A sewing weekend in Hemsedal

This weekend I have been in Hemsedal with two of my quilt friends. Long time ago we agreed so make a bag. Actually, I don't know how many bags we have now but they aren't few. This was a bag I made from a pattern of the designer Helene Juel in Denmark. I made the first one some years ago but it is great for carrying a PC or other bigger things. I have used mine very much and I made it from scraps and old jeans. I made the second one from linen and scraps. We do have too much scraps so it is not diffucult to find something useful there.

On Friday the weather was so nice so we grilled sausages outside on the terrace. Saturday morning we woke up to a little snow. It snowed all the day and all together it came about 20 cm. All our neighbours had summer tyres on their cars so there was very little activity on our short country road but we had all we needed and just enjoyed ourselves with our activities. We sewed all day and ate a late dinner and watched TV afterwards.

When we woke up this morning it was very much snow outside. Look at the pictures I have taken. It is beautiful, isn't it?

Later we took our bags outside on our terrace table for the photo session.

Both my friends had changed to winter tyres before they arrived because the weather forecast had said it would snow on Saturday. They were right for once. I have only summer tyres on my car because I have been here one week already. I have choosed to stay here until tomorrow morning. Then the weather people say it will be sunny. I really hopethey are right. We have some very diffucult curves on the road down to the village that always cause lots of trouble for drivers through the winter. I think they are even worser when you drive down to the village. Upwards is much better.

AnnAKa's Advent's calender

Last summer I got a little chock. My daughter-in-law saw the pattern of this advent calender lying beside my sewing machine in the sewing room before it was so untidy that you couldn't get in there. Now she asked me if I could make two for her children. I said no, but I would make one for the children because I think one is enough. It isn't so cheap to make and there are lots of work on it. At this moment they do not need two of the same kind but maybe later on I will decide of making another one.

I started the work when it was raining most in the summer, but she never saw it. It was not difficult to make and soon it was finished. Now I have given it to my son for giving it to his wife. I haven't heard any comments yet, so she might have forgotten. They are all so busy these days.

News

Since my last contribution on my blog I have finished more of my WIPS. This time it is a Stitchery for my grandaughter. I bought it from Kathrine's Quilte Stue some years ago. I embroidered and finished it. Then I made the mistake that was the reason for not fullfilling it. I cut off the batting and backing before I sewed on the broders. Therefore it was put away. I didn't know what to do.

When I tidied my sewing room I decided to finish it and now it is done. My granddaughter will have it as a Christmas present. I quilted it by hand.

Weekend in Grimstad

This weekend I have been to Grimstad to participate in a lection with Lone Schaadt from Denmark. She has tought Curved forms. She was a very good teatcher and we all learned much. Those who arranged the weekend were "Meretes lille atelier" and "Quilt'n" in Arendal. Good work from those who arranged it.

I have never visited Meretes Lille Atelier before so on Saturday morning I went there. She didn't only had fabrics but many other things as well. Take a look at the photos I shot.

There were four different classes and you can see some of the teachers here. We stayed at Rica Grimstad Hotel. I am not sure of how many participants there were but there were many, all enjoying themselves. Outside the sun was shining all weekend so I found it hard to sit inside all day but the class was so enjoyable and the teacher so clever so I forgot all of the weather and concentrated on what we learned instead. We learned Curved forms and it was not very difficult. Lone's technique was great and easy. I think I will do more of it later on. What I did was this: Not very much, wasn't it? However, I had to leave the class at this time to reach a birthdayparty for my granddaughter in Oslo.

WIPS

Since last time I updated my blog I have tidied my sewing room. When we moved home from our holiday up in Hemsedal in August I only placed my things on the floor in my room and left them there. When we finally moved home it was so untidy that there was only a narrow path to my table. Something had to be done, so I told my husband to leave me alone for a couple of days and started the hard work. It was a complete chaos. I kept on from the early morning till late night for more than two days but then it was done. I found several projects in slow progress “Wips” and decided to finish them all before I started something new.

Here is the first one of my Wips: last year’s Christmas Mystery from QuiltSkandinavia and Merete Veian. I had done two of four blocks and they showed nice flowers. I finished the last two and made four placemats which I took with me up to the cottage in Hemsedal without taking a picture last weekend.


Next, I found many precut squared batic fabrics that was probably made for making another bag like this one: I made another one but have still some precut squares left.

Then I started on my liftcurtain. I made the panel a couple of years ago, but when I had finished the machine quilting it was a “pocket” in the pattern and I lost the interest for a long time. Now I have ripped up all the stitches that were needed for doing the machine quilting over again. I machine quilted it over again, put on the batting and made the lift curtain and hang it up.

