HAPPY NEW YEAR

I wish you all a happy new year.

May you all be safe and healthy.

I wish you all get a lot of inspiration and joy in the new year.
I look forward to visit your blogs in 2007.

And I thank you all for visitning my blog.

I had never thought it would be like this when I started blogging in august.

I have got a lot of new dear friends on net and I appriciate it so much.

I have got so much inspiration and giggels by reading your blogs.

Thank you all for being my blogfriend.

Third day of christmas

Already third day of christmas. I uploaded these pictures yesterday, but did not have time to do anymore with them. I started yesterday some "officework" with the Norwegian quilters ascociations annual meeting. I have all the registration for this meeting and have already got a lot of registrations in the mail. We have a special quilt teacher this year. Katie Pasquini Masopust from America is visiting our annual meeting and will give classes. I look forward to meet this lady and see her work.

First I want to thank you all for all the lovely greetings I got during the last days. After starting to blog I have got to know a lot of beautiful people. You have been so inspiring and I have enjoyed all the giggles I have had with some of you. And I know there is more to come.
Not so much sewing done these days, but tonight I will enter my sewingroom and try to do something.

This first picture is Frida who is waiting to open the presents. She got a new cat climber which she was very sceptical on first. But now she loves it.

My dear mother was supposed to visit us on christmas eve, but she is not so well these days. She got diabetes and they have not yet got controle of it. So it was the best for her to stay at the old peoples home. We visited her for several hours and she opened her christmasgifts from us while we were staying there. I feel a bit sad and guilty not bringing her home with us but I have to realise she was better staying where she was.
I got a lot of lovely quilt related presents. My DD and DS gav me this beautiful bundle of 16 fat quarters of "antique rose" by Lecien. Isn't they georgius. I do not know what to make of them yet, but it have to be something romantic.

As you see they also gave me Tilda's face paint and glimmerspray. So now I can start to make a lot of Tildas dolls. And I got the book "Home Sweet Home" which I had on my wish list. I love this book. Perhaps that bundle of fabric I got can be used to make something from this book....hmmmm have to think about that. I also got a lot of buttons and laces for my CQ. The presents this year was so amazing. But the best of christmas is to be together with my dear ones. That means so much to me.

We have had grey and cold weather for some days, but yesterday the sun started to shine through and we got this amazing photos. The first one early yesterday morning, then in the middle of the day and the last one the sunset.

I wish you all a nice and peaceful third day of christmas. I will now enter my sewingroom to study my quilty christmas gifts and perhaps find something to sew on while watching tv tonight.

Quilter's night before...

Quilter's Night Before..

by Brenda Groelz, Kathy Rockbugs, Marilyn Root, Cindy Swafford

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
The only one sleeping was Quilter's dear spouse.
The Log Cabin stockings were almost completed,
"Just a few stitches left," our sweet quilter repeated,

"Then I can hang them and head to off to finish
the pillows I'm making, fulfilling Mom's wish
For something 'quilty' to put on her couch",
as she pricked her poor finger, our quilter yelled, "Ouch!"

When from out in the kitchen there arose such a crashing,
she sprang from her work, and she dropped all her sashing.
Away to the doorway she flew like a plane,
wondering just what was happening and who she could blame.

When what to her wondering eyes should appear,
but Old Mrs Claus and her bag of quilt-gear....
With her elves bearing gifts, through the kitchen she came,
she directed and pointed and called them by name.

"Now Elna, now Pfaff, now Bernina and Viking,
the Hoffman and Mumm should be just to her liking.
To the sewing room - there, it's just back of the hall,
now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"

"My Dear," said The Claus (as she liked to be called),
"There really is no need to worry at all.
Your projects will all be completed this night,
I'm terribly sorry we gave you a fright.

Sit down. Have some tea. It's relaxing, you'll see.
My friends and I've come a long way to help Thee.
"She thought she was dreaming, our Dear Quilter did,
In fact she quite feared that she'd near flipped her lid!

But the flash of the needles and twist of the thread
soon gave her to know she had nothing to dread.
They spoke no more words, but went straight to their sewing.
How the work went so quickly she had no way of knowing.

