RBR 4

One more completed number 4 in the line. This time it was a challenge in black and white. The easiest one so far, still it took me some time to do it. You know summertime and indoor sewing. Not the best combination :o)

I told you I was thinking of putting up my sewing machine to do some work. I did not need worrying of being lonely. Help came around immediately when the pieces where laid out on the floor. Isn’t she just adorable? She approve on every quilt I make, before the pieces are joined together.

I am in the process on this Kaffe quilt and hoping my dear friend will help me on the quilting.

Ellinors Quilt

I promised you a finish. And now I finally found the time to present it to you.

The quilt is for the “unwrapped” little girl, and if the weather should turn, and become cold, they can wrap her into this pink baby-quilt.
In the meantime when she is growing, practising on crawling; it is a great groundsheet at the starting line.

Baby quilt in progress.
It is funny how new project develop. Enthusiasm is the word….

During my stay in Gothenburg I bought some magazines (ref post from Mai 30.). In one of those magazines I fell in love with some stitchery motifs. To go along with them I popped by Signes provisional shop at the NQT (need to think to remember the shops name). There I found the lovely hand dyed embroidery yarn I was looking for. I purchased the last bundle of pink thread.
After stitching these 6 lovely motives there were only 25 centimeters left from the bundle. That makes me a lucky and happy girl. It would have been so annoying to run out of threads so close to my goal.

Now these cute pieces of handcraft are being implemented in the girly baby quilt, which is growing and growing.
Next time I find a spear moment to blog, ......I might have a finish to present. Stay tune.

Happy quilting.

Hurray! A baby girl !

Do I make a crib quilt to all the babies born in my circle of friends? No I don’t. Just to those who are special to me, well they all are.
Even so, for the last years it’s been boys, boys and more boys. They are all separate big miracles, but this time they “unwrapped” a small baby girl (my DH’s way of saying she was came into this world by C-section).

I smiled all over my face, happy for the new parents and their family, and probably most of all, looking forward to make a girly quilt. I just could not wait, I jumpstarted the project right away. It will be in Pink.

April

This month I’ve completed 2 UFO’s so far, “Houses from Helsinki” and the "Flower Swap”. Not into separate quilts, but into one combined quilt.
“Houses form Helsinki” were my winning from the block lottery at Nordic quilt gathering in Helsinki in 2006. The block’s are mostly made by ladies from Finland.
“Flower swap” are blocs from a swap hosted at “Stoffbytteklubben”.
I assume some of the participants who has contributed to make this quilt, are to be found here in blog land. You girls may recognize your own work. If you do, give me a shout. In the meantime I’ll search for the names; I do know I have them somewhere.

20 anniversary challenge.

2009 is the year when Rogaland Quiltelag will celebrate our 20 year's anniversary.
Hipp Hipp Hurra!

The RQL-board wanted to do something special and invited every member to a challenge. A small piece of red fabric were handed out to all of us together with a informing letter.


The challenge is to make a quilt (or anything at all made of fabric) where this red fabric is recognizable at our meeting in October.

This should be easy. Such a lovely fabric. I have started my contribution. I am not going to tell you until later what this’ll be, but I believe some of you recognize the flower.

RBR
RowByRowA new challenge. I love these challenges.
This is my first row. It is a white romantic fence on a blue background.

Close up.

Mari started this challenge at Quilt i Norge. After one year (11 laps) There will 12 Rows in total, and I will have to do the assembling my self. In these laps I am going to make a row who match to all the other participants raw*s in their choice of colour and theme. It is going to be a challenge. I have seen some of the participants 1.row.
I’ll keep you all informed during the process thou out the year, but no pictures of my appurtenant row.
I hope for a romantic, in the garden, at the cabin, by the sea, lap quilt.
In one year I’ll know.....

Norwegian valley of flowers
I look around in Bloggland and see there are some of the panels, who are being published, and I think to myself; do I have a proper picture of my contribution to the competition? I need to dive into my computer and see if I got a nice picture of it. I want to show you my “Growing Ideas”.
I have seen some of the beautiful panels. Wish I were at the annual meeting to see them all. Unfortunately I could not. Anyway, it has been an exciting weekend, not knowing either how many contributions to the competition, or if mine where one of the chosen ones to go to Birmingham.
Anybody out there who knows?
In the mean time I’ll go searching for a picture…..

Discourse and workshop by Kaffe Fasett

This one i could not resist. I love red, pink, purple and turquoise.

I just signed up for the discourse and workshop by Kaffe Fasett
http://kaktusquilts.blogspot.com/2009/02/kaffe-fassett-foredrag-og-workshop-11.html

To be honest, I hate Kaffe’s fabrick. They are sooo useless. Bright, big patterned, boisterous and noisy. I could go on for ever.....
On the other hand, looking at the amount of KF’s design that has fount the way into my stashing, it seams I hate the design so much I love it. One of my UFO’s for 2009 is a Kaffe quilt. If I told you all I’ll complete it before the workshop in September, may be I would….?

This'll be so much fun. Looking forward to meet the designer.

January

Honey Bee Blocklottery from Hell

(A small comunity outside Trondhjem is named Hell.)

During the yearly gathering of Norwegian Quilt society. There is always a block lottery. I am just the type of woman who cant resist. " years ago it were held at Hell, and this time I were one of the winners. Lucky me :o)

I want to send greetings to all the ladies who has contributed to this quilt:

Lise Smith - Porsgrunn

Elin M. W. Skogly - Darbu

Anne Lise Strøm - Mosjøen

Jonne Svendsen - Midsund

Irmelin Watnedal - Bergen

Kristin Kristoffersen - Gjerdrum

Reidun Sexe - Town unknown and

Bente K. Jørgensen - Town unknown

If anybody knows these ladies, pls let them know I have finally finished the quilt. Unfortunally I'll not be at this years gathering at Olavsgaard to show you the result. (I am going to Nordic gathering in Gothenburg instead)

Thank you all for a lovely Quilt.

