Let it snow, let it snow......

This is what I woke up to this morning. SNOW. It started to snow yesterday and it kept on snowing during the night. The first snowfall this winter. Look at my car!!!!!!!!!! I miss my garage. Luckily my boyfriend changed to winter tires on saturday. Thats necessary now. I would rather stay inside quilting now instead of driving to work.
I had big problems getting the car on the road because of the snow. And luckily I have good neighbours helping me when my car got stucked in the snow. And they was happy I had my snow shovel.

And this is how it looks outside my officewindow now. And the weather report says it will snow for several days. Winter has come. I do not like snow that much. It gets white and clean outside, but I hate to shovel it away from my car.

It has been complete chaos on the roads this morning. The roads will probably be shoveled before we are driving home from work. Every year the first snowfall makes chaos. Then we get used to it.

I'll blog more about snow, winter and my november quilt with Judy when I come home. Now back to work. I just wanted to show you these photos.

Have a nice day all of you.

Quilt for an hour / First day of snow

One of my november goals is to focus more on quilting. I have been out of focus for a while, but now things starts to calm down and I enjoy being in my sewingroom. Judy at Sunshine Quilts does a "Quilt for an hour" each month, and I intend to do november quilt. I love the scrappy look of it. And this will be a perfect opportunity to reduce my fabric stash. Today I chose my colours. Some time ago I joined the Thimbleberry BOM, but I finished just a few projects in it. And the rest of the fabric have just been in my stash waiting to be used. I have chosen these fabrics to do Judy's quilt and I started to cut the pieces for it. I have not cut the borders yet, because I do not know how I will make them yet. I am now waiting for her next step.

While cutting this fabric something happends outside. It started to snow. Winter have come. This picture is perhaps too dark to show, but I think you see what it looks alike outside my door. I do not look forward tomorrow with all the snow on my car. The weather report is snow snow snow snow...... I will show you a picure in daylight tomorrow. I wonder how much snow we will get during the night.

A little bit sewing today

I tryed to get my focus back on quilting today. And this is what I found in one of my boxes. I started this one earlier this year. It is a pattern from one of my favorite books "Simple blessings". I started doing this to have something above my sofa on the empty wall. This is how far I got with it. Now I have prepared for the last block. Hopefully I will finish this quilt........sometime.

Several bloggers have showed their collections. I collect thimbles. My family and friends are always buying thimbles for me from places they have visited. I am always looking for special thimbles.

I also collect pins from different quilt groups. I made this little quilt to put my pins on. And the quilt lady is watching over my pins. Most of the pins comes from quilt groups in Norway, but I also have some from abroad.

Mailbox surprise from Nadine

This was in my mailbox friday when I came home from work. Nadine had send me a little mailbox surprise. Do you remember some days ago I told you about her comment on we being "roundy" , smiling, cute tomatoes. We had a really good laugh about this comment. Now she sendt me a fabric showing a juicy red tomato. I love this fabric, thank you Nadine. I do not know what to make of it yet, but it has to be somthing to be in my kitchen.

No much quilting this weekend. I have been prepearing outside for the winter to come. My boyfriend changed tires on my car, we managed to carry my very heavy firewoodstove up into the house and we brought home a lot of firewood. No time for sewing.

This morning it was very cold outside. Minus 9 degrees. The weather report is saying snow is coming in the next days. After moving to this new house in april I now have no garage :( so I do not want any snow.

Today 8 weeks to christmas eve!!!!!!!!

October quiltmeeting

Every last thursday in the month my quiltgroup have their meeting. And today it was the october meeting. Not so many ladies today, perhaps the weather was too bad. It snowed earlier today and now it was raining too bad. But here are some pictures from our show and tell.
Remember the bag I made recently. Several bags have been made in this class and here are seven of them. Bjørg Mellum who has designed the pattern is no two from left. Lots of beautiful bags.