The stitches, how tiny! The corners, how straight!
This Claus-woman's talent was awfully great.
They finished the pillows, then started a quilt.
Before they all knew it, the whole thing was built!..

Now old Mrs. Claus, she knew quilters real well,
and she knew they'd need help on this night most of all
So she said to our quilter, "Just move over, dear,
I've brought my own needle. We'll get done, never fear.

I told dear old Santa about what quilters do.
How they plan all these projects but have other work too.
So he taught me his magic for doing things fast.
There, that pillow's done. Now this is the last."

They tidied their thread snips, and picked up the scraps
and chased our dear quilters six cats from their laps.
They left behind gingerbread (just to be nice)
and the whole house smelled sweetly of Christmas and spice.

As they scurried away with their thimbles still gleaming
dear Mrs. Claus paused, her cap ribbons streaming.
"Merry Christmas, my dear, now just have a ball!
Relax and enjoy. Happy Quilting to all!"

Merry christmas

I wish all of my dear blogger friends
a merry christmas
and a happy new year.

I have appriciated reading your blogs and have received a lot of inspiration from you all. Hope you all will have a peaceful and merry chritsmas. And I am looking forward to see you again in the new year.

Tomorrow it is christmas eve and in Norway we celebrate christmas this day. We have traditions that the church ring the bells at five in the evening to ring the christmas in. I remember also that when I was a child we could not hear the church bells, but one man in the neighbourhood shoot the christmas in. He fired five shoots in the air and that was the sign of that christmas had started.

Tomorrow it is 4th sunday in advent and christmas eve. I share the last verse of my advent poem with you now.

Vi tenner fire lys i kveld
og lar dem brenne ned,
For lengsel, glede, håp og fred,
men mest allikevel for fred på denne lille jord,
hvor menneskene bor

We light four candles tonight
and let them burn down
For longing, joy, hope and peace
but most of all for peace on this little earth
where people live.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

My christmas quilts

I promised you a tour around my christmas quilts. I have just a few things to do before the christmas holiday can start. And I am so proud I am far ahead of schedule so when my boys are coming home today I can sit down and enjoy christmas.

The first one is from BOM Snowman collector. I have sewed all the 12 blocks, but I made a quilt with only four of them. The rest of the blocks are going to be christmasquilts for my DS and DD when they get their own homes. The colours are not good in this photo, but could not manage to get it better.

My winter quilt after a pattern from Kristin Pollen.

I love this one. Snowmen celebrating christmas. A pattern from american P&Q

My christmas stitchery. The colours are so bad in this photo. I will try to photo it again later. I love this one. Bronwyn Hayes pattern from Australian countrythreads.

My log cabin with stars.

A christmas quilt from Bareroots pattern.

My seven sisters christmas table cloth. Made of diamonds english paper pieceing.

A log cabin santa.

From a Nancy Halvorsen pattern.

Also from Nancy Halvorsen pattern

Nissen is guarding my stairs. He holds a lamp which I light a candle in every evening. As you see there is not much snow yet. But it has been very cold. I am so looking forward to these christmas days. I am a true believer in santa and I think he will find us this year also.

Blogger was very kind now and allowed me to upload all these photos. May be blogger is in christmas spirit too.

Angel

Look what I got in the mailbox today. My niese Linda Mari have made me this beautiful hardanger angel. I saw it on another blog some months ago (do not remember who's) and I mailed her the link. And look what came to me as a christmas greeting today.

I love it! It is so beautiful. I am going to treasure this angel for ever. And it will hang on my christmastree or perhaps in my window.

Perhaps you want to make this angel too. Here is the link to the free pattern.

21 desember

I have started my christmas holiday and have a date with the cleaning bucket today. The boxes with chrismasdecorations is down from the attic and I can start placing them around the house.
Startet this morning with sewing the last christmasgift. One planned present is not going to be finished. I realised that there is no time left to do it. And I have told myself.....next year I have to start a little bit earlier. But after reading other blogs I have found out I'm not the only one making presents in the last minutes :)

Yesterday we have our secret santa present opening. We were several on a yahoo group who joined a secret santa swap. And this is the gift I got from Berit. I am so happy. Look what I got. 8 pieces of silkfabric, two brown fabrics, silk thread (which I love to use) and several boxes of beads and laces.


