Advent again and time to use your senses

Autumn has passed and I’m blessed to live in a part of Norway where the storms have passed by and made no damages. The temperature has been very nice, but we are starting to long for cold weather and a white Christmas. 

Advent is the time of the year when I try to stop in my haste. I remember to sit down and use my senses. The smell of Christmas cakes and oranges, the sound of familiar songs and music on the radio and in concerts, the lights in the windows and in the eyes of the children.

I have become a grandmother this autumn and this is the first year with a small child in the house. She ‘ll only be two and a half month for  Christmas this year, but I bet she’ll get a lot of attention.

I have done little sewing this autumn, but I have knitted my grandchild a dress, myself a jumper and my DD2 a jacket. The size on the finished objects and on the needles varies a bit.

One of my friends came up with the idea to make some linen cover for empty glasses to put candles in. We pulled out some thread, decorated with text¸ crocheted roses, buttons, and different treads. The text on mine is: Take time to be alone and use your senses. Perfect for advent!

Summertime

Just a few words to say I’m alive, not why I haven’t been blogging for a while. You know it ’s just the normal excuses - too much………………………

 

Here it’s hot summer and I sew a very little. I’ve finished a table runner for advent. It’s a pattern from the Norwegian designer AnnAKa

 

When it’s hot here the best thing to do is stitching on the veranda in the shadow.  I’ve been stitching  all the motives from Winter Wonderland from Crab-apple Hill. Snowmen and hot sun,  - maybe a strange combination. I love these snowmen, but the machine sewing has to wait for a cold day.

Have a nice week!

A real Scrap Quilt

My DD1 started about 5 years ago to cut some of her old jeans into log-cabin stripes. She had to use scissors in lack of other equipments and got a lot of fabric. She wanted a picnics blanket and started her log-cabin blocks, but discovered that she should have made her stripes wider. She lost interest and I got the box and it has stayed on my shelf for a couple of years. After reading  Hanne`s blog about charity blankets and with the link to this video on YouTube I tried this on these stripes. After km of thread I finished this picnic quilt with her stripes, log cabin blocks and squares. I supplied with some old curtains and other old fabric pieces so this is a true scrap quilt.

My daughter is looking forward to picnics this summer.
Sorry the pictures aren't top quality, but they give you an idea of the quilt.
                                                                       FRONT

                                                                        BACK

 

 

 

Just a few pictures

Just a few pictures to show I 've finished som WISPs.

Nr 12

Every time a colleague at my school gets their first child after they’ve started working here, we make them a quilt. Both men and women get a quilt for their child. There is very little replacement of the staff, but now we have made quilt nr. 12. We are women at my school.

Mostly I do the preparations, but everybody has to buttonhole stitch their block. Sometimes if we have more than one quilt in progress, we come together and some iron, some cut, some sew and some just talk. This time I have finished it alone because it was the easiest.

Next week we’re making a home visit bringing with us cakes and coffee and this quilt!

It is called Alpha bears by Brandywine design. The Æ, Ø and Å I’ve added by using the A and E. The size of the quilt is about 140 cm x 160 cm (54 “x 62 “ )

Have a nice week!

 

 

A relaxing weekend

This weekend has been the first for a long time without any have to do work. I have been in my sewing room, preparing a quilt for basting and binding, and  finishing this table runner. It's made of a layer cake  with 5 inches  I won in OPAM 2011.
Have a nice week!

OPAM 2013 AND A CREATIVE GIFT IDEA

Happy new year to you all! Life has been a bit hectic for a while, but now I try to get back into blog land again. I have signed up for OPAM 2013 and this I know from previous years keep me on my creative track. One project a month (I small project) even I manage to finish. Maybe it’s something for you too? Have a look here: http://tagalongteddies.blogspot.com

Need a suggestion for a creative gift for some of your friends? This year I came up with a rather good idea for a Christmas gift after a lot of thinking. I made 9 of my friends at work a small gift books with buttons, small fabric pieces, ribbons, embroidery thread and some yearn. They could add whatever they wanted, and use any material, but the finished object had to be minimum the size of A5 and max A4. If they made something bigger they had to give good arguments.

 

 

 January at work was fun. Just a few discovered that every box contained the same objects (except for the lion fabric, - some got a cat fabric instead)
They had about 4 weeks to finish and then they were invited to soup and coffee. After chatting and eating we had a big show and tell! Here is what they made;

                                                                                                                                    









                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was such a good experience, so I have already planned next year’s gift, and another colleague is thinking of making this with a twist for a coffee date later in spring!

Have fun and be creative together with your friends!