Desember 24
Christmas Eve!
In Norway we open all the presents in Christmas Eve. In the evening the church bells rings Christmas in. We have a nice Christmas meal with our family, and late in the evening Santa comes to visit……..And I forgot my camera. Grrrr….)

December 22.

Wow! Look what I got. A Christmas card all the way from Canada. It is Carol who has sent me this lovely fabric Christmas card.
I visited her blog and left a comment that I found her Christmas cards beautiful. She told me if I sent her my snail mail she would send me one. Well, I did. But I never thought I would get one. And I Did. Even before Christmas! I have showed it to my family and friend and told them about my quilting/internet friends.
I love you all. You are all my special friends.

December 21.
Handmade Christmas Ornament swap
These beautiful ornaments came to me.

A beautiful hand knitted sweater. I still smile when I see it. I loved it. It is a great idea, and made by Michelle McQuade. You can imagine the size if you compare it to Shelley Thornton’s smart patriotic Christmas ornament (ball)
Joanna Ordonez sent me a gorgeous “light catcher” in my favorite colors.

Heart Christmas Ornament Swap

The first one is hand made by Helle Jorgensen. On the back side she stitched “Piece”. My son Glenn “stole” it and hang it on his bedroom door.
Sandra Matos hand crochet a beautiful white heart.
And the last one is from Joanna Ordonez. Now I got two of her creations. (Wonder how I can get hold of the third one? Lol)

I love swapping. And there will be more to come! I have got two Crazy Quilt “Sisters” for 2007. I will tell you more later.

December 18.

“My Garden”.

Today I managed to accomplish one of my WISP’s. It is “My Garden”. I know it is winter but the idea was to use it in the garden during summer. I can imagine how it will be on the lawn reading quilting magazine and sunbathing with cold lemonade. The size is 110 x 190 cm. Just big enough for me! It is so bright and summerly. It was kind of weird to do this and then put the Christmas tree into the living room.
I also received the last Christmas ornament in the mail today. I will post pictures of those later today or tomorrow.

December 14.

"Christmas"

Christmas is done! Not Christmas it self, but the Crazy Christmas Block. It turned out very nice but the photo does not it justice. (As usual). I loved the gold ribbon with the silk-velvet tread and beads, and the bird corner.
My lesson I learned yesterday were: Never use red thread on red fabric. I need to make myself be more brave, and daring to experiment.

December 13.

“WINTER”

Finally I came around to finish my “Winter” Crazy Quilt. It took some time but now it is done. There are some details I am very pleased with. But still learning how to take close up pictures.This is so much fun. I hope I will learn more, and more, and more.....

Tonight this quilt will participate in a challenge called “The A4 challenge”.
Our quilt group has an ongoing challenge thru the whole year. And tonight it is the theme: “Winter”. A4 is the name of the size of an ordinary piece of copy paper.
I will try to do my "Christmas" ready for tonight as well, but then I need to get started.

Stay tuned. I will post pictures of the other A4's tomorrow.

December 12.

A small wall quilt.

I am now going to show you how to easily make a suspension for a small wall quilt.

My quilt is in this example the size of an ordinary piece of copy paper.

I make 4 squares of fabric 1/3 of the length if the short side. Ex: quilt measures 21 x 30 cm. You need 4 squares 7 x 7 cm.

Fold, iron, and place them, one in each corner, pin.

Then attach the binding.

From corner to corner (witch is up) you place a Chinese chopstick or a flower-support.

It is easy. You go ahead and try it. You will be amazed. I did!

December 10.
Have you ever had the feeling you hate a project? Well, actually the project hates you? Or is it the sewingmachine?
I have tried for a couple of times to quilt a tablecloth. It seams impossible. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. And I have tried “everything”. I have changed the needle, cleaned the spool house, and even changed thread. My only conclusion is; I am never ever going to use basting spray again. Grrrr!

December 6.
Today it is my birthday. I am getting older, and I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to retirement in 25-30 years. LOL. Then I will have time to sew!
Today I am preparing “Pinnekjøtt” for my family. It is Sheep meat. It is a kind of Christmas/New Year dinner. It is going to steam boil for 3 hours and in the mean time I thought I would have a nice time opening my presents (form my quilt-swapping-friends). Just went for the mailbox to collect my presents. Empty. That means I only got one gift to open.

Thanks to Oddbjørg for a lovely fabric. It is a beautiful beige fabric, with small romantic flowers, in pink and green. It is just what I was whishing for. Thanks.

And the best is: I am not the only one that forgets!

Now my kitchen needs me. I have to peel the potatoes for ten people, and make the dessert.

No stitching today.....maybe tomorrow?

December 1.
I have started a tradition in our house.

The year 1996 when I fell in love with my boyfriend I also loved to do cross stitching. Therefore I made him a Christmas stocking. Then in 1997 I started another one for myself.
Well, I was not a mom at the time but I had a bad feeling. My DH had two children from before. At the time they were 7 and 9 years old. Therefore I made Stockings for his children instead. They were done by the Christmas in 1998. And during that Christmas I were stitching on the stocking for the latest member of the family my DS who were born in January the same year. Christmas 1999 my DS were almost 2 years old. He understood the meaning of the stockings.
Every morning in December before Christmas there is a little something inside the stocking, and the morning on Christmas (We in Norway open the presents in the evening of the 24.) The stocking it stuffed with goodies. (There will also be a new toothbrush and toothpaste to everybody).
Finally, in the year 2000 my Christmas stocking was done.
Last year I started to sew one for my niece. (I only got one niece and it seams it will stay that way.) The stocking will not be ready this Christmas. Maybe it will next year. It contains a lot of work, and cross stitching is a bit boring. …Ups..Don’t tell.

