Nadine has arrived

The day has finally come. Nadine has arrived Norway. She is such a sweet lady and we talk and talk and talk and talk and........
I know we are going to have a great time together.

She arrived Gardermoen airport at 12:30 and I spotted her imidiately when she came. A big warm hug and it was like we had known eachother for ever.

A stop at the quiltshop when we arrived Elverum. I think Nadine is going to have a great time there tomorrow. I have promised her that we go there :)

Then home for dinner. And then we went to a quiltmeeting. I think Nadine had a lovely time there looking at all the quilts and projects the other ladies where doing.

Now we are back home from the quiltmeeting and Nadine is in my sewingroom looking at all my quiltbooks to bring up to her room for some nightreading.

January finish it up month challenge - final report

Now it's the last day of january and curing this month I've got a lot of reports from happy ladies who have finished WISPs. So no I need a final report from you ladies.

HOW MANY WISPs DID YOU TOTALLY FINISH???

I have a notebook which I have registered all reports, but what if I have missed one report. So please place a comment on this post telling me how many WISPs you finished in january.

In just a few hours I'm driving to the airport to meet Nadine. Can you see her in the airplane waving to me. I'm a bit nervous, but I know this will be very fun. My DD is also home for the weekend and she have promised not to laugh when mum is speaking english. I've prepared norwegian meatballs for dinner today and later this evening we are going to january meeting at my local quiltgroup. Tomorrow I have to show Nadine our local quiltshop, I guess we'll be there for several hours. And friday evening and whole weekend we are going to a quiltclass.

Saying for today:

Blessings come in many ways...
The nicest come as friends

A finished WISP

I've finished my third WISP :) At last my Friendship Basket (pattern from Leanne Beasley) is hanging on my wall. I started it on my class with Leanne in october last year. I really love how it turned out. As you see I have stitched sayings on the borders around the basket. And that's because I just love sayings :)

I'm supposed to just using from my stash this year. But monday I went together with a friend to visit Merete who has a longarm quilter. My friend wanted to get a big top quilted on this machine. And Merete had also fabric for sale in her studio. So did I manage to close my eyes and not buy anything.

Nope........these five japaneese fabrics jumped down in my bag. They screamed that they would love to come home with me. And of course I could not refuse that. Nadine and I is taking a quiltclass this weekend and we needed more japaneese fabrics for it.

Yesterday I had to go to the shop and buy a new iron. I do not dare to use the old one more. Three times have it made a short circuit of the power in my house. Imagine me ironing and suddenly.....pooof.....the house is completely in dark. Where is the flashlight???? Or the matches??? I have learned my lesson now and have placed the flashlight on a place where I easily can find it LOL

Do you have a ruler you never used???? Many years ago I bought the square in a square ruler. I was taking a class where we should learn how to use it, but that class was a disaster and I never learned it. So it have been laying in one drawer in my sewingroom. But yesterday me and some other friends met at the quiltshop with our rulers. And look......I made this star in a star. It was so easy to do using the ruler :) So I guess I will try using the ruler more now. I plan to make a quilt with star in a star blocks.

The "January finish it up month" challenge is soon over. And I've got reports from a lot of ladies who have finished many WISPs. The one that finish most WISPs will get a prize from me. And I will draw one extra prize for just one that have participated in my challenge. So what I want you ladies that joined this challenge to post me a final report. How many WISPs did you finish in january????

Since my last post these ladies have finished some WISPs:

Eileen have finished five WISPs now.

Sølvi have finished a beautiful quilt

Kerry have finished a tablerunner

Maria Elena have finished a beautiful quilt.

Inger have made a cute knittingbag out a stitchery with frogs :)

Yvonne have finished 3 more WISPs.

Christine have now finished a beautiful flannel throw and a christmas pillow.

Juliann have finished a georgius stitchery

Keslyn have finished Ruths quilt from Leannes book Living the dream

Elin have now finished another tablerunner

Saying for today:

PS: Tomorrow I'm meeting Nadine at the airport. I guess she is busy packing her suitcase now LOL

5 days until Nadine is coming!!!

But first a photo of me in the car back home from the vendors fair on thursday. There was almost no room for me in the backseat, but it felt good sitting there wrapped in fabrics. So now there are a lot of new bolts of fabric in our local quiltshop.
Next thursday Nadine is coming over from Belgium to Norway to visit me. Please go over to her blog and read the story she have posted. I'm so looking forward to meet her. She is a blogfriend I "met" some time ago. We have never met in person, just via mail and now we are chatting on msn. I know we'll have a great time together. And one time during her visit we have invited Hanne, Laila, Anne Ida and some other friends for a little sewingtogether.

