OPAM may finish and how to baste a quilt

I am almost embarrased to show you my OPAM finish for may month LOL It is just so tiny tiny little.
This little house is a pin to have on my jacket. It measures 2 1/2 inch tall and 2 inch widht. I discovered this evening is may 31th and I had NO finish for may month. What to do..........run into the sewingroom to find a small project that would not take too long time to finish. And I found those houses I got when shopping from Quilt My Design at NQT last weekend. I guess you read Hannes blogpost about theese houses LOL.......... it became a kind of competition about her and me getting most houses......we got equal amount of them LOL

So just one tiny little finish for OPAM may month.

Have you OPAM girls remembered to list your finishes in the sidebar!!!!! You have to do that to be in the draw for May OPAM prize which is given by Kris this month.

And what do you do when you are planning to baste a big quilt.

You send an sms to a good friend and invite her for a glass of white vine and tell her to bring her basting needles.

Bjørg and I had a great time crawling around on the floor basting my Joy of Life quilt. And relaxing in between with white wine out on the porch. We are having some really hot summerdays here right now and it feels so good sitting out on the porch.

I am so happy I got help to baste this one. And now I look forward to start handquilting on it.

Saying for today:

Keep smiling....

Make people wonder what your up too!

NQT - last report

Back home and it feels good. I have had a wonderful time at NQT in Gøteborg. Of course there has been moments when I have been soooooooo tired, but I have got so much vitamin Q during these NQT days.

Thursday morning we hung up our Norwegian exhibition .

Friday morning NQT was declared opened in a lovely way. All the scandinavian flags were tied on together by two men. A very nice symbolic event.

I have met some blogfriends. I knew Mary Ann was coming and she had brought her friend ?? (I can't remember her name and blog). I also met a lot of other blogging friends. It was so fun when someone came up to me and asked if I was Abyquilt :) When so many quilters get together like this you always meet old friends and you make new friends. I guess that is the main reason going to such a big event.

Saturday brought lovely sunny weather and I was so lucky to have some hours free to do what I wanted for myself. And I met Hanne and Bente. Together we went for a walk at Haga (the old part of Gøteborg).

So many lovely shops and out doors restaurants. Just enjoying the sun, the atmosphere and some time with my good friends.

Saturday evening there was a dinner for 664 quilters. Imagine so many quilters chatting, laughing and talking about all their shoppings during the day. The dinner was tasteful, the show and tell (which we could not take photos from) showed a lot of big wonderful quilts. You can see more photos from the dinner here.

And then there was shopping!!!!

The shopping area was very small and narrow with a lot of shops. When the shoppingarea opened it was too crowded for me to go there. I guess all the ladies wanted to check out all the goodies at the same time. But later in the evening it was possible to go shopping and sunday it was very easy to find the goodies I wanted.

One of the shops was Quilt My Design from Denmark. One of my favorite shops at NQT. They had such lovely kits and patterns designed by Linett herself.

One of the Norwegianshops was Quiltegården. And this is Siw and Sølvi, a little bit tired but still smiling after three hectic days.

Another Norwegian shop was Quilteliv. She had brought a lot of patterns and kits for wonderful bags and I think she sold almost all of them. I did not buy anything from her this time, but that's because her shop is only one hour driving from where I live. I will visit her shop instead.

Trine and Anne Kjersti from Lappemakeriet was also still smiling after three hectic days.

And this is what I bought. Not much, but I am sooooo pleased with my treasures. I look forward to start on several things. Just two things that was on my list that was sold out before I was able to get them, linen DMC thread (which I look forward to try on stitchery) and Yli Silkthread (which I love to use when I do needleturn). But that's life, someone got those goodies before me :)

Even though it has been hectic, crowded and little sleeping, it has been some wonderful days together with good friends. And I will for sure go to the next NQT which is going to be in Aalborg, Denmark in 2012. I will already now start saving money for this trip.

While having my hours to guard the norwegian exhibition I had some time to stitch. And it was fun doing this because a lot of other quilters came to watch me and learn how to do stitchery.

And then there was time to go home. The taxidriver got a little worried when he discovered 8 women with a lot of suitcases, bags and purses. But we managed to put all 8 ladies with bagage into the car. I'm happy the airport was not that far away from the hotel.

With this I will end my report from the NQT.
I hope you have enjoyed the trip as much as I have.

Now it's back to normal days

and I will enjoy my newly bough treasures.

A big hug to all of you that I have met at NQT in Gøteborg.

It has been so nice to meet you all.

Saying for today:

Truly great friends are hard to find,

difficult to leave,

and impossible to forget....

NQT - small dollquilts

This is perhaps one of my favorit exhibitions at NQT. Åsa Wättre have collected a lot of old antique dolls, dollbeds and dollquilts. They are sooooo tiny tiny peaces in some of these dollquilts and they are so beautiful.

My dream is to someday find a small antique dollbed and make quilts for that one.

NQT - the exhibition at Röhsska museum

Some quilters has been invited by the museum to show some of their projects. And it was a joy to visit the museum and take a good look at them. I refers to the number of the quilt and to the name of the designer and the name of the quilt.

nr 8: Hillevi Lennvall-Rantzen, Sea Holly White Silver
nr 9: Eva Aagesen, Nidaros
nr 10: Maija Välikyla, Treasure

nr 11: Tuula Mäkinen - Kiira's Triple Salchow
nr 12: Marita Lappalainen - Gate

nr 13: Gudny Benediktsdottir - Soon spring comes green again

nr 14: Maija Brummer - Flowers on Paradise Island

nr 15: Anita Swahn - Vulnerability

nr 16: Arja Mattila - Anna Hemp

nr 17: Borghildur Invarsdottir - Loyalty

nr 18: Birgitte Busk - The gift

nr 19: Charlotte Yde - The subversive stitches 3, Please respect our culture, please respect our democracy

nr 20: Sigridur Ingimarsdottir - Power

nr 21: Solvejg Refslund - To be present

nr 22: Ellen Aase - On the Brink of

nr 23: Ulla Söderstedt - Poppy

nr 24: Hanne Aspelin Firman - Is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?

nr 25: Margreth Säterhall - Coltsfoot

nr 26: Trine Tolfsby Bakke - 1600 square centimeter of joy

The items from nr 1 to 7 was impossible to get good photos of. They were standing in glass cabinets and the light from the camera was reflected in the glass. It was quilted boxes and soooo beautiful to see. One of them was made by Bente Nysæter Malm and you can see it here at her blog.

NQT- other exhibitions

Outside the festival "house" there were also some other exhibitions made by lokal quilters. And I got the oportunity to visit some of them. And here is some photos of quilts that caught my eye.

more to come......

NQT- even more photos from the competition exhibition

do you want to see more???