Weekend update

The weather has been terrible the last days here; rain pouring, and last afternoon we had a thunderstorm. Meaning I have had some time to do some quilting. Unfortunately I can't show off what I have done just yet -seeing as it is a gift to a person that might just pop in to check my blog *lol* (I'll post a pic soon!)

Saturday night was the feast of St. John, and true to tradition there was a barbecue. We gathered at the summer house of a friend, a beautiful place by the Oslofjord. Because of the bad weather there was less bon fires than there usually are on this evening, but we had a wonderful evening. The rain eased up long enough for us to get the food done outside (with umbrellas over our heads), but we ate inside, and had a fire going in the fireplace. As a hostess gift i brought some coasters. Didn't have anything to wrap them in, so a ribon had to do...

Thank you Jenny B for the great tutorial! I have seen quite a few bloggers who have made these :o) They are a lot of fun, really easy and look pretty. Making four of them took me aproximately 45 minutes. I think she was pleased with them :o)

Wishing all a great Monday!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Change of name...

Just a quick note: I've found that there are some confusion about there beeing a lot of "Anne"s in Blogland. Therefore I've changed my profile so that both of my first names appear. Here after you will recieve comments signed "Anne Ida".

Sincerely,
Anne Ida

Weekend, SBS and A very special gift

This weekend was the medieval festival here in Oslo, and of course I had to spend a day down in the medieval part of the city. There have been a few years since I have been there, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Except from the knight’s tournament

there really wasn’t all that much going on. A few years ago they filled the entire medieval part of the city, now they didn't even fill one street. But I got to spend a day with a group of friends, and there is nothing to complain about when it comes to that :o)

I have also spent some time during the last days to stitch some more SBS blocks:

This is I-2 Winding Ways, H-5 Sylvia’s Shooting star, E-5 Handy Andy, D-3 Mother’s Delight, D-5 Square and Star, D-6 Odd Fellow's Patch, and L-4 Bride’s bouquet. The I-2 and L-4 are hand pieced, which was quite enjoyable seeing how well the blocks came together. I actually foundation paper pieced the D-3; and here you see the problem (one of the problems) with me and paper piecing – I get confused and switch the pieces around. What was supposed to be a green star with red beams ended up green/red and green/red… I’m not going to be bothered to do it over – rather think of it as a lesson learned – but I regret that I didn’t make the templates and pieced “regularly”.

Lastly; wonder what the very special gift I mention in the heading is? Well hop over to Nadine’s blog and have a look. I’m participating in this :o)

Have a great week!
Sincerely, Anne

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.

First BOM block done

This has been a rather busy week, so there have not been a lot of time for stitching. But a quick post to show I have managed to get the first BOM block all done:

I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out, and I hope the rest will turn out ok as well - once I get to it :o) I have decided that I'm going to translate all the sayings to Norwegian. This first one was rather straight forward, but I will have to have a think through on some of the others.

Hope you have had a good week!
Sincerely, Anne

Mailbox goodies and BOM

Today I found an envelope in the mailbox, and it was my prize from Tracey for leaving a comment on her blog for the anniversary of her 100th post! Thank you so much, Tracey!!! I just love this!


There is a small purse made from plastic covered Moda – perfect for those little things you carry around! - Some lovely vintage floral fabric which I will have a think through to find the perfect project to use it. And there is a couple of pieces of fabric with chickens on it – perfect to make a coaster for my tea mug (who have a rooster on one side and a chicken on the other) that I use every day :o) There are also a couple of romantic vintage looking Christmas cards – they will have to be used for a couple of special people…

What have I been up to since my last post, you might wonder… The heat we have been having over the weekend has made me sit outside most of the time I’ve not been at work. And what to do when the heat is heavy over the city and you don't feel like doing all that much? Work on the May block of the BOM I'm doing, of course, seeing as we're almost half way through June *lol* The BOM is Bronwyn Hayes' Polka Dot Girls - a lovely quilt with quite a lot of stitchery. Goal for the next couple of weeks: finish the two blocks I have received before the July block appears in the mail box :o)



These are the first stitcheries I have done in my life (I have done some embroidery before, but nothing like this); and if you think it is madness to attempt a whole quilt at my level of skill (read lack of skill), you might be right :o) And there may be many words to describe my stitching, neat and even is not among them *lol* but hopefully the blocks will have an over all ok appearance.

Have a great week!
Sincerely, Anne

PS! No, I haven't forgotten the SBS - I will try and make a few blocks there as well :o)

Just couldn’t resist...

