”The Winter Quilt”

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in lands on opposite sides of the world, there were two women dreaming of a special quilt - a quilt they both had seen pictures of on the strange world wide web. The woman in the south knew the pattern for the block in this quilt as "Annie’s Choice", and she thought of her friend in the north who was called Anne. The woman in the north knew the pattern as Dutch Rose (among other names), and thought of her friend in the south named Rose.

One day after they had talked and thought, they decided that they would both make this quilt, and together they would realize their dreams. Inspired by the quilts(1)/quilts (2) they had seen online, Rose drafted in EQ6 what they had come to talk of as “The Winter Quilt”.

They gathered the fabrics they needed; Anne made up her mind only to use fabrics from her stash, while Rose chose to purchase some lights, but would use what darks she already had. On a beautiful Thursday, in the spring time in the south and autumn in the north, they started their quilting adventure – cutting and sewing, and thinking of the friend so far away doing the same – a quilting bee in spirit. When our story is told they have each completed one 16” block

Rose is making her quilt in beautiful soft country colours on a golden background, so as to contribute to warmth in the winter when this quilt will be needed and used.

Anne chose a selection of strong colours against a background of parchment beige, leaving a colder impression, but with a bit more contrast and play for the eye.

All in all will they each make 25 of these blocks, so our story will continue…
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This post is made on behalf of both Rose and Anne. Rose have unfortunately injured her shoulder, and is banned from sewing, knitting and computer work – included blog writing – for a while, Anne is hoping she will recover well, and is sure her friend will love to receive a message via her blog wishing she will feel better soon.

I promised a pic...

...of my Dear Jane blocks, so here it is:

C9 – Jane’s Tears, B13 – Four Corner Press; I2 – Kaye’s Courtyard;
A1 – Pinwheel Gone Awry; M10 – Simple Simon; A6 – Uncle Homer;
F4 – Old Windmill; D13 – Field of Dreams; B9 – Tinker Toy

I included the ones I showed previously too, so as to make a complete square :o) Like I said, mostly rather simple blocks to get into the feel and rhythm of hand piecing these tiny pieces. These blocks are far from perfect, but this quit will be an exercise in hand piecing and appliqué, and hopefully making these tiny blocks will improve my skills. I already has attempted something for the first time ever – reverse appliqué; and I’m rather pleased with the result :o)

Hope you have a great Friday evening!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Award and meme

A few days ago my sweet tassi friend Rose awarded me with the "Make Me Smile" award! And the day before yesterday, wonderful co-Norwegian quilt blogger Elin also bestowed this honor upon me! Thank you so much, both of you! I'm touched and honored! - and I promise to wear the badge with pride. And I want you both to know you make me smile as well! :o)

Now I'm suppose to pass on this honour to someone else in blogland. But somehow you all make me smile, laugh, feel inspired in one way or another, so there is no way I can single anyone out. If you feel you deserve this award, and I have left a comment on your blog in the last couple of weeks, the award is yours - wear it with pride!

Along with the award, they both challenged me with a meme to tell something about myself using the letters of my middle name. Now my middle (or rather second first name - as I use both) has only three letters, so this should be a piece of cake, you think? Not so! I really had a hard time coming up with something. But here it goes:

I - imaginative (you don't want to know what goes on in my head!)
D - determined (usually when I decide to do something, I do it!)
A - agreeable (very few people have had reason to argue with me. Or is it that I scare them so much they don't dare? *lol*)

How much that really says about me? You be the judge... Now do you feel tagged? YOU ARE!

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday! I'll be sewing tonight! YEY!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

PS! Did you see in the side bar that the DJ block tally is up to 9? - don't be too impressed, they are mostly simple blocks :o) picture later.

It's a beginning

It's hard to believe it has been a week since my last post! I've loved the responces I have received on the blue and white swap quilt top! Thank you so much to all of you who made a block for me, and thank you to all who have left me a comment! I really appreciate it! Over this week, I haven't done all that much quilty stuff. I've started on the blocks for the border of my swap quilt - 48 Log Cabin Blocks so far - I still need to make four more.

Yesterday was a grey day here, so apart from a walk with a group of my collegues to Bygdøy, a penninsula in the Oslo fjord, to have a look at the government's gift to the King and Queen for their 70th birthdays, I spent the day on the sofa doing a bit of hand piecing. I bought Brenda Papadakis' book "Dear Jane" in June, and my fingers have been itching to start making blocks ever since. I managed to stitch two yesterday:

Hopefully it will be scrappy with the main colours being blue and beige, I've picked out some lovely Thimbleberries fabrics for that cozy country feel - perhaps with some small specs of other colours blended in. Ive decided to do this wholely as a hand piecing project, so it will take lots and lots of time, and I'm sure you will find an update on the progress here every now and then :o)

Sincerely, Anne Ida

Clearing of the living room floor

Did I tell you I love those blue and white SBS swap blocks? Scince they arrived on Friday, they have been lying on the living room floor for me to admire and play with - and Sunday I just had to start stitching them together *lol* This is what they look like now, after doing some stitching Sunday, last night and tonight:

