Tired

Long days at work.  Boring to stay at a hotelroom. So happy I brought some sewing with me.  And the bed makes a great pincushion.  Hope I do not forget one there.

Saying for today:

Stitch your stress away. 
~Author Unknown

And the winner is……….

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my 5 year bloggiversary.  Some of you are “old” bloggers that I have known since before I started to blog myself.  And others are really new bloggers that I have learned to know reacently.  All in all, this is all bloggers that I love to visit and get inspired from.  I hope you have as much fun with blogging as I have.  So I will continue blogging about my quiltinglife.  I have so many projects I have to finish (WISPs and UFOs) and SO many projects I want to start.  I guess if I shall manage to do everything in my quilting mind I have to live for 400 years.  That will be a lot of blogging LOL

On my giveaway guess I had a lot of comments.   And when I posted it I had not counted the buttons myself.

So I emptyed it on my cutting mat and started to count.  As you see there is a lot of small buttons there.  I got totally surprised realizing it was

434 white + 1 black button = total of 435 buttons.

And then over to check all your guesses.

One guess was pretty close with only 3 buttons wrong:

jofridsquilt said...

I think it is 438 buttons. Hugs Jofrid

10:20 AM CEST

Congratulations.  Please email me your adress and I will post the prize for you.

Saying for today:

Let us be grateful to people
who make us happy,
they are the charming gardeners
who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

A little bit shopping

Britt and I went shopping today at a store that are soon going to close . Was a clever girl today and bought only what I needed LOL

like this little gripper for my rulers. Have tried it and it works very good. Think I will love to use this one. Did not know I needed it.

And as Hanne and I have agreed when it comes to fabrics, just to buy BBBB (Borders, Backing, Binding and Batting) so I bought some yards of Backing and a little bit Batting.

A very good saturday shopping trip

Saying for today:

Whoever said money can't buy happiness
simply didn't know where to go shopping.
~Bo Derek

5 year of blogging - giveaway

In august 2006 I made my first blogpost. Never had I guessed that my first attempt of blogging would give me so many wonderful blogging friends all over the world. So far it has been an amazing journey with you all and I intend to continue my blogging. Thank you all for visiting my blog. And I love visiting yours! You all give me so much inspiration.

I love geting comments from you and I try to answer every one. But lately I have discovered that some of the comments do not reach my mailbox. Because of my comment moderation some comments has to be published in blogspot comments, and those I am not able to reply on. Sorry about that. Have no idea why this happends.

5 years bloggiversary and it is time for a giveaway

Do you remeber the makeup purses I made at the cabin last weekend? One is sold, one is given away to a friend and then I have this one left. One lucky person will win this one. And I think I will put some extra surprises inside it too.

All you have to do is guess how many buttons it is in this jar.
I have no idea myself yet. I just filled it without counting them.
I will draw a winner on sunday evening (14 aug) at 18:00 norwegian time.

Update friday morning: I have counted the buttons, WOW, just have to tell you there is a lot of tiny small buttons in this jar LOL.


The giveaway is now ended and the winner is announced :)

Big hug from me to all of you.

Saying for today:

A blog is merely a tool
that lets you do anything
from changing the world
to share your shoppinglist
unknown

Antique sampler–the beginning

This evening I got a msn from my friend Bjørg asking:
“have you started on our project yet?”
My answer: “No, because you told me not to start it yet. Are you tempted to start it now?”
Bjørg: “I am very tempted to start it soon”
Me: “Perhaps we just do it”
Bjørg: “I make some coffee if you come”

And then I packed my fabrics and pattern in a bag and drove over to visit Bjørg. We have sewed big projects together earlier and it is so great to have someone to discuss fabric choises and have a progress (homework) togther. Our new project is Antique Sampler (design Sue Daley). And believe it or not, I am sewing mine in BLUE and brown, with some adding of red/pink and green.

Bjørg is seriously thinking of which fabrics using in her first block. We have also done a little challenge for eachother. I have picked fabrics for two of her blocks and she have picked fabrics for some of my blocks.

And then we started to trace our first pieces. This quilt is done with a lot of English Paper Piecing and needleturn applique.

I am looking forward to start sewing on this quilt. It is a lot of work, but I love needleturn and after discovering the glue pen and the needles and thread Sue Daley is using, I have started to love EPP too. I am making a smaller quilt than the original. Just 3 x 2 big blocks (the original is 3 x 3 big blocks).

Homework to our next meeting in the beginning of september: Sewing all the EPP for the six big blocks. Hope I manage to do it. There is a lot of other on going projects too LOL

Saying for today:

As soon as you sit down
to a cup of hot coffee,
your boss will ask you to do something
which will last until the coffee is cold.
~Author Unknown

The same thing happends when you start a new project, the coffee gets cold...... LOL

At the cabin with good friends

Thursday afternoon after work, my car was loaded with my sewingmachine, a lot of projects and my friend Irene.  Then we drove up to the cabin where four other friends waited for us.

If I do not remember wrong this is the 12th year we are meeting like this.  So it is a tradition for us to have this quilt trip to the cabin

One of the ladies finished this lovely hexagon table cloth this weekend.  Looks lovely on the outdoor table.

Every corner of the cabin is used for quilting.  A cutting post at the kitchen bench.

I had big plans making a little bag from this hen stitchery, but of course I had not brought the fabrics needed for this project.  Even though I had a big bag full of fabric, the one I wanted was back home.   Luckily I had brought a lot of other projects to work on.

Hand quilting needs a comfortable place to sit.

We had a lot of rain this weekend, but saturday was a sunny warm day.  Sitting outside with handsewing in the sun was very nice.  I did some applique on a table runner.  It is an old WISP I found in my project drawer when organizing it some weeks ago.  Too beautiful not to be finished. 

