Red & white, Black & Bright, and some more progress

Two more red and white blocks popped into my mailbox today, these lovelies are from Åse:

Brasstown Star and Broken Dishes

Thank you so much! They will look wonderful with the rest of the blocks! I have a feeling this sampler will be great!

This weekend there will be a quilt-together for "Warming Quilts" in Elverum, and along with some of our other blogging friends I'll be going to May Britt's to join in. I have been having a bit of a guilty concience about these blocks...

...that I swapped with some of the girls at the fabric-swap club in 2007 - so I have decided to bring them along and see if maybe I can't put them in a quilt this weekend.

I also thought I'd share some of the progress on my Sugar Camp Quilt:

14 mountain blocks to go, and the appliqué of the worm fence, indian trail, creek and mill wheel. Hope I can get some of the appliqué done in the next few days.

Have a wonderful quilty weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Swap-happy!

Dear blogging friends! Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my previous post! I know it has been a while, but I really needed this little break. My situation at work has calmed down a little bit, and I have calmed down a little bit. I made a bit of an escape to visit friends in London, and spent some time with my parents at our summer house for a week; no computer and a phone that I kept switched off for a lot of the time was needed. But I have missed blogging, and even though I haven't made any comments, I have tried to keep up with your blogs through Bloglines :o)

Just before the summer my dear blogging friend Suzie (Littlebusybee) and I agreed to do a one-on-one mini quilt swap, and yesterday this beauty showed up:

Isn't it gorgeous? The pattern is "Reel Friendships". She has done such a fabulous job on it - the piecing is soooo accurate, and her hand quilting is fabulous! Thank you so much, Suzie! I’m so happy with it!

She also included some other goodies in the parcel;

Rebecca Barker card, chocolate, tea, a teeny tiny sewing machine key ring, and a beautiful bookmark! Look at those tiny flying geese! Just like the quilt it is so perfectly made! This is one talented lady!

Of course I made her a mini quilt as well – but I don’t think it has arrived in Germany yet, so I’ll keep it a secret until she has received it.

Hope everyone has a good week!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Pincushion exchange part 2, and a request for help!

Today I was at the post office and picked up my pincushion from Suze:

It is absolutely adorable! And I love the colours and the cute buttons :o) I think it will find its way into the tin i keep my bits and pieces for hand piecing (nice way to replace the scrap of fabric I keep in there for my pins and needles in now *lol*). The lovely lady also included a tin of tea (that will be perfect for little bits and bobs later) and a refridgerator magnet :o)

And seeing as we both now have received our pincushions I thought I' show you a picture of this one I made for her.

The scrunchy thing in the back is an elastic wrist band - and it's filled with rice to give it some texture and weight so as to make it stay put :o)

And now for the request for HELP! Please! For some time now I have had trouble accessing Nadine's blog. I can read her posts, and I can click on the header of each post so that I can read all the comments. BUT I CAN'T LEAVE HER A COMMENT, OR CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS IN HER SIDE BAR! Is it just me who have this problem? Have you had a similar problem and figured out a way to solve it? Any idea what's causing it and what I can do about it? Nadine is such a lovely lady, and I'd love to be able to comment on her blog!

Sincerely,
Anne Ida

I’m back… And found lots of goodies in the mail!

K and I have had a great week at the summer house; relaxing, playing card games, enjoying the weather and eating lots of good food. We rode our bikes everyday, I thought I’d share some photos of one of the places we rode to, Tønsberg tønne (The barrel of Tonsberg), a land mark set up to prevent boats/ships stranding on the rocks. It’s a lovely route to bike ride to a beach, and then a short walk through the woods:

We also managed to stitch a bit, I worked on my Polka Dot Girls BOM, K did some cross stitch (sorry, but didn’t get a pic of it).

Coming home I found some lovely blocks with bright coloured fantasy flowers on black in the mail box from two of my swap partners, aren’t they great?

And last night – coming home from a Hens night for a friend – I found this in the mail from lovely Nadine at Friendship Threads – she was my partner for SweetP’s stitchery swap:

Isn’t it perfect? I LOVE Bronwyn Hayes’ designs and Nadine has done such a wonderful job! She picked one of my absolute favourite motives, and her stitching is so great, and I love how she has set it. She even made a perfect stitched label on the back! She also included a hanger and some fabric for a hanging sleeve! – and I have figured out where to hang it :o) I have a green recliner chair in my living room, a spot for reading and hand stitching, and this will be perfect on the wall over it! THANK YOU so much, Nadine!

In exited sincerity,
Anne Ida

Pincushion exchange

...I'm signed up now... and me who wasn't going to sign up for another swap for a long time, I'm involved in too many as it is... Anyway, what I'm talking about is the pincushiuon exchange hosted by Angela over at The Country Cellar.


I've signed up for the pincushion so far... you can also sign up for a needle keeper exchange, and I'm going to have a think about that one - I actually need one *lol* - but I have no idea so far of what I might be able to make for a swap.