Bjørg Holm have made a cat designed by AnnAKa. On AnnAKa's site you can se more of her patterns. We have several great designers in Norway.
Soon des 1st and countdown to christmas. Solfrid has made this beautiful advent calender. We use to hang 24 little gifts on the numbers (days) and open one each day before christmas. Do you do like this abroad. My DD is 18 and she still wants me to make one for her every year. Log cabin is a beautiful pattern. And this one have Reidun made for her brother.
Reidun have also made this beautiful quilts with stars.
And the best to come. My yummy yummy bali's have arrived. 24 pieces of lovely colours. And we bought so much in the shop that we got 2 yards of extra fabric. My friend and I have shared all the pieces. One half for each. Don't ask me what I am going to make of them..............I have no idea. But doesn't they look yummy.

I had brought my daisy applique to the meeting, and now I have finished two. Going to prepare more of them this weekend. Tomorrow is my boyfriend comming and we have a lot of work to do. Put winter tires on my car, bring my new firewood oven in to my house, bring firewood home aso. I am going to keep him busy this weekend :)

Thank you all

Thank you all for your supporting comments. I had no idea it would make so many of you comment this. It made me feel better. But I have to admit that the comment from Lillibeth did not bother me at all.......just a little bit. I know one thing for sure, she is not a quilter. Because I know that a quilter can't be so mean. All the quilters I have learned to know during my time as a quilter are sweet loving persons. And I still belive in that. You are great friends. Love you.

I got one comment I want to share with you all. It was from Nadine. She said: "About the poem : you are just right ! How can some people be so mean and bitter ? I bet she's thin and dry as an old green bean...... whereas we are "roundy" , smiling, cute (English speaking) tomatoes, which is far better and tasty ! (why do I always need to think about food ??? Argggggg .... LOL)"
This comment made me giggle. I sat in my office and laughed and laughed with tears in my eyes. Thank you Nadine. You made my day. ( I got her permission to show you her comment because she mailed it to me privatly)

I want to show you something quilty in this post too. Here a picture of one of my quilts that I like to wrap around me when I am sitting in my chair and feeling cold.....or sleeping in front of the tv. It is made of flanell and I just LOVE it.

Here is the other one. Also made of flanell. This was fun and easy to make. And I think I want to make another one too in other colours. But this time with wool batting inside. That one will be much warmer. I used too thin batting in this one. But I love this one too. Now, back into my sewingroom.

A quilty sunday

I woke up early this morning and after eating breakfast I went into my sewingroom. I was in mood for a lot of sewing today. My quilting spirit is back. I started to wash some of my newest fabrics. A question for you all. Do you wash your fabric before using them? And how do you do it? I soak my fabric in hot wather with some washingpowder in. Then in cold water. If the fabric bleed I repet it again and again until it stops. Today I was in a hurry and wanted some of the fabrics to dry quick, and I put them into my tumble dryer. And this is what came out.
A complete mess!!!!!

I just had to find my ironing table and start ironing them all. Luckily none of the fabrics were destroyed. I placed my ironing table in the livingroom, in front of the tv. A good combination. Ironing and watching tv. This sunday was a bit special in Norway. The was a big charity collection for "Doctors without borders"going on, and on tv there was a lot of programs showing what they are doing. Of course I gave some money when the collectors rang my doorbell. Back to my ironing. It was a huge pile of fabric that came twisted out of the tumble dryer. But after ironing a while I came up with this....

One of the light fabrics I wanted to use for the background of my new project. I know.......I already have soooooooo many ufo's in my sewingroom......but I wanted so badly to start this daisy quilt. I received the pattern from Cynthia and today I prepared two blocks ready for applique. Another question for you: Shall I use the same fabric for the background in all my blocks or shall I use different light ones????

Do you remember the block I was doing on friday. Now I have finished it and another one also. I love doing needleturn applique and combining it with stitchery. The blocks are 6 1/2 inches big. So far I have made 11 blocks. How many I intend to do I do not know yet.

On my last poste before this one I got a comment I have reflected a bit on. Llillibeth said... using anonymous so I could not reply her :"Why use English when you neither can spell nor the language!!!" Is my english really so bad? I think she refers to my translation of the poem a few days ago. I know it was not the best translation, but I felt that the meaning of the poem was more important than getting the proper english. Perhaps she should reflect about what was written in the poem........

