500th post Giveaway

I know I probably said the same thing at 200 posts, but 500 posts – that’s quite an achievement and needs to be celebrated with a giveaway (I’m sure you saw that one coming, didn’t you).

The prize is
- my “Clara & Fredrikke, The Terrible Twos” pillow cover fitting a 20”*20” pillow form (form not included; you can see more pictures of the pillow here),- these fabrics (totalling approx 1 yard),
- and one of my pdf-patterns (English or Norwegian) of your choice.
One winner takes it all.

If you would like to provide a good home for Clara and Fredrikke and wouldn’t mind more fabric and patterns, please
- leave a comment to this post for one entry
- and a second comment if you are a follower to this blog for another entry.

If you’re a No-reply blogger, make sure you leave your email address in your comment so I have a way of contacting you.

I’ll leave the giveaway open over our summer holidays. We’ll have lots of family visiting during July (both my parents and sister/best friend & family; I’m really, really happy about that and am already planning dinners and outings) so I (or rather Random.org) will draw the winner when they have all left me here alone and sad on the evening of July 24th.


Thank you so much for reading my blog, leaving lovely and supportive comments and making this blogging experience interesting and challenging! It has been stretching my creativity, technique, photo skills and English vocabulary (and grammar; ouch!), and I have become much more aware of my own creative process by documenting it. Most of all I enjoy the social aspect of blogging; making friends all over the world; some quilters, some not, but all lovely creative people who I like to visit in their corners of the www. Thank you for having me over and not minding the trail of thread snippets and sugar free snack wrappings I’m leaving behind. You are great friends indeed!

Good luck to you all!

Due to the recent events in my country the winner of the giveaway will be drawn later this week. I hope you do understand

Sorry; the giveaway is now closed.

The Sketchbook Challenge, June

The theme for this month has