Last night I stitched a few more SBS blocks; the pineapple is this week’s Block of the Week, and I try to make the BOW whenever there is a block I haven’t already done:-) The other three are Mrs. Cleveland’s choice, Night and Noon, and Bear’s Paw – these are blocks that should have been paper pieced according to the pattern, but like I have said before, whenever I can avoid it… I did PP the Pineapple, though, using the cut offs from when I have pieced other blocks I figured I needed the stability.


After these were done I started flipping through my sewing basket, and all of a sudden the temptation just got to me; I have to see what this quilt might end up looking like: so I pulled the sashing fabric (I bought that a few months ago) and started cutting. This is how far I got:


Rows A, B, and C!!! I still have 21 blocks left to make so there is a long way before I can assemble the whole thing, but there is something about the satisfaction of seeing that it will eventually come together!

By the way; anyone need an orange and red 6” Chinese Coin block??? Some of you have heard that I misplaced that block sometime in December, and haven’t been able to find it since… eventually I made a new one a couple of weeks ago. Well, last night the old one appeared in the sewing basket, along with all the other blocks, looking smug as h… I guess I should have punished it for giving me a hard time by not letting it be a part of my quilt, but I was more pleased with the background fabric I used in that (which I have run out of) than the one I used in the new one, so now it’s sewn in.

Hope you have a great day!
Sincerely, Anne

Busy weekend

First I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has left a comment on my previous post. I have had a rather busy weekend, and have not been able to reply yet, but I hope to do that sometime tomorrow :o)

My tutor/professor had invited me to come along on an excursion he arranged for his students yesterday. The bus took us about two hours away to the city of Hamar, where we had a lot of fun going to the ruins of a cathedral from the middle of the 12th century and tracing the outlines of the medieval city with the museum director and one of the state archivists as local guides.


We had a wonderful lunch on the beach of the largest lake in this country - Mjøsa - while the professors held a reading from a 16th century chronicle and a lecture on the way of life in the area in the middle ages.

From there we went to what probably must have been one of the most expensive to build of the Norwegian parish churches in the middle ages, and the best preserved of the ones who remain. The church is absolutely beautiful and worth a visit.


We even managed to get in a boat ride to a tiny island in the lake where Norwegian king Håkon Håkonssen built a small fortress in the 1230es. There is not much remaining of the building, but we got an idea of the dimensions from the little there is left.


I did manage to stitch a little on the bus, and about twenty minutes before we were back at the university after our 12 hour trip, I finished a red and white block for Claire and Quilts for Leukaemia. Summer has finally arrived here, and sitting outside and enjoying the sun after breakfast this morning I managed to stitch yet another one:


I had planned on making a dent in the list of remaining SBS blocks today, but with the nice weather, and one of the ladies who were on the excursion yesterday promoting an open air play who had its last day running today, I made my way outside. I met up with a friend down the street and we walked down to the Botanical Garden where this play took place.

The play was part of the celebration of this being the 300 year aniversary of the birth of Swedish sientist Carl von Linné. It was perhaps not the greatest of plays, but it was really enjoyable as a Sunday afternoon entertainment. From the garden we made our way down to the river that runs trough the city and ended up at an outdoors restaurant about half an hours walk from where I live. We had a wonderful meal, and the clocke ticked onto seven before I returned home.

Now, I know at least Butterfly and Rose have been a bit concerned about my SBS; and for them I here document that I actually have stitched an SBS block tonight:


This is the F-2: Fool's Puzzle. I managed to hand stitch the arcs while “watching” one of my favourite films: While you were sleeping. And then I pieced the block together while I had another of my favourite DVDs running: For richer or Poorer. This should make the stitching time about four hours…

Sorry this turned into a rather long post, but this was the short version of a weekend crammed with loads happening :o)

In hope for a good week,
Sincerely, Anne

Ahead of schedule

Like I announced in my last post, I have been on a short brake from my SBS blocks this week to work on some blocks for the blue and white/cream swap. Over the last evenings I have spent some late hours stitching, and believe it or not; I’m ahead of schedule! The plan for this week was to make five of the ten sets I signed up for in the swap, but seeing how quick the first couple of sets went; I made six!


Each set is five blocks, I have made one extra for myself of each. I had already made three sets, and I have one set as a carry around hand piecing project which are about half way done – so I’ll be done with my swap blocks in plenty of time for the deadline :o)

Some of you have made some really sweet remarks of concern about my decision to take a break from the SBS, fearing that it will become a UFO; to that I wish say thank you! –and that I’ll be back to working on it on Sunday, and hopefully I’ll be able to make the list of 26 remaining blocks a little bit shorter :o)

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely, Anne