6 months are gone

since the last time I blogged.
I don’t know where they are gone. Bu they sure are gone.
You have not been forgotten, but time has been to short.
My life has been busy; a new job, new cabin and new quilts.

My new job has given me more than I ever could imagine. It has sure given me a lot of new things to figure out, a big amount of new friends, and a lot of fun. I enjoy every day.

The cabin is our new hideout. It has been a summer of hard work, and it has given us a kind of new energy. Could you imagine me working the chain saw and copping wood? (It is hard work to prevent me from freezing during the winter.)
I have even made my own garden of vegetables. I am not going to tell you all how good it went. But I’ve sure learned a lot :o)

That’s been me this summer.

And in between, when the weather was to bad. I would dive into my piles of fabric witch I bring back and from the cabin. (I’m not aloud to make a mess in the cabin as I do in my studio back home. :o)
I’ve been working on a couple of quilts this summer. Two done! It’s been a challenge I found in Hanne’s blog early this summer. I am proud to present to you

“My blue sky”

Lap quilt




and
“Garden of summer”


Tablecloth and placemats for the garden table.
Yes it is a big table :o)

There are one more in progress. I’ll get back to you on another occasion.


The last weekend we had “The gathering” of the autumn; Vestlandstreffet.
This year it was Rogaland Quiltelag who arranged it.

We were 160 ladies gathered, 10-12 shops participated with a lot of nice stuff, 10 courses were fulfilled, resulting in a lot of joy. It was a well done gathering. A lot of work, but it sure was fun.
I hope all of the ladies who came to our gathering enjoyed it.

Our Quilt society had our own “shop” at the gathering. In the shop patterns, kits, pins, buttons, tickets for the lottery and we even had a quiz. The patterns and kits we sold were designed from one of our members. She is absolutely amazing. I am not going to list all of her work here, but one of her designs was a “Viking helmet” witch we had made into pincushions and Stitchery.
I’ve done the Stitchery and combined it with the fabric from the table cloth kit. This will be my wall hanging to keep all my quilting buttons in a safe pace.

As you can see I am collecting them. And do you have one in spare I’ll be more then happy to swap with you.

It is sure a pleasure to be back in bloggland. I’ll do my best to keep posting on a regularly basis.

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 gift no. 1

I got my camera back. Finally.

This is the first gift i received from my seacret friend.

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.

Stitchery.

Why do we love stitchery?
I do not know the history of stitchery. But I do remember my grandma had a handkerchief with beautiful embroidery on the wall in her kitchen. Redwork she called it. Of course she did…..Everyone could see it was done with red thread, on a white piece of fabric. Easy name…The mind of a child is simple.
I accepted her explanation.
Anyway, I always thought it would have been nice if she had chosen another colour. But I never implemented her in my thoughts.

After we have had all these years in progress of techniques and equipment, we still we call it redwork.

I often wonder what she would have thought, if she still had been among us. How would she handle the way we are spoiled? We can by a lot of beautiful thread, not to expensive, and the fact that it is available in shops for everybody.

By the way. My camera is NOT working properly. Grrrr. I am going to the store again on Friday. I am not accepting the battery-explanation once more :o(
Hoping to show you all my Stitchery next week :o)

WISP no 4 is done.

A couple of days ago I picked up another one of my “almost completed” projects. I sometime wonder why I put them aside when they were almost done. I did not remember why on this one. Well, after a second or two I remembered…..
Why can’t I be so smart, that I at least undo the mistakes, before putting away an irritating project?
Anyway, now I have been a good girl, rearranged this one, and ticked it of on my to do list.

This is a table cloth that I am going to put under the coffee machine in the cabin. You see, every time I try to move the machine, it kind of “jumps” and make a mess. Now I can put it smoothly aside.
Then I made a pot-holder to match of the scraps.

Next project need to be in another colour than brown…..

By the way...
Here is a new photo of 2 of my new hens.

My camera
is up and running again. Yeah!

After a couple of day’s struggling to get my camera to work properly, I finally made the decision to go to the shop and complain. I’ve tried everything? Every time I tried to get the camera to focus, it just turned it self off? And if I tried to shoot without focusing, I might get lucky and get a picture, but often my capture just became black. Grrr….
I even bought a box of new batteries to make sure it was not the power who were the issue.