The next project was from some old jeans I had. I had cut and sewed together a few parts a long time ago. What I planned to make I cannot remember, but now I decided to make a new bag. You can never have enough bags, can you? Here it is.
I show both sides here. I used the pockets on the jeans to get the effect of just a jeans. Inside I have made many pockets, also one with a zipper.

Then I used some leftovers and made a new little purse and a little one for my mobile. Here are the picture of those items:

The only thing left now is a stitchery for my granddaughter a couple of years ago that is almost finished. I made a mistake and cut off the batting and the backing and there we are. I am not sure of what I will do next to finish it. She will have it as a Christmas present.

Summer

All together it has been a wet summer at least in my part of the country. The first weeks were terrific, hot and sunny and we only spent the time on the beach. Absolutely wonderful, actually. When the rain started I also started to sew. During May and June I finished three big quilts, that was before the hot weather set in, had them machine quilted at Merete Glenne Ellingsen at sy.no and have sewn the binding by hand now and then during the rest of the summer. I can tell you it was many metres. When my daughter-in-law saw this one she wanted it for her little son so he will, for Christmas. It is called "Prairie Paisley". I fell for it the moment I first saw it. I bought the pattern when I was in Paducah in April last year.

This one I have sewed on for more than six year all by hand, English paperpiecing. Even the border is sewn on by hand. Merete has cusom quilted this one so beautifully. I washed it after it was finished because I once spoiled some red wine on it and tried to remove it with water, but it got worse. After I washed it in the washing machine it was quite clean. Then I put it in the drier and it got an oldfashioned look.

The quilt to the left is the third big quilt I finished in the first of the summer. It is called Patchwork Party because you had to purchase all the 12 blocks in different quilt shops all over the USA. All the shops also offered finishing kits for it and they all were very different. I choosed this one that is called "Geese on the Prarie" and it is now covering our bed out in our summer house.

My daughter-in-law saw my cosmetic bags in the bathroom one day and asked me if I could make her some and one rainy day I did. Here they are. I gave her all three. She also wants some for her children and I will make some more when I got the time for it.

So now I guess you have an idea of what I have done during this wet summer.

Weekend in Kragerø

The second weekend in June I went to Kragerø for a weekend with some of my quilting friends. I took a class with André Wallenberg where we made handbags with many smart details. We were at Anne Berits's Broderibua in Kragerø where she has a lovely place close to the sea.

It was a nice and sunny weekend but a bit windy and quite cold. Neiter of us had taken enough warm cloths with us. André Wallenberg, on the photo to the left, tought us how to make beautiful handbags with many smart details. One evening we were served a delicious fishsoup made by Anne Berit and fresh scrimps. The food were overall good during the weekend and the hospitaliy and kindness we met there were very nice.

My friends and I hired a small camping hut which had a shower. The others who hired a camping hut had no bathroom facilities at all but had to go to the public one. We had lots of fun during the weekend and drank a lot of wine as most women do when they are on a break like this.

There were other classes there as well and I would have liked to attended them all. Here you see a few examples from each class taken before we all left.

The last photos shows all the bags from my class lined up when we had finished.

Nqt in Gothenburg

This is the winnner quilt made by a woman from Tromsø. The competition was about "Building bridges". When I took photos from the competition I didn't know that this was the winner. The next photo is a detail of the first photo.

Since last time I wrote I have been to NQT in Gothenburg and met with many other quilters. I stayed at the Riverton Hotel very close to Folkets Hus where the shops were situated and some of the exibitions also vere displayed. Since much of my family live in Gothenburg I arrived there on Wednesday and stayed a couple of nights with my cousin and his wife. We had a very nice time together. On Thursday we went to the cinema to watch "Angles and Demons" that is made after a book written by Dan Brown and with the same name. It was very close to the book and I liked the film very much. Do I have to say I read the books a few years ago? Afterwards we went out for a late supper in a nice restaurant near the Avenyen.

Then there was time for me to move to my hotel near the city centre. Hotel Riverton was a renovated hotel that were absolutely top for women. Everything you needed was in the bathroom. The bed was good and the breakfast superb. Not that I am very hungry in the morning but I like to eat something. On the last evening we went up to the skybar in the hotel and had a drink. It was a wonderful view over the whole city. Quite spectacular. The photos show some of the women I was with during my stay in Hotel Riverton both during the common dinner on Saturday night and afterwards in the Sky Bar.