I have had a good day today. Done a lot of quilting, visited a good friend (which got very expensive to me. We went on the net and ordered 22 pieces of bali fabric LOL), even had time to blog.

Almost midnight now. Time to go to bed. Good night. Sleep well.

I'm sewing again :)

I wanted to blog this yesterday, but blogger did not cooperate........again:( Read in several blogs that I am not the only one struggeling with blogger)

I'm back sewing again :)

I just needed some days relaxing.

Yesterday after work I cleaned the house, slept an hour on the sofa and when I was ready to watch Prisonbrake at tv, I felt like sewing again. I quiltet a bit on my "say it with flowers". I have quilted 6 of 9 flowerblocks in it now. And I know I will finish it in time limit for our ufo challenge in november.

I was tagged by Pat to show my favorite spot. And this is MY spot. When I am not in my sewingroom there is only one spot I manage to sew. If we got visitors and someone sits in my chair, I feel lost. I walk around in the house and feel bad. I do not manage to sew another place. Stupid or not????? On the little table besides the chair I have all my tools when sewing and under the table is a basket with some of my ongoing project, ready to sew on when I sit down in the chair. I have just tidy up my spot. It is not soooooo tidy all the time LOL When I am in sewing modus I have a lot of different projekts laying around my spot.
Do you remember the blocks I have made already from the book My mother taught me to sew And yesterday I prepared a new block and startet to applique it. I will continue sewing on this one this evening. I am so glad it is friday again. I will buy a bottle of redwine, make a good beef dinner for me and my DD. Sew a bit in front of the tv and then.......... as usual LOL.....I probably fall asleep in the chair.......I'm getting old you know LOL I am a bit curious.....and want to tag Amy at The calico cat, Tazzie and Cynthia to show their favorite spots.

My goal this friday evening: QUILTING

A poem

On my office wall I have a poem which I love. I do not know who wrote it, but I want to share it with you. It's in norwegian and I will try to translate it into english. Of course some of the rimes will not match, but it is the meaning that is important.

First the original poem in norwegian:

Du har fått en vakker gave

en ny dag som kun er din

Det er opp til deg å velge

hva du bruker dagen til.

Dagen står der i din dørsprekk

venter på å komme inn

full av blanke rene sider

med all verdens farger til.

Hvordan kan du utnytte

denne gaven du har fått

Du må velge varme farger

ikke farge arket grått.

Du må bruke dagens timer

til å være positiv

Gled mennesker du møter

gi oppmuntring og smil.

Uansett så må du huske

at når dagen er forbi

har de ting du sa og gjorde

tråkket opp en liten sti.

And then my attempt to translate it into english:

You have been given a beautiful day

on day that is only yours

it is up to you to choose

how to use this day.

This day is waiting by your door

waiting to come in

full of blank clean pages

with the colours of the world.

How can you use

this gift you now received

You have to choose warm colours

not use the colour grey.

You have to use the hours of the day

to be positiv

make people you meet happy

give encouragement and a smile.

Regardless just remember

when the day is gone

the words you said and things you did

have made a little path.

This was very difficult. Translating poems are not easy. If anyone knows a better translation pleas let me know. And if the one who wrote this poem reads this, please forgive me for my "bad" translation. But this poem is so dear to me and I wanted to share it.

I did go in to my sewingroom yesterday. No sewing, but I started to clean up an organize. I looked through some boxes, throwed away some ufo's that I know I never will finish, throwed away old pattern printouts from the computer that I never will make. A big sack of trash. And I felt good. Really good. Perhaps if I continue this evening I may be able to find my pleasure of sewing again. I know it is hidden somewhere in my sewingroom.