Quilters on a row.  Enjoying the sun. 

All kind of projects this weekend.  A lot of laughter and good conversations.  Good food and a lot of card games.  This has been a weekend filled with vitamin Q.

I did some stitching, a little bit hand applique on the table runner, finished four miniatureblocks for a mini sampler (forgot to take a photo of them), and I made these three make up purses. 

It’s been a wonderful long weekend

Saying for today:

A true friend is one who thinks
you are a good egg
even if you are half-cracked

My summervacation–goals

Do you remember this post where I planned my summer vacation. These three weeks have gone so fast. Tomorrow I start working again.

Let’s check if I manage to do what I planned

1. Organizing my sewing room.......again

Oh yes, I have done a lot of organizing in my sewingroom. Almost all the shelfs are being organized. I have throwed away a lot!! And it actually feels good.

Today everything in my WISP drawer was pulled out on the floor.

And now this drawer looks more inviting. Found some projects I had totally forgotten. Projects that can be finished in no time I think.

2. Quilt
3. Quilt some more
4. And hopefully have some finishes

I have 8 finishes this month. Some small and some big. I am doing a happy dancing now. Never did I believe that I would manage to have so many finishes. So that just tells I have done a lot of quilting, and a lot of bindings too. With all the rain we have had this summer, a good place to be have been in my sewingroom.

5. So I can start some new projects

In that blue paperbag is all fabrics for project Antique Sampler. I know Sue Daley is coming back to Norway next year so it had been fun to show her this quilt. This time I will join one of her classes. I will be sewing this quilt together with my friend Bjørg and we will start in in a week or two.

6. Relax
7. And quilt some more
8. A glass of red wine

We have had some sunny warm summerdays, like this weekend, and I have enjoyed some time out on the porch (finally) with my sewing, a good book and a nice glass of red wine.

9. And then there perhaps is time to organize my sewing room ..........again

I guess in a week or two I have messed up my swingroom and it is time to start organizing it again. But I guess I am not the only one having it this way LOL

10. Just have fun in my summer vacation

These three weeks have gone too fast. I have had a lot of fun, even though I have had to go to work some days (will get those vacation days later to spend). Been to the cabin with a dear friend (with our sewingmachines of course), had dear friends over for a visit, visited a quiltshop (and shopped of course), relaxed with my sewing and reading, watched good movies and read some great books.

Saying for today:

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time
which every day produces,
and which most men throw away.
~Charles Caleb Colton

More finishes

July have been a month filled with finishes.  And it feels so good.  One by one I have found WISP’s (Work In Slow Progress) in my boxes and drawers and started to work on them.  Some there have taken me only 15 minutes to finish.  Others I have worked on for a couple of days or more. 

I wonder why some of these have been put away.  Guess I have been thinking that because there is so little left to do on it, I can start a new project, and do the rest of it later.

Or perhaps it is because I have got bored of the old project and just had to start a new one.  There is always so much that I want to make.  So much inspiration in books, magazines, on net and to watch on other blogs.

I think bindings are so booooooring to sew down.  But look at this lovely view I discovered in my shelf last night.  While having Hanne and Bente over for a visit, I had decided to sew down bindings on some tablerunners.  Boring work in good company makes it fun.

And now I have three new table runners.  I do not know yet if they are going on my tables, or in my giveaway/to sell box.

This makes 8 finishes this month (so far, still some days left to make some other finished). It feels so good.

Saying for today:

The past is behind us,
love is in front and all around us. 
~Terri Guillemets

New days

 

Slowly we have to take back our daily life, but the happenings last friday will make a difference in whole Norway, and will for ever be remembered. 
I think Norway have showed the whole world that we can stand up agains violence like this.  Not with hate, but with love for eachother.

Monday brought visitors to my house.  Nancy and her husband was on summervacation and dropped in to say hello.  And of course Nancy and I had some time to sewing too.  Here we are comparing the progress on our “A Tisket, a Tasket” BOM.  Perhaps I should give this BOM another chance now. 

Yesterday Hanne and Bente came.  You perhaps remember that Hanne and I made a deal to give eachother a prize for our Tour de Fibre blogging/sewing.  Our Tour de Fibre was ended some days too early because of the massakre on friday.  It felt so wrong to blog about sewing and other trivial things. 

But now Hanne brougth her prize for me and I had one prize for her.  Look at those curious faces.  So we hurried to open them.

Lucky me   My prize is the beutiful tinbox to the left.  Filled with georgius new fabrics.  LOVE IT.  Hannes prize is the jar to the right.  You have to visit her blog to see what I gave her as a prize.

We have enjoyed an evening with sewing and chatting.

When Bente tried to do a layout of these blocks she got a good helping claw from Rusken. 

Today we went to visit Sy-Sammen.  A quilt shop not far away.  Long time since last time I visit this shop, but I know I will be back. 

She has so many fabrics, and the only shop I know of with this many big backings

No need to say that some backings came home with me

She also have a lot of excellent battings on rolls.

A big smile on my face when I came home with all my treasures.

Saying for today:

Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way.
Stay away from what might have been,
and look at what can be.
Marsha Petrie Sue

Red roses and torches

This evening thousands of people came together in my city. Same thing was done all over Norway. With red roses and torches. In memory of all the victims of the bombing and Utøya massakre.

Saying for today:
If one man can show that much hate,
think of how much love we can show.

Helle Gannestad
a friend of Stine Renate Håheim

Burning a light

Norway are in shock after the horrible happening yesterday.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families that suffer a terrible loss.

Saying for today:
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
love leaves a memory no one can steal.
~From a headstone in Ireland