But what about my sewingroom.......it's a complete mess......again. By christmas it was so tidy and clean...........now a total mess. And now Nadine is comming for an inspection. I have to do someting about it.

There are several bloggers that have showed their sewingtables and what's on it.

And what's on mine:

My belowed sewingmachine

a lot of threads and bobbins

Tilda box filled with thread

A CAT BASKET hehehe

several scissors

rotary cutter

my rotarycutter mat

bindings from last project

fabrics, fabrics, fabrics and more fabrics

A BLACK CAT (you know Frida loves to sit on my sewingtable)

batting

a lot of different rulers

my otlight lamp (can't live without it)

more boxes (can't get enought of boxes)

patterns from projects I plan to do now

And not to mention all the cathair hehehe

So....what's on your sewing table. Is it more messy than mine hehehe.

So tomorrow I start cleaning my sewingroom so Nadine will not be too chocked when she enter into it.

And now it's only 5 more days to finish some WISPs.

The last reports are from:

Monika have finished her third WISP, this time a angel stitchery.

Juliann have finished a little sampler wallquilt.

Karrin have finished two beautiful crazy quilts.

Sigrun have finished her 5th WISP.

Christine have finished two pincushions.

Nancy have finished four place mats.

Christine is really doing great work on her WISPs, here is two more done.

Kerry have finished a tablerunner.

Elin have finished a pillow (her 12th WISP)

Saying for today:

Gave og Interiör (Gift and Interior Design) Vendors Fair

As Hanne writes in her blog; we had a girls day out and the fair. So much inspiration, colours, smells, ideas and much much more. We arrived the fair at 09:00 and stayed there all day til almost 18:00. We could not buy anything there because this was a fair where shopowners order new things to their shop. And perhaps that was the best for my wallet LOL But we could walk around and look at all the goodies and just get inspired.

My friend Hanne and I found our "goodies shop". With sooooooooooo many stitcheries we just have to have :)

And you see Hanne is smiling from ear to ear.

Look................alll this goodies.............

And more goodies!!!!

At one stand AnnAKa showed how to use Paintstik. This was a new tecnique to me, but I would love to try it.

And below some quilts in japaneese fabrics. I love these soft colours.

I get reports from eager ladies on my "January finish it up month" challenge. So many WISPs are getting finished. Below are the latest reports.

Leslie have finished a baby quilt
Carey have finished her cowboy quilt, but she found two new wisps while working on it LOL
Kerry have finished a tablerunner and a machinemat.
Elin have finished her 11th WISP. A beautiful table runner.
Eileen have also finished a beautiful Jingle Joly Runner tablerunner.
Christine have finished a lovely stitchery tablerunner
Hanne have finished a makeup purse in stitchery.
Inger have finished a tablerunner with angels.
Laila have now finished two wallquilts.
Tamara have finished her 4th of July wallhanging.
Moorea have finished two quilts.
Sigrun have finished her bulls eyes quilt
Patti have finished her 5th wisp, Josephs quilts.
Kerry turned a little stitchery into a cute little bag.
Yvonne have finished a red and white tablerunner
Christine have finished a beautiful stitchery pillow.
Inger have finished a pair of potholders.
And again Christine have finished another WISP before I managed to publish this post. And so have Inger. Now she has finished a beautiful Fairyland pillow.

And still you have one week to join this challenge and finish some WISPs. Remember there is a prize for the one that finishe most WISPs and another prize to one that just have joined this challenge.

And now I better start finishing some WISPs too.......LOL

Saying for today:

To quilt or not to quilt, DUH!

Almost a week since I lasted blogged. The days just goes too fast. I have not done so much sewing since my weekend at the cabin. I forgot my camera so I have no photos to show from my weekend. But we had a great time. A lot of sewing, good food, a long walk in the winterforest and laughter. It's so good to be together with friends. I managed to sew the whole top of my new table runner. My friend Bjørg have designed it and we should try out her new pattern.

Now I'm sewing the binding on. And then I'm going to applique a lot of flowers on it. Still a lot of work to do on it.