One of those days :(

Yesterday I had big plans going in to my sewingroom and SEW. After eating dinner I went in to my sewingroom. I had received the pattern for the daisy quilt Cynthia have made and I inteded to prepare for application of some blocks. Entering the sewingroom full of optimism and eager to start. What happens? I drew up the application on vlisofix and started to find some fabric. I looked through all my drawers full of fabric. Picked some colours to match for one daisy flower. No....they did not match. Found some other fabrics......no....they did not match either. I looked through all my fabric, and felt worse and worse. I felt that all my fabric was sooooo ugly. But I realise that is not true. I bought the fabric because they was pretty. But this evening I could not find any joy working in my sewingroom. I was not in the mood for doing anything. Does anyone else have this feeling sometimes????
I love quilting, I love playing with colours and fabric. I love creating things. But yesterday all that feeling was gone. Everything felt wrong. Perhaps it is because my sewingroom is such a mess now, or perhaps it is because I am so tired in the evening after working all day.

I want to share some pictures of my DD. She made some sewing yesterday. And I love it when she is working in my sewingroom. She went into my scraps and found some blue and white fabric which she sewed together. And started to embellish it with white pearls. Her first CQ. I will show it to you later when she has finished it.

And I hope I get my sewingfeeling back today. Because I want to sew. I need to sew!!!!!!

My autumn handbag

My new handbag is finished. This is the one I showed you all some weeks ago. I was joining a class to make this. And this evening i did the last stitches on it. I am very pleased with it. A perefect size for me, with a lot of pockets both inside and outside. Bjørg have designed some really neat details on it. I am going to use this one at work tomorrow.

I have not done much quilty this weekend. Preparing for the party and having visitors have been the main goals this weekend. But this evening I took time to finish this bag. And I did some more handquilting on my "Say it with flowers" in front of the tv.

Half of october is already gone. Where is it???? I feel I have done so little. The days just rush away. I am longing for more relaxing days. I need som relaxing days. Time to quilt. I have so many ideas, but do not find time to start on them. What about my plans to make christmasgifts? I have applyed for more hours a day, but I not got an answer on that yet.

Going to bed now. Sweet dreams to you all.

Maybe tomorrow will be a bit more relaxing.

LOL My DD took a photo of me in front of my laptop writing this post. I enjoy sitting by the kitchentable writing.

Back to the 50's

Yesterday was the party "Back to the 50's" It was great. After some problems finding what to wear we all had a great time. It was the birthday to my SIL and she had invited 80-90 people. We all were challenged to come in an outfit from the 50's. I ended looking like "Minni Mouse" with black poodleskirt and red/white spotted top. You can see me and my DD on the picture below. It was fun that most of the ladies had taken the challenge and came dressed up in funny outfits.

My boyfriend Idar and me. You cannot see my earrings, but they are red and white spotted (like domino bricks LOL)

From left my DD, my niece Linda and Hilde (my nephews wife).
Some of the nieces/nephews of the birthdaychild made a song during the evening.
My brother and my DS in an discussion.
It was a great party with good food, dancing and laughter. My feets are hurting today after all the dancing. My DS came home with his new girlfriend, a very sweet girl from Ukraina. All my family is home today and that feels great.

What season am I ??

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

I knew it. I have always enjoyed fall best. The colours are just ME. Red, yellow, green, brown, orange.......I love them. When I lived in the North of Norway we had spectacular falls. The colours were so bright in the mountains. Do not have the same where I live now. But still autumn is my favorite time of the year.

Next after christmas. I am a christmas person. When christmas is coming I get a bit "crazy", so tells my children and friends. Notice it is soon christmas, only 10 1/2 week to christmas. Have to think about making presents.

My visit yesterday

When the girls from "The spools" LOL had left yesterday I was to load some photos of them. But blogger did not cooperate. I read on several blogs that they had the same problem. But now, early in the morning before going to work, it worked. Here are the pictures of my quiltingfriends that visited me.

Me in the green sweather quilting on my "Say it with flowers" ufo. Irene is doing some CQ and I showed her several stitches. Turn up page 32 and do the stitches on that page I ordered her. And she did.