I have sewn together 59 blocks, all fifty I received from my swap partners and nine of my own, set on point with 1" white/cream sashings, blue corner stones, and white/cream setting triangles. It is now a fair size lap quilt, perfect size to have on the sofa on those cold winter nights. I'm not quite sure where I want to take it from here... I want some sort of pieced blue border - not to big - but don't know what pattern to choose... so i'm putting it in the sewing basket while I take a time-out in the think tank :o)

Hope you are having fun these days too!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

In a swap-happy mood

Thursday evening I finished my "Leaves of September" quilt for ... in the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. This is how it turned out:

As you can see, I increased the volume of the stems of the maple leaves. The quilting is very simple, but I hope it enhances the pattern of the blocks. As a finishing touch I added one stanza of the poem "Once Upon an Autumn Day" by Joseph T. Renaldi to the label. Now it's done and just waiting to be sent of on Monday.

Remember the blue and white SBS swap I posted about early this summer? Yesterday I got my blocks back from Jennifer Chiaverini:

I'm so exited about this!!! They are absolutely gorgeous! Everyone has done such a wonderful job! And I hope I can figure out a setting for them that does these beauties justice. In the pic on the top are all the blocks that were sent to me, in the one below, I have added one of each of the blocks I made for the swap. All in all there are 60 blocks - so it should make into a fair size quilt - all in blue and white/cream. Now I need to think...

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

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PS! For those interested, here is the whole poem by Joseph T. Renaldi:

Once Upon An Autumn Day

Once upon an autumn day,

Colorful leaves began to fade

In the midst of a chilly, frosty air

As multitude of trees grew steadily bare.

*

Once upon an autumn day,

The whispering breeze was here to stay

Moving aimlessly through the countless trees

Scattering leaves with the greatest of ease.

*

Once upon an autumn day,

The leaves whirled freely in every way,

Until at last they came to rest

Finding a haven in which to nest.

*

Once upon an autumn day,

The trees were dormant, and the leaves lay

Waiting for the winter snow to fall

To quickly obscure them one and all.

*

Joseph T. Renaldi

Top is together

Today I have turned my day a bit upside down; taking it easy during the beginning of the day doing some organizing for a work project and taking some time for sewing before I'll do some "proper" work this evening. So I've finally managed to get the top for my Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilt together.

I'm not too sure about the embroydered stems on the leaves, will have a think on those... and I still have to figure out how I'm going to quilt it, and think of a label for the back. I sooo hope that the person who receives this will love it as much as I love the one I got from Libby!

Hope you are having a creative day!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Stars and Feathers - 4SQS

Can you imagine what I felt when I went to the post office today to pick up a package from the US? I was soooo exited when the box was handed to me over the counter! And when I opened it I felt a lump in my throat. Wonderful Libby (A Simple Girl) had sent me her miniature quilt:

Does this say Autumn, or what? Stars and flying geese in a lovely combination! And the country feel of the fabrics are wonderful for this time of year - gives it a warmth in these wet and chilly times.

The label on the back has a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder:

All those golden autumn days, the sky was full of wings.

Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake.

Wings beating high in the blue air far above...

Bearing them all away to green fields in the south.

Reading this brought back a lot of memories, being a girl reading the books about the life on the prairie - remember loving the tales of a life so different than my own. Perhaps I will reread them one of these days? And in English this time... the language sound more poetic than what I remember from reading them in translation...

Coming home tonight it found its way to the kitchen table, where it will have its home in time to come. Libby had also included some other goodies; I look forward to trying the strawberry jam with my breakfast :o) And I'm sure you'll see the FQs in a quilt one of these days :o)

Sincerely,
Anne Ida

A gift of goodies and 4SQS teaser

It’s hard to believe it has been more than a week since my last post! The time that has passed has been busy, unfortunately not with any crafty things (work, work, work!). And as time has flown unanswered messages has piled up in my inbox and the number of unread posts through Bloglines has increased to a number a fear to think of :o) So I want to say thank you all who have commented on my blog and left me messages, I read them all and truly appreciate you stopping by! And I will do my utmost to read the posts on your blogs, you all are such an inspiration to me!

Coming home from a four day seminar last night I found this in my mailbox:

It is from wonderful Guðrun in Reykjavík! Have you seen this post? She is so sweet to want to give me one of her beautiful little bags, and she sent me a gorgeous Icelandic pattern by Elín Guðjónsdóttir for table toppers with some adorable butterflies, a deck of cards with Norse gods on them (I love old Norse mythology!), and a pin with our flags on it :o) She is a true sweetheart, that lady!

I have gotten a note Margaret that my swap for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap is in the mail. OMG! Someone has been very fast! And I soo look forward to receiving it! I haven’t gotten all that much done on my project for the swap yet – I'm only this far:

Perhaps I’ll find some time to do some more sewing tonight???
Wishing everyone a great Sunday, sincerely
Anne Ida