I have to show you what my DD made for her friend. A cute makeup purse. She transferred photo on fabric and used this as a decoration on one side, and on the other side she stitched "Søtnos" (which means "cutie"). It doesn't show but inside she have used a bright pink fabric. The pattern is from the newest book from Tilda. It was a great pattern and a easy way to sew the zipper in. I am going to make this one also............after christmas. And I think she also wants to make more of these. I am so proud of her.

Now the bucket is calling on me. Will show you my christmas quilts later.

Which of Santa's Reindeer are you?

Which of Santa's Reindeer are you? Cupid Like Cupid you know how to spread love. You have a place in your heart for everyone and are always there with a hug or a kiss Find out which of Santa's Reindeer you are at Quizopolis.com

3rd sunday in advent

Så tenner vi tre lys i kveld,

for lengsel, håp og glede

De står og skinner for seg selv

og oss som er tilstede

Så tenner vi tre lys i kveld

for lengsel, håp og glede

and translated to english:

We light three candles tonight

For longing, hope and joy.

They stands there shining by themselves
and we who present are

We light three candles tonight

for longing, hope and joy

This third light of advent poem is one day late. Sorry, but I had so much to do yesterday.

I promise to write more later and show photos of my christmas quilts which I have started to hang up now. The house is still a mess and I am starting to panic. Only a few days to christmas and I have a lot to do. My boyfriend and DS is arriving on little christmas eve and I want everything to be in order when they arrive. So we all can sit down and relax together and enjoy the christmas spirit.

Only 9 days to christmas

There have been days since my last post. Only nine days to christmas and the house is a mess. I have managed to finish several christmasgifts, but have still a couple more to make. This evening me and my boyfriend is going to a chrismasparty at my work.

DD decorated the gingerbread house last evening. And now it is starting to smell like christmas in the house. I will try to bake some cookies this weekend, but not as many as I used to.
This is a towel I made for a boy some days ago. I appliqued a little boy and his name on it. A little gift you can make very quick. I used vlisofix and machine applique. Quite fun to make and I am planning to sew some more.

And this gift came to me yesterday from Santa/Nisse Nadine. THANK YOU THANK YOU. You are so kind. I got a present on your birthday. I love the fabric ( I know exactly what I am going to make of them) and the little box you had bought on the christmasmarket. The box kept a tresure inside. A lot of beautiful old buttons. And look at the georgius needlebook she has made for me. I am speachless. I als got another nice mailbox surprise from Inger. A filtet chrimsmas heart. I am going to hang this in the window on my front door. I was first thinking of hanging it in my sewingroom window, but that's the place Frida cat have her spot, and this heart could be a little bit to tempting to play with. So it goes on the front door. Thank you Inger, I love it.

At the museum

Today my friend Irene and I went to the museum. They were supposed to have a guided tour around the museum telling about old christmas traditions, but the guide was sick. Instead we took a tour with the horse and hay wagon. They could not use the sledge because there is still no snow. We crawled up in the wagon and got a tour around the museum. A little christmas feeling because the horse had bells on.

In one of the old houses they were baking flatbrød and lefse ( I do not know if there is a english word for it) I have baked lefse like this and a found a recepy in english here if you want to bake it too. Now we use to bake it on the takke (norwegian word, do not know the english)

But long time ago they used to bake it here in the fireplace.

In the shop at the museum I found this cute little mouse, and she had to come home with me.

And now she is sitting outside in a decoration on my porch.

Have I done any quilting today. Yes, I have made four new hearts that's ready for binding. I have also made some ....... SCHHhhhhhh..... secret things that I can't show on my blog until after christmas :)

2nd advent

Så tenner vi to lys i kveld,

to lys for håp og glede

De står og skinner for seg selv

og oss som er tilstede

Så tenner vi to lys i kveld,

to lys for håp og glede

and then translated to english as I promised last sunday:

We light two candles tonight

two candles for hope and joy

They stands there shining by themselves

and we who present are
Tonight we light two candles
we light it for hope and joy.

I found this story about "The legend of the four advent candles" I think it is beutiful and want to share it with you. If you want to read it in norwegian you can look here.