Look................more projects LOL I now have all blocs of "Truly Scrumptious " from Cinderberry Stitches. I look forward to start stitching on them. But have decided to wait a little bit. Want to finish some more WISPs before starting on it....................I think :)

I got two jello rolls of Moda fabrics to use with the pattern so I'll be using from my stash to it :)

It seems that many girls now are seriously working on their WISPs. I've got a lot of mails telling me they are happy with me pushing them to work on their WISPs.

Christine is really working on her WISPs. She has finished her Spotlight quilt and a pincushion.
Eileen has finished a thimbleberry club quilt.
Patti has finished her third WISP
Elin has finished a lot of wisps now, and she still have more :)
Sølvi has finished a fun elephant table runner.
Laila has finished her Jacob quilt.
Sigrun has finished two lovely gardenladies wallhangings
Hanne has finished a beautiful stitchery pillow.
Patti has finished another wisp before I manage to publish this post.
Tamara has finished her first wisp
Carole has finished a very cute snowman.

Saying for today:

A cat's purr:
Most effective stress medicine known

Award and "january finish it up" progress

I have been given "You make my day award" from these three girls Karrin and Lise and Anne Ida. I appriciate it so much. The rules are to give it away to other bloggers that make my day, but there is so hard to choose between you. I have so many wonderful blogs I visit so hereby I give it to all of YOU!!

I'm going away this weekend. Another trip to the cabin with two quilting friends. We have a new project going on. But this time I have been very very clever. I'm only using fabric from my stash (you noticed the badge on my sidebar) I'm on fabric diet. I bought those light fabrics at our annual quiltmeeting last year. So I've had them for almost a year now without using from them. But now........we are going to make a tablerunner from them.

I get reports every day of finished WISPs:

Elin have finished four WISPs this week (three tablerunners, and one tablecloth)
Linda have finished a Christmas wallhanging and a quilt called Illinois Chills.
Monika have finished a little christmas wallhanging.
Eileen have finished a quilt which she forgot to take a photo of before she sendt it to her niece. But you can see the before photo of it.
Nicolette have finished her crazy cat quilt
Lori have finished one quilt out of two tablerunners.
Inger have finished two small wallhangings.
Sigrun have finished a tablerunner with owls.
Christine have turned a cross stich to a beautiful wallquilt combined with fabric. Great idea.
Tracey have finished three beautiful WISPs.

Nancy have finished Wisp #3.

Way to go girls!!!!

You still got 21 days to finish more WISPs and remember to show a photo of the unfinished WISP and then when it's finished. And mail me about it. There is a prize for the one that finishe most WISPs and a little extra prize for one that have joined this challenge.

Saying for today:

Push Push - "January finish it up month" progress

Christmas is over. And it was time to throw out the christmas tree. And it was time for it to go, as you see almost all the pine needles is laying on the floor. Frida is supervising the whole process. Think she is happy that the tree is out of the house so she can have her spot in front of the window back. She is always sitting there watching "cat tv" (looking at the birds outside)

Push push............I can't only push you girls to finish your WISPs. I have to be a good example too and finish some of mine.

So this weekend I have worked on my four placemats. It took me just one hour to quilt them. The top, backing and batting was already in the box. I know remember why it was abandoned. I only had backing for three of the placemats. But looking throug my fabrics, I found one that was almost the same. No one is going to look under the placemat when they are eating LOL, so it doesn't matter that they're not alike. And for the binding I looked through my box with leftover bindings, and I found enough red, green and yellow bindings to put around. It looks very good with this kind of binding. So I both finished one WISP and I used fabrics from my stash!!!!
I also finished a makeup purse. It took me less than half an hour to finish it. So tell me why haven't I finished it before. I took it outside on my porch for a photo. Here you can se how much snow it came last night. The makeup purse is standing on my pillowbox. And it's still snowing.

I already got some reports from ladies that have finished WISP's and I think several of them have mentioned that they were amazed how little time they used on finishing them. Like me LOL. WISP's we have hided in our sewingroom just needs binding, a little bit of quilting, some seams here and there aso. Why did we abandon them?? I think we all got to eager starting a new project and we forgot them.

I got a comment yesterday from Peggy (can't link to her blog as it does not show) saying: I smiled when I read your saying for the day. I'm not so sure quilting is cheap therapy for all of us! With all the WISPs we have, there is a fortune spent on fabric. Your challenge will make us spend less--for a while :)

This is so true :) If we were going to make inventory of our stash ...............OMG think I have fabric, books, patterns to open a quilt shop. But it's mine, I love it, I want to use it , I want to play with it, I'm getting inspiration. I LOVE MY STASH :) But one goal for 2008 is to use from it. See the badge on my sidebar.