Silk Ribbons

I thought it would be a great idea to swap ribbons, silk ribbons. Maybe it is not, but I will try. Sometimes it gives you an opportunity to try something new. New colours, new brand or even something you never thought of. Anyway, I am new to this type of crafting, but I am learning. I am looking forward to this. I hope I will be able to do motifs like this.

I swap with Swap-bot!

I spotted a load of ribbons on someone’s blog today. Sorry for not remembering whose blog, but it came from Pat.
I have bookmarked the blog and I will be back to se how she uses her new treasure.

Yes, Yes, Yes
Finally, I received my books. Oh. I’ve been looking forward to this. I’ve been waiting for so long I almost forgot about them. LOL.

• Treasure of Crazy Quilt Stitches - by Carole Samlpes
• The Crazy Quilt Handbook - by Judith Baker Montano
• An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches adn Motifs - by Linda Causee
  
  
  OK there will not be any sewing tonight; I will be reading, tomorrow as well. The weekend is set of to do something total different than sewing. But Monday I will try everything in the books. And I’ve just been out shopping silk ribbons and new tread. Yes!
  

OK.

I’ve got my new “Bloggers who Embellish” button into my blog. But it is impossible for me to get it into the sidebar of my blog. I always get a tag-error. If I just copy and paste, it ends where it is now.

Bloggers Who Embellish Join List Previous Next Random Powered by RingSurf

Winter in progress

I just had to try. And when I got started, I just couldn’t stop. This is what I’ve done today.

But it seams like it is impossible to get good pictures, especially close-ups. Anybody out there who is willing to give me any tips.

Winter / Christmas

In one of our quilt-group there is a “challenge” to make a A4 size quilt (8,5" x 12"), themed: Winter.
Actually there is one for each season. I started autumn (but I never got finished it in time) Now I on to “Winter” and “Christmas”. I will also do “Spring” and “Summer” later on.
These two quilts need to be ready by mid December. And of course I am not like everybody else; I have to make them crazy.
This is what they look like before I start embellishing them.

If there is anybody out there who wants to suggest anything special for these quilts, be my guest. I will be happy for any feedback/coments..

WISP

Sandie has invited, and I signed up for a UFO/WISP Challenge 2007
(UnFinished Objects or Works In Slow Progress.)

Its a low stress fun way of finishing some of the projects that I have started.

The funny thing is I am not alone into this challenge. It is always nice working together. And here you can visit the others.

The reasons, why I have many unfinished projects are several. One reason is time. Another one is I have become impatient or bored with my work. The most common reason would be that I have started other projects. I love something new.
Anyway, when I look at them, or think of them, I know, I just can’t throw them in the bin or give them away. Once I loved them (I think I still do), and it would have been nice to finish them. Therefore I have promised my self to try to complete as many as possible of my UFO/WISP’s during the year 2007.

I am also aware of that we, (my DH and I) are going to build a new cabin this summer. (The old one burned down last winter) I know it is time-consuming to build something, but the cabin needs new quilts! At least one for each bed…..

I have not shown you any of my WISP’s. I am not proud of myself throwing these away into a corner, behind something else, in my sewing room. I will start bringing one at the time, into daylight. This is the first one:

I am not going to tell you when I started this one. For those of you who have been quilting for a while, might recognise the fabric.
I just loved the idea of pre-cut fabric and the sets of colours. Did I need them? No. But I just had to hvae them, LOL. During the years that are gone since I started this, I have had several ideas of the results. I think I will go for the last one. You wait and see. I will tell you later in my progress, of reaching my goal for this quilt.

Christmas stocking

ready to go. I am not going to tell who is going to get it. I won’t tell the receiver it is on its way. I want to keep it as a secret. And it is a bit early. Deadline is not until later this month. I just needed it to get going, hoping the receiver will get it before Christmas.
When I wrapped it up I stuffed it with Norwegian Chocolate (twist). I did it in my kitchen and measured it to a limit for postage.
I love the way this one turned out. Hoping the receiver will be pleased with it.

Snowmen no. 1

The first one is done. Except, I didn’t do the French Knots. Oh, I hate those. I will ask my mom to do those. Yes, I have tried, but they always seams to end up on the back side of my stitchery. And that’s not where they are supposed to be.
This one was fun to do. I am going to do the second one soon, but first of all I need to finish a Christmas stocking I’ve started. Hope it will be ready to go in the mail today (yes, it is another swap).

I swap with Swap-bot!

This time it is not me. Well, it is me, but on behalf of my son, Glenn André (8 1/2) years)
He has envied me, when I get all these parcels. He seams so disappointed when I received one package after the other. And there is nothing for him. So, this swap is for him. He is going to make up to day, the parcel witch we are going to send of. We are going shopping today. He will understand the saying: “You have to give to get”. It is work to shop, write a card, wrap it up, bring it to the post office, pay the postage, and the worst of it all, sit around and wait for one in return.