Mette, Aud, Anne Britt and Kjerstin

All the girls har brought their quilting and we had a great evening together. We started this group in 1988 when some of us took a class in handstitching. Some new girls have joines us and some have left the group. My mother was one of the girls in this group and I felt a bit sad yesterday she not being able to join us. Love you mom!
We are a small quilting group that calls us "The spools" (in Norwegian; Trådsnellene) and we have made a little pin as sign of the group. It is very small 1,5 x 1,5 inches. As you can se the little hexagons is very very tiny. And under we had to have a spool hanging.

I made some other pins some years ago. Want to show you two of them. If you want to make similar pins you can find the pattern here. It is very easy doing and you can give your pin a personal attitude making funny faces. A lot of my friends have received one of these as a little gift from me.

And I received my books from amazon yesterday. Jippiiiiii. Love the Simple traditions book. It was soooooo many beautiful quilts in it. And the Treasure of crazy quilt stitches....... so many ideas. Do not have the tools that follows the book, but I figured out I could use the plastic I make templates of when I am handstitching. Think that could work helping to get the same shape of bowes aso.

My sewing this weekend.

While my boyfriend was out carpeting saturday I manage to finish my swingskirt and the underskirt. So no I am ready to party LOL

And I have done my 15 min a day with CQ. I have a bit troubel going outside the lines. Have to loose up a bit. Perhaps that's why I work so slow with the embellishment. Besides that, pink is not really my colour. Yesterday I embroidered "angel" in one of the pieces. And I found two beautiful "antique" buttons which I had to have. The white lace in the bottom was stitched on, but I did not find any way to embellish it. Wish my book "treasure of crazyquilt stitches" was here. I know Lorenza in Italy ordered this bok at the same time as I, and she already have received it......... i am envious LOL I have decided to finish the empty space at the top left corner now before starting another place at the block. Do anyone have any ideas for me??????
I got a lot of beautiful silk ribbon so I ought to make some SRE, or should I make som more embroidery, or perhaps a cluster of buttons, or......... I DO NOT KNOW......LOL Think I have to visit "In a minute ago" and look for ideas.

I managed also to do a lot of handquilting on my "Dites-le avec des fleurs" UFO this weekend. I have to find another name for it. Any ideas?????? It is a french pattern I bought visiting France last year and therefore the french name. Perhaps I will call it "Say it with flowers" Is that the coorect english translation for the french name?

I am in an "finish my ufo's" period now and that's feeling good................ very good :)

This evening I am going to have visitors. My friends from "Trådsnella" (in english "The Spools") are coming on an inspection. We are a small group of quilters who meets regulary. The same girls I was togheter with on my quilt weekend at the cabin in august. I baked two cakes yesterday and I am looking forward to some nice hours sewing together with them. I will take some photos and show them later. I am sure they are working on something nice.

New books and fabric

Today I visit the quiltshop. Kristin Pollen is the author of a new book which was released last week. Now she was in our quiltshop signing her new book. She is very talented and always uses norwegian nature for inspiration. This book is called Natures quiltroom (hard to translate it propper) The book contains only table runners and there are a lot of beautiful patterns in the book. Look at the one I just had to buy fabric for. Apple green, moss green, yellow, brown and black.

Yesterday two books that I have ordered arrived. Bareroots "Down to Earth" and "Tildas hus" ("Tildas cabin"). Tilda is another talented norwegian designer. Look at the cute bathroom angel in the book!!!!!! There was plenty of small ideas in this book. And I love Bareroots patterns. They always have such beautiful stitchery. In this book there was a round table cloth I fell for.

And still I am waiting for two other books ordered from amazon. Do you think I will be lacking ideas during this winter.

Now I will enter my sewingroom. My boyfriend is out doing som carpenting and my DD is sleeping after her trip to Praha. Do my 15 min of CQ, preparing my swingskirt for the party next weekend. I remember having a black swingskirt and manage to find it. Luckily I have saved it, but it is several kilos since I used it. So now I am fixing it. And then I have to make the underskirt. My DD has now a red swingskirt and she looked so adorable in it. I will show you pictures of us all next weekend when we are going to the party. My DS and his girlfriend is also comming and they love dressing up like this. I know my DS is going to have the James Dean look.