OMG

Time flies
There are no excuses for me not bloging. Especially when I have committed to several activities on the Internet that needs blogging.
My life has been on standby, but unfortunately, time did not.

And yes! I do feel guilty and do have a bad conscience.
I have received the most beautiful handembroidered postcard from my seacret angel. It is adorable. Thank you so much.
And I received my Friendship bag witch included delicious cookies. I loved everything about it.

I have done some stitching, unfortunally I cant show you all. But someting I can. I’ll post pictures later tonight when the batteries to my camera are recharged.

What I can show you now, is my Kaffe Fasett Quilt that I completed this month. Liz at Kaktus Quilt did a great job and quilted it on her longarmmachine so it was done and presented at the gathering where the designer him self gave a speech.

This is my OPAM for September. To morrow I might show you next months project. Just kidding...

OPAM – August

I managed to reach the goal for this month as well. I have to admit it is a struggle every month. All I’m into now a day are a secret. I’m preparing my contributions to the swaps I’ve joined this fall. I love secrets, but I am sorry, I can’t show you my work, not yet :o)

But I managed 1 completed project this month as well. Perhaps some of you girls recognise some of the blocs. It is the result of a block-swap at Stoffbytteklubben. It turned out pretty nice in my opinion.

I have also received my 2.5” pieces from another swap. Aren’t they just lovely? I can’t wait for the day to come, when I can play with them in combination with my sewing machine. Wonder what they’ll transform into?

Close to closing day for the sign up, regarding my giveaway. I’m so happy I got new friends by doing this. I was pretty surprised on all the foreign bloggers who found the way to my blog. I love you all.
Soon I’ll do the counting on how many prizes I’ll draw, looking forward to do the announcing of the winners. And then to do the purchasing of the prizes so they fit the recipients. It is just like Christmas :o)

Stitchers' Angel Swap

I'm in....
Pop over to Helens and join. This'll be fun.

DYB

Finally, I've come around to finalize my DYB project.

It has taken some time to get here. The reason is; I just have not prioritized this project. It is regrettable that I did postponed my BYB. Now it has become the most beautiful quilt. Thanks to all the lovely ladies who has contributed.

Now that I have crossed the finishing line on this one, maybe I should think about jumping another stitchery round robin. Anybody who knows of such project?

Blue and Black Cobblestone

I have received all the blocks in this swap. Now I have started to arrange them. It is rather easy when all the blocs are there. And such varayety in the fabric. I believe nobody og the 9 members in the group used the same fabric. A gerat inspiration.
Maybe I’ll find the time to assembly them as well before I need to pack my suitcase. In just a few days I am off to the Nordic Quilt Convention in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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.

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.....

Hotel rooms are nice :o)

When you arrive they are so clean and tidy. The bed is done and there are no clothes lying around. No kitchen to tidy, no family to feed, no laundry, no dog to walk. I could go on forever :o)

Anyway, when I get the opportunity I spend some productive hours on my own. I do enjoy an evening or two in a hotel room.

This time I brought along two of my UFO’s
Then I combined them into one.
Now it is handed in to be quilted.

All my harts are done

Just could not stop. My intentions were to get a head start. I prepared some blocks ant thought they would be nice as “on the go” projects.
And yes, they were :o)
I love to sew hearts. They were so quick and easy to do. Suddenly I had a big pile of heats. All my 10 swap sets thru out 2009 are done, and some extra (128 in total). I want my quilt to be bigger than the set measurements. I hope there are some of the other swappers with the same thought.

First set has changed owners. I just handed in mine, unfortunately I did not have the time to stay around, and therefore I do not have my first 8 swapped heat blocs in my possessions.
….Not yet.
Meanwhile,I got plenty of other exiting projects to attend to.

Heart Swap

My quilt society is arranging Heart Block Swap. I love block swaps.

These are 6" blocks, background fabric white to black, and all the grey in between. Heart is to be in red of course.

There were last year arranged a project of voluntary work in making blocks, to make a lottery prize. This prize quilt became so nice we decided to make a block swap to make our own heart quilt.

Now I've signed up for 8 heart blocks each month, for 10 months.

I have jumpstarted this project. Therefore I can show you my first 40 blocks for swapping, + 12 extra for my own quilt.

Looking forward to show you the first 8 blocks I get in return.

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……

Hussif
After one year of swapping fabric, beads, lace, thread, …..you know, crazy stuff …..stuff for crazy quilters……treasures….. the year comes to an end :o(
This has been a great year. I have got new, loving, caring friends, got myself a lot of new knowledge, and a big pile of goodies.
The last chapter of this event was to make our “Crazy guilt sister” a hussif.

These two are for my new “sisters”, Maire in USA and Carmela in Israel. I hope they will love them.

I certainly love the one I received from Maire. Pic will come soon I hope.....

Flower swap

Flowers made in bright colours on black backgournd.

These are the result of the swap hosted at "Stoffbytteklubben". I wonder how I'll uste these blocks.

I need to think about this......

Ati's DYB
Oh! My life is busy. Almost forgot to tell you my of my work on Ati's DYB. Her theme was Chinese Tea! Challenging! I made my tribute in a teapot, decorated with a "Chinese house". I stitched the word Tea in 3 languages, two in Chinese. I decorated it with stitches and beads.

She gives you a better picture then I do. You'll also get nice pictures of the other blocks in this DYB. Go and have a look.

Baggie from Carmela

I got it. And I got confirmed my story of the content. It contained gorgeous fabric. Look at the delicious colours.
Take a closer look at the green one. It is already embellished!
There were also a beautiful selection of lace, I believe some of them are crochet by Carmela her self, and a handful of selected sequins chosen especially for me. I love them. I love the whole content. Now I just need more time to sew!

Bright Fantasy Flowers
… … …On black fabric - swap.

These are some of the flowers I’ve made and sent to my swap partners. These were fun to do. I have appliqué them in the car on our way to the cabin this summer (not on the way back home, cause my hands were always dirty).
I love them. I have even made more then needed. Gonna keep them as company for the other flowers who will enter my mailbox in the upcoming weeks.
Hoping this will turn out as a nice quilt. Not knowing how, yet … …