."

 

The quilt is approximately 12 inches square.  The top half is the colder portion and lower half is the warmer portion.

The fish, flip-flops, sunscreen, and "Gone Fishin'" sign are buttons.  It looks like the bear is sitting on a table, but that's a pier.  The bear was fussy-cut and fused to a backing, then I used a teeny stitch around the edge to keep it from fraying.  The fishing line goes to the blue fish.

The igloo (excluding the doorway) is made out of one piece of fabric, with free-motion quilting used to delineate the blocks.  The snowflakes are buttons.  Let's talk a little more about snow...

You've heard that Eskimos have many words for "snow."  I was wondering how many, so I did a little research and it's not exactly like it sounds.  First of all, there is no "Eskimo language."  The most common languages are Inuit and Yupik.  Their grammatical structure is different than English.  They use extra syllables in a word which has the same result as phrases in an English sentence, and that's why they have more words for snow.

Examples:
qanuk 'snowflake'
natquik 'drifting snow'
kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles

You get the idea - it takes us more words but we get to the same place in the end.