Holiday in Rhodos

My husband and I have been to holiday in Rhodos for two weeks now. It was the third time we went there. First time was nearly 33 years ago and the second time was about 10 years ago. We have seen an enormous development on the Greek island during this time.

The first week was mixed, rather cold and wet. It rained when the plane arrived and the next day was not very sunny either. I think it was sunny only twice. We also had two days with rain. Then we went by the local bus to a very charming village named Lindos.

All the houses have to be painted white. On the top of the hill an ancient castle is situated. It rained all day and the next day as well but not as bad as the day before. After the first week the weather stabilized and it became warmer although it was blowing much. We spent most of the time at the pool but sometimes we did other things, like taking a boat trip to Marmaris in Turkey. It was terribly hot there so we had to stay in the shadow. Everything were much cheaper than we are used to, both from Rhodos and of course Norway. We had supper in the Old Town in Rhodos before we went by the local bus back to our hotel in Ixia. The Old Town in Rhodos is very charming.

We often went to Rhodos City and the Old Town in the evenings to have a meal. We both like the greek cuisine very much but every restaurants had the same courses on the meny. The wine was not very good but one gets used to it. The day before we went home we went by boat to Lindos again to see how different the village was when it was sunny. It was much people there compared to the first day we were there in the heavy rain. The difference was big. We did a lot of walking while staying in Rhodos. The greeks are very nice and very proud of their beautiful island. We stayed in a very luxery hotel. The photo here shows a bit of the pool area.

Twice we went to a restaurant in Ialyssos, La Bonita which was owned by a greek who lived in Rhodos in the summertime and in Sweden during the winter. He served much fish that were delicious but very expensive. The restaurant was very special. Take a look at the picture to the right. There were fishes, shellfishes and small boats everywhere. Charming but a bit overloaded, I think.

Still winter holiday

It is not ok to have a bad cold when all you want is to go out skiing in the lovely weather we have here these days. The tracks are perfect and the temperature is – 5 C which is absolutely perfect for me. There are no problems to wax the skies and you are able to ski almost everywhere. There has been no wind either so it hasn’t felt cold.

However, I have been stucked in our cottage, sewing. I have sewn together all the blocks for my big quilt, the sashing strips and the innerborders so now I have to make many Flying Geese, actually 128 altogether.

Yesterday I did not sew very much. Instead I met with one of my best friends down in the village. One of her daughters send me an SMS and asked me to come and meet them for lunch. I told her that I suffered from a terrible cold and would probably would infect them but she said there surely were more than mine germs in the air so I had to come. What a nice thing so say! However, it was a very nice lunch that lasted for hours as it tend to do when women meet. It was good to see other people than my husband too.

Look at these photos. Isn't it beautiful? I love the wintertime when it is like this. Today I have skied a slow run with my husband. We walked in tracks we have only cycled in during the summer. We skied about 13 km and it was very easy to ski. I felt much better when I woke up this morning and we went out pretty early so we could really enjoy the good feeling of being the first one to ski in the tracks. People are not going out early in the mornings these days. Most of them wait until the grooming machine has set the tracks. We can follow the machine on the internet and we do so every morning. I am so happy to have my mobile internet device with me so I can keep an eye on everything that happens.

Winter holiday

It is winter holiday in Norway, at least in some parts. I have always gone up to the mountains for the winter holiday and this year is no exception. I love the mountains in the wintertime. We came here on Friday and I intend to spent nearly two weeks here. I have my sewing machine with me and a big project to finish so I will not run out of work. I also intend to go skiing as much as possible. It is also one of my favourite hobbies. Now I can combine the two hobbies.

Unfortunately, I got a bad cold during last week. It started out very slow. On Saturday I felt it was not good for me to go for a long trip, mainly because it was very cold outside but also because I felt there was something wrong in my chest. So we only went for a very short, slow trip.

This morning I woke up and could not speak at all. My husband was happy, and I actually was too. We lit the fireplace from the very morning and I enjoyed it. I could devote myself to my second favourite hobby, quilting. Last year I bought 12 blocks from a serie called Patchwork Party Summer 2008. There are 12 different blocks with patterns and fabrics from 12 different shops and you had to purchase them before a certain date.

I have sewn all the 12 blocks but have not finished the quilt yet. I bought the finishing kit from one of the shops that offered a finishing kit and now I have to sew it all together.

When the blocks were finished I had to start here:

I cut strips and and cut them into smaller strips and squares and pieced them together. I also have remedies to keep my bad cold on a reasonably level although it lives its own life in my body. I cut all what was needed to finish the quilt and now I have started to sew it all together. I really am looking forward to finish it. Then I will send it away for machine quilting.