But do you feel as happy as me now when you've finished one WISP.

So look through your sewingroom and see if there is a WISP you want to finish. And then join my "January - finish it up month" challenge

These ladies have mailed me a report on their WISPs:
Tiriltunge have finished two beautiful tablerunners and a table cloth.
Sigrun have fininished a georgius quilt called "Rhaposody"
Nancy have got her binding done on her christmas log cabin quilt.
Christine have finished a christmas stocking so she's ready for next christmas.


Anyone else finished some WISPs by now??


Please mail me and get registered for my "January - finish up mont" challenge. There is a prize for the one that finish the most WISPs. And I will also draw one that will get a little prize just for joining this challenge. As soon as you've finished a WISP post it on your blog and mail me about it.

Saying for today:
Quilting is a gift you give yourself

"January - finish it up month" - progress

I'm going to dream about buttons tonight. Buttons, patterns, books and zippers. Have been to the quiltshop today helping to count inventory. My friend Irene was counting and I was writing; 3 buttons to 3.50, 100 buttons to 5.90, 50 buttons to 12,50, 10000000 buttons to......LOL When I was writing and listening to her I felt like she was telling me a goodnightstory ....... almost fell asleep LOL
Still working on my first WISP. I wanted to do a simple handquilting, but of course I started to do more than I intended to do because it was so fun to handquilt again. Haven't done that in a long time now because of my bad shoulder. But I can tell you I'm feeling so much better. Even my physiolady was so pleased with my progress now. So I guess in a month or two I'm back at work. But as she told me, this is the time I have to be very careful and not believe I can manage to do too much. And I will listen to her :)

That's why I found some other WISPs to work on. This pieces is going to be a little makeup purse. I've already made the big matching toiletpurse months (can it be years) ago. Just have to put the zipper in and sew it together.

And these four placemats were made years ago as an mysteryquilt. I remember they were so fun to make. And I really want some new placemats now. The batting and backing was already in the bag together with this project. Want to machinequilt them this weekend and put the binding on.

And then I have these two (among several others) stitcheries. What are I'm going to make of these? Maybe a pillow or two. I really ned some new pillows in my sofa.

I got so many mails from ladies that want to join my "January-finish it up month" challenge, and I have decided that when you report a finished WISP to me and show in on your blog, I will link to your blog so the rest can see what you have done.

So please; when you have finished a WISP please report to me with a photo on your blog and I will put you on a list.

And these ladies have already mailed to me and put photos on their blogs:

Patti has finished two tablerunners and she has a long list of projects :)

Nancy has also finished a christmas tablerunner. So she is ready for next christmas.
Sølvi has finished three toilet purses.

If you have already finished a WISP and are not on this list; please mail me with a link to the photo on your blog :)

Remember there will be a prize for the one that finish most WISPs in january. I have a box that I will fill with some quiltgoodies. Bought a nice stitcherypattern of norwegian trolls today that I'll put in the box.

Saying for today:

Quilting is cheap therapy

First WISP in january challenge

I've got so many positive comments on my "January - finish it up month"-challenge. That's great. I knew there was not only me having all those unfinished projects in my sewingroom. January will now be the month we do not start a new project. Our goals this month is to finish at least one old project. And I'll promised a prize to the one that finish most WISPs (Work In Slow Progress). Many of you have already mailed me that you want to join this challenge. The rules are: Post a photo of your unfinished project on your blog, finish it and then post a photo of it again. And perhaps like me make a list in the sidebar. And when I january 31th publish a final post about this challenge, you give me a final report of how many WISPs you have finished.

I've got my sewingroom back. And my belowed sewingmachine is on the table again, ready to action. And I've found my first WISP for january challenge. It will be the "Friendship basket" (pattern from Leanne Beasley).

It's not an very old one since I started it in october when Leanne visited us. I basted it yesterday and have started to handquilt it. I will do a simple handquilting and hope to have it up on my wall above my sofa now when I remove my christmasquilts. I was so lucky to receive more of the floral brown fabric so I will use that for the binding.

What's your first WISP for the "January - finish it up month"-challenge????

Saying for today:

So many quilts,
so little time :)