B-day pressie

The evenings this last week has been busy stitching on a birthday present quilt. My Aunt turned 60 early this summer, and my Uncle will be 60 in the spring, so this weekend they celebrated their 120 years! Of course I had to make them a quilt :o) A one block repeat lap size quilt:

The pattern is "Pink Lemonade" from Eleanor Burn's book "Quilts Through the Seasons" - supposedly a quilt in a day... depends on how you define "day" - I estimate to have used 24 efficient work hours on this one since I made the first cut, till the last stitch was in the label.

The quilting is just some over all swirls (think you can see it if you enlarge the photo), that were a lot of fun to do! I'm very pleased with this one, and I think they were as well!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Weekend inspirations

A couple of weeks ago Hanne and I joined a few other quilting ladies to have a mass-sewing session for the "Tepper som varmer" - "Quilts that warm" - run by the Norwegian Quilters Asociation, made for for children that spend long time in hospital. Hanne has made quite a few quilts for them, my first, but definitely not the last!

Being me, I forgot to utilize my camera during the weekend (brought it, but it got stuck in the bag, sigh!), but today I was lucky to get some pictures from one of the ladies arranging the weekend (thank you, Gretha!), and thought I'd share some of the creativity with everyone.

Me stitching the binding onto the quilt I made during the weekend

This is the quilt all done! A good lap size quilt, I had a lot of fun making - it sort of came to life as I went along, starting with the Broken Dishes blocks and improvising from there - a simple meandering all over keep the three layers together.

All in all 31 quilts/quilt tops was produced during the weekend, it was fab to participate, and lots of inspiration to take home!
Hope everyone have a wonderful week!
Sincerely, 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

Blog break

Just want to say I haven't forgotten all you wonderful blogging friends, and that I really miss the blogging community. But my life is a bit upside down at the moment, (UPDATE: this is some trouble at work that has my mind twisting a bit), so I won't be blogging or commenting to any blogs for a while. I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post, and sorry I haven't sent you a personal e-mail as I usually do.

Hope everything straightens out and that I'll see you all soon! Take care!! Sincerely, Anne Ida

Disappearing 9-patch

We had some really hot weather last week, so on Tuesday I packed my bags and went to the summer house for a few days to get some air. The weekend I spent with my sister, including a trip to the summer exhibit at LQS - Lappemakeriet. So that's the reason no one has heard from me lately, I have a list of e-mails I need to answer, and according to Bloglines I have over 400 new posts to read, so it might take me some time to get through them all, so please have patience with me.

I don't have much quilty news, but I do have another finish! A while back there was a block exchange on Stoffbytteklubben; we swapped 12" nine patch blocks in blues, greens and creams. All in all 30 blocks made by Astri, Elin, Kari, Karin and myself:

Sunday before I left, I cut my pile up and pieced the top together and layered it. And on Monday night I quilted it with some large meandring. I finished the binding at the summer house and left the quilt down there to be used and enjoyed through the autumn.

Oh, and I just have to share this little cutie - my sis and I came across him/her near the river on our way home from the LQS - isn't he adorable? And sooo tiny and perfect:

Oh, and my shopping at the LQS? I was a pretty good girl and only got a few things:

Happy quilting!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Backpack - another finish!

My friend Leisha Camden (formerly refered to as my friend K) and I made some bags during the winter 2006-2007, and among our projects were a Jinny Beyer backpack, made from some of the leftovers from this quilt:

But we didn't get any further than making the panels for the back and front before the backpack project ended up in the UFO drawer... sigh! But as I've been in the mood of finishing some projects, I pulled the backpack out, and now it's all done:

The straps are a bit long, so I might shorten them someday... But I'm so happy with it!!! And best of all, I'll be able to actually use it :o)

Happy quilty weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

RR Finished

I didn't want another UFO in my drawer, so I figured I'd finish the RR before it ever ended up in the pile of "things to do". And now it's finished :o) This is how it turned out:

I did a stencil motif in the centre, stitched in the ditch around the "castle wall" and the seminole squares, did some stippling in the light blue in the middle, some echo quilting around the daisies and some meandring in the rest. Fun!

Happy quilting!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Round Robin

I have participated in a Round Robin on the "Stoffbytteklubben" (fabric swap club), and today I finally found mine in the mail box!!! This is how it turned out:

I made the Castle Wall block in the centre, Gudveig did the seminole border, Kari did the purple with the appliqué flowers, and then Lena did the square in a square border. I'm thinking of quilting it quite simply (some meandring, perhaps) and bind it in some dark blue. It will be a good summer table topper :o)

This is how Lena's RR looked when I sent it to Kari:

This is Kari's with Lena's and my rounds:

And this is Gudveig's once all of us had stitched on it:

They all look very different! This was a fun experience, but I don't think I'll join in something like this again any time soon - too much stress and uncertainties...

Happy Quilting!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Another Angels Story Weekend

Wohoo! Last night I came home from another wonderful weekend of stitching on the Angels Story quilt along with May Britt, Hanne and Lise, and Bjørg (no blog) for a few hours yesterday. We had such a wonderful time!!!

Hanne and Lise picked me up Saturday morning and we drove up to May Britt's. Almost as soon as we arrived we headed of to the LQS Lille Stasjon - of course we had to spend some money *lol*

When we got back, May Britt served us home made "angel buns" on the veranda, and we spent most of the afternoon there stitching and chatting.

When it got too cold, we moved inside, and kept stitching, chatting and laughing - and of course May Britt's cat, Frida, joined in on the fun.

For supper we had a lovely salmon and pasta - it was soo yummy, May Britt!

Lise is a very speedy stitcher, and she has finished all her angel blocks, so after supper she started cutting the pieces for her quilt, and on Sunday she started piecing a couple of the blocks together:

they look so wonderful! The rest of us stitched some more on our blocks,

and when Bjørg joined in, we had a bit of a display on the living room floor

Angels Galore!!! *lol* Looks great, doesn't it?

May Britt let me go crazy in her drawer of green fabrics to add some variety to my angels quilt - look at this yummy pile I came home with

Thank you so much, May Britt!!! Now I just have to catch up on my blocks...

Thank you ladies for a great weekend!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!
Sincerely, Anne Ida