My sewing machine is cooperating and everything goes smoothly.

I made some flying geese blocks today in a way I have never done before. Look at the photo here:

I am sure that many of you have

made flying geese like that.

I will continue tomorrow because I do not think my cold is any better then. I am not looking forward to the night but I am really looking forward to continue my sewing tomorrow. I guess there will take some time until I can go skiing again in the speed I want to and am used to.

Winter holiday in Austra

From the 24. - 31. January my husband and I spent the time on a ski holiday with my cousin and his wife in Bad Gastein in Austria. I'll show you some photoes from the trip. First we flied from Gothenburg to Klagenfurt in Austria. There we had to wait a couple of hours before we went by train to Bad Gastein. We had a very good time skiing there, almost every day. I say almost because it started to snow and the conditions for skiing were terrible. Not only because of all the snow, but the light was so flat that you could almost not see where to ski.
Together those conditions are what I like to call "brake a leg" conditions and I don't want to brake a leg. I am so experienced so I know when to take a day off.
On the photo to the left my husband and my cousin are walking in Klagenfurt. We were looking for a pub or a bar, but it was not easy to find. Finally we found one and here you can see the three of us sitting.

When we arrived at Bad Gastein we only packed out our things, ate dinner at the hotel and took an early night. We all wanted to go early out next morning. The day started grey and the light was flat and it was diffucult to see where to ski but we explored the area and had much fun. At last our thigh muscles were very tired. I discovered muscles in my thighs that I didn't know I had. The next day we were even more stiff in our thighs so we tried to take it easy. It was the day for going to Sportsgastein. The sun was shining and it was really lovely. We had a great day there. The sloops were very steep but funny.

This photo shows us when we were skiing in Sportgastein, about 20 minutes from Bad Gastein by bus. There were free skibuses that drove to and from the different skiresorts all day long. If you didn't like the place you skied in, you could easily jump on a bus and go to another place.

On Tuesday evening it started to snow. It snowed the whole night and it continued to snow. It snowed for two days and three nights. I think it snowed about 50 cm with heavy, wet snow.

The first day it snowed about 20 cm and my husband and I decided to go to the Felsentherme for swimming and relaxing in the hot water instead of skiing. We knew the conditions would be very difficult and the sight = 0. We knew that and we were right. The ambulances went constantly from the ski area and the hospital and back again. Instead we were swimming outside in the cold while it was snowing and the water temperature held 34 C. We were surrounded by high peaks and it was just fantastic being there in the hot water. Afterwards we both felt very relaxed. I also had a massage for halv an hour and that made me really good.

It started to snow on Tuesday evening and it continued to snow until late Thursday night.The snow was much needed and the sloopes on Friday were in excellent condition the whole day. We even had sunshine.

When we first went to one place for skiing we stayed there the whole day. We often took the gondol up to Stubnerkogel, 2250 m. Then skied down to the skicentre in Angertal and then skied in the slopes on both sides of the valley for the whole day. The sloopes were in good conditions most of the days, but when we first started the holiday it was a bit icy. The best day was Friday. Then the snow was very good packed by the machines.



This is the ski centre in Angertal where we went to and from skiing all day long most of the time. People were having refreshments outdoors in the sunny weather last Friday, our last day.


We also celebrated my cousin's birthday one of the days. My husband and I invited them our for dinner that night. We started with champagne in their room before we went out and ended up in a bar in one of the hotels before we went to bed.

The picture above shows my cousin and his wife on his birthday in the bar in the Salzburger Hof Hotel, one of the most exclusive hotels in the village.

Most of the people in the village were young people, espesially Swedish youngsters. They were working in the bars, in the restaurants and as guides for the travel companies but they were also ski bums that did nothing else but ski and go from place to place all winter.

There are also many nice and cosy "gasthof" in the slopes where you can have something to eat and drink or just rest your legs. On the photo to the left you can see me and my cousin doing just that. We had lunch in different "gasthof" every day.

We really had a great time skiing. We all love it very much. We also had great times socially. The photo to the right showes my cousin's wife and me on Aprés Ski. Luckily, we were not the oldest ones in the skilopes, neither in the Aprés Ski. Actually there were many skiers that much older than us and that was good to see. It gives hope for future ski holidays.

At last I will show a photo of a nice hotel nearby our hotel that was so spectacular when in the dark and with the lights on the whole area. On my photo it also snowed. I think it was so beautiful.