Four lights was burning on the advent wreath. It was so quiet you could hear the candles talking to eachoter.

The first light sighed and said: My name is PEACE. I am shining very clearly, but the people do not want peace, the do not want me. The light got smaller and smaller, until it was put out.

The second light said: My name is FAITH. But I have become redundant. People do not want to know about God anymore. It is meaningless that I am burning. And the second ligth was put out.

Sad and with low voice the third light said: My name is LOVE. I have no longer the power to burn. People just ignore me. They only see themselves and not the other one they were supposed to love. And the third light was put out.

A child came into the room, looked at the lights and said with tears in the eyes: "You are supposed to shine and not be put out". Then suddenly the voice of the fourth light was heard:" Do not be afraid! As long as I am burning, we can light the other candles again. My name is HOPE"

And the child took a flame from the candle of hope and lightend all the other candles.

Today I am going to visit our museum. They have something they call "Christmas in the stowe". The museum has a lot of old houses and this sunday they have arranged old christmas traditions in the houses. I will bring my camera and take some photos to share with you all.

No reply on blogs and no bloglines update

I just discovered that when changing to Beta, my profil had been changed to not showing my email. I now challenge everyone to check their profile and see if things have been changes on yours too. Perhaps that will solve a little bit of the problem we now have with no reply comments. It's a wild guess, but worth to check. I have fixed mine and hope my comments from now on will come with my email, if anyone wants to answer me.

I also got another tip on bloglines. I have noticed that a lot of us are having trouble getting the bloglines to update the blogs we are subscribing on. The advice was to delete the blogs and then add them again. This time not choosing atom as a feed. It seems like atom is very unstabel. I was recomended to choose rss instead. This is also worth a try, because it is very enoying not having my bloglines updated. What if we miss something going on in blogland LOL

Nisse

Some days ago I told you about the Nisse kit I was going to start making. And I got the question what a Nisse is. I found this link about Nissen, so if you want you can read about him here.

My memory of Nissen is good. From I was a little child Nissen came with presents. One special memory is the christmas when my grandmother called on me and told me to look over at the barn. And on the barn bridge I saw a little light and there sat Nissen eating from his porridge bowl.

A famous Nisse illustrator is Kjell E Midthun and he comes from Elverum where I live. The next three photos is postcards made by him. Isn't Nissen cute. His postcards is very popular and they have become very attractive collector items.

I believe sending christmas cards is a world wide traditions and I found this link abot christmas cards. And if you look at this link you will find the norwegian version of this link. And here , here and here you can see a collection of old norwegian christmas cards. I love these old cards and regret not saving the one I have got before. After moving several times they have been thrown away. I think I will start to save beautiful cards in a cover from now on.

Quilt pins

Yesterday there was a big envelope in the mailbox for me. All the way from australia. And in it was a magazine and two pins from Jodies guiltgroup. She and I have swapped pins, and now the pins from my quilt group are on their way to her. I love australian P&Q. I used to subscribed it earlier, but not just now. So I appriciate it very much receiveing it. And the pins are my first two from australia.

A little close up of the pins. Now I will hang them on my little wallhanging together with the ther pins I have collected.

5 desember

Yesterday I got the binding on this table runner. Someone asked where I found the pattern. It is from a Norwegian designer called AnnAKa and she designs a lot of lovely patterns.
I also made this little heart wallhanging yesterday. It is also from one of AnnAKa's patterns. This was very fun and quick to make. It was supposed to be a christmas gift but my DD loved it so much that she wants it. So I have to make another one....or two. If you look at the pattern here, you can see that this heart is one of two hearts that shall hang together.

Still now snow where I live. We have had rain and warm weather the last weeks. It is quite unusual for this time of the year. I remember when I was a little child we had real winters with snow and very cold weather. I am not very fond of snow, I just want a little bit so I can find my christmas feeling. So now I just have to play christmas music and watch the advent calender series on tv.

Perhaps if I start to sew on my nisse kit I can find more christmas feelings. I got this kit of Tilda's nisser from a good friend last year, but I did not make them then. I found it in my closet when I was cleaning it and now it lays on my sewingtable ready to be done.