At the shop they switched batteries in my camera. Hmm….. Suddenly it worked properly, and the result would have to be: My new box of batteries would have been destroyed when I purchased them. I carried them home in my backpack along with my Laptop.
I was not aware of computers and cell phones do have a bad inflect on batteries. Now I know. How embarrassing.

The worst about this “issue” is we celebrated Glenn (my DS) 10. birthday. He had a great party whit 27 of his friends and schoolmates. There were 10 more that were invited but could not come.
This is the best party Glenn ever has had. We borrowed the gym at the school, and had a great time. I am sorry we do not have a pile of pictures, but I managed to get a few.

3 WISP’s
After delivering my sampler-top to “Long-arm Liz”, I found the time to start finishing my other WISP’s.
♪
A golden brown tablecloth, covered with “stardust”. This was started long time ago. Finally I managed to complete the hand quilting that I’ve started. It became pretty nice.
It fits in my living room very well.

These 6 would be a perfect match with the tablecloth and 6 glasses of red wine.

4 hens’ prepared for Easter.Finally after all these years, they will be ready when Easter comes around.......

I got one more.... but my camera wouldn't listen to my commands :o(

Need to go to thee shop and ask what I do wrong.

Then I might get a better picture of my Easter hens. :o)

Which season?
Calendar says January 26 in the middle of the winter. Outside the temperature is 12ºC. The sun is shining. No wind, no snow, no rain. It feels like the spring is here. And I am not the only one.....

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……

Treasures and colours.

Last September I had two weeks in Birmingham, UK. It was two busy weeks with working class all day, and homework in the evenings, no sewing. :o( The thought were to do a lot of stitching, but there were no time for such.
Anyway I managed to have some outstanding days,

and got me an impression of the surroundings.
Here are some pictures of the lovely hotel and the belonging garden. During my stay at The Moor Hall Hotel there were arranged 5 weddings and 4 funeral arrangements.
Can’t blame them, the facilities were perfect. And we had some beautiful weather.

Food was delicious. The chef made outstanding dishes. And the wine was exquisite.

I could not have been in the Birmingham area, without a visit to the city. I had to go to the city centre. I jumped on the local train in my search for the “Bull Ring” and the famous "Rag Marked".

And I found it.

Look at these beautiful colors:

Loads of beautiful organza, available in a variety of patterns and colors, displayed in a number of stands. I just had to buy me some. The intention is to make flower PC.

And then I felt the crow inside me. Wow! Look at all the sparkling, shining stuff. The crazy quilt crow inside of me, woke up, and almost turned crazy, insane, more than usual….

Even during a visit to the pub, in order to get something to eat, my eye catches a crate of colors…..

Yuuummmmmiiii

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”

Happy new year to all!

Finally I am back.
It’s been 3 moths’ sins the last time you all heard from me. I am sorry there has been no news on my blog for those of you that had popped by during this time.

But now I am back! And I do have a lot to tell you! ….
Short version:

September
I started a new job and went to Birmingham on a course. (Great trip. I’ll post pictures later.)
Then I was accepted at the University…..
October my DH’s grandson were Baptised. (Picture of present above)
December 5. I had my exam at the University. Theme: Management of Health, Safety and Environment.
December 6. is my birthday, witch we celebrated in our cabin.
Finally, December 21. I handed in my papers (home exam).

Then Christmas appeared !
I was kind of prepared. I had told “everybody”. I am not in the Christmas struggle this year, either for the Christmas present or all the other preparations going on. My spear time upfront for Christmas would be just for Glenn.
And I have promised my self a lot of stitching after Christmas. I got a lot of catching up to do. :o)
(..and I have started…)

I am sorry for letting you all down during my period of studying. I have now reached my goal.
The day before my exam I handed in 4 applications for a new job. The result was amazing. I got a job offer with all the 4 companies. What a week! And then it became my choice!

I have made up my mind, and will start in a new job February 1, as a QHSE engineer. My new baby will be the ISO 14001–2004 Environmental management system.
I just can’t wait!