UFO no 5 is done.

During this challenge I’ve managed to finish 5 UFO’s. 5 in 3 months is not too bad. It could have been more, but my life is pretty busy at the time and therefore I am happy with my result.
During these months I’ve found a lot of projects that I’ve started, and are now on my “to do list”.
This is a bag I made out of a jellyroll I got from a fellow quilter on an internet list as a present. I loved the colours and kind of “saved it” for a special occasion.
Now it is my new handbag.

This is the other side of the bag.

Sampler swap'n done!

.....another of my UFO/WISP done....

Ta da! I love the way it turned out. Don't you?
Now it is on its way to the annual quilt expo in Oslo. For those of you who are goning to visit the expo, probably will agree with me when I say; it is bigger in real life then on the picture.

Secret friend
I’ve signed up for a secret friend swap. Everybody who participates get one person to send some goodies to. The intention is to send small gifts thru the year to surprise our secret friend and not give away our identity. In the last gift who is to be sent in November we are to reveal our name. What a great idea!
Yesterday I received my fist envelope from my secret friend. It contained a small red purse decorated with a machine stitched dragon, and inside there were pieces of red and white fabric. My secret friend has done her homework. She has checked my profile in the group. Good girl.

I can’t tell you all about the small surprises I send to my secret friend. I believe I would not be a secret for long. :o)
I can’t even tell you if I’ve sent or not.

…..and still no news on my camera……

My Sampler Quilt is done.

Yeah! It feels great.
It’s been a while since I joined this swap, and it’s been nagging my conscious ever since. I’m not completing such big projects. I am always telling my self to wait. I might come up with a brilliant solution on how to complete it.

This time I did :o)
It turned out great. And it became big as well. 190x230 cm (76x92 inch) In the process I picket up a pile of other boxes of fabric (swaps). It felt great to use some of the lovely fabric I have received during the last years of swapping.

Anyway, I am sorry to tell you my camera still did not work properly, and therefore handed in to the shop for repair. I accepted no funny explanations this time. The shop estimated 2 weeks before they would receive status on what might be the problem. It is not much, but I sure have missed my camera a couple of times lately.
But I’ll be back with pictures. I promise.

Ta-Da !

This is how far I got this month.
Yes I know the month is not over yet, but my top is now in the queue for the Long Arm machine at Kaktus Quilt.
I completed the top yesterday and delivered to Liz lunchtime today. Unfortunally, it won’t be quilted until mid February.
……Strange, I thought I was the only one in this world…. :o) just kidding.

The plan was to do this quilt on my own. I had no idea it would end up as big as it did. I am hopeless in estimating sizes. Therefore I need some help.

This started as a sampler swap in the spring 2007. I did my part, and collected all my new blocks. Time flies….and the year 2008 appeared. Focus: WISP’s and fabric diet. Nice combination.

Then the sampler block made their reapperance….
I prepared my self for a dive into my stash…..
And a lot of my brown/beige fabrics were brought forward into the daylight.

Now I got to be patient. (Wondering what to do with the quilt, when it is completed). In the meantime I got to continue my archaeological excavation in my sewing room.

Ready, steady…. GO!

During my good behaviour of reducing stash and WISP’s, this is how far I got the other day. Result: 3 piles of blocks on the table.
In my head, an old tune, from a program on children’s telly: “A jigsaw puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle”.
My intention is to complete the top before the end of this month. I'll do my best.

…I rather get back to my sewing puzzle……

A challenge.
I just love challenges. The make me smile. They give me “a kick in the butt” in the right direction. Not actually in the “right” direction, but they sure help me getting started.

A couple of my Internet friends have started these UFO- or WISP-challenges. My intention was NOT to join these, but I just could not resist.

These (4) are my UFO’s to complete during January:

1.Table cloth started as a travelling project on my way to Vestlandstreffet in Førde.

(Anyone remembering witch year? Time flies...)

2. “Something brown” for the coffee machine. It all started as a study on how to do this technique.

Project at the cabin. Picture may be next week :o)

3. May be I’ll manage to get these finished upfront of Easter 2008?

Last but not least:
4. Somebody remembering these?

They are all from “The Sampler Swap” at the “Stoffbytteklubben”

Adrian’s Quilt
I have started on a quilt to our grandson.
I need some stitching in the car on our way to the cabin. Cant stitch on our way back home. Hands are dirty.

Anyway, I need to get it done. He is out of the hospitable and they (the parents) are planning the baptising.

Idea is to keep it in the same colours as the “Winnie the Pooh” quilt he’s already got.

Package form Keepsake quilting
I picked up my parcel at the post office, and left this world into my own little quilting world. ;o)

Books, I love books. They give me a lot of pleasure. I enjoy the text and pictures. I imagine my own fabric used in the projects, and dream of new stash. It is funny how I “sew” a lot of nice quilts in my mind.

And I got the next two kits, in the series of 4, from McKenny Ryan. I love her style. These are meant to be on the kitchen wall in our new cabin. I have open the first two kit and cut out the pieces. No rush. Kitchen is not ready yet.

… … and I do have other obligations to see to first!

Baby Boy (no 2)

My DH’s DD gave birth to our GS. :o)
This makes me a “grandmother”. Not for real, it is not my daughter, but I love them all.
Glenn has become an Uncle. He is so proud. He is even making a quilt to Adrian (Baby Boy’s name).

This is the quilt I made for the little boy. I knew it up front it was to be a boy; therefore I made this one too in the shades of blue.
Hope he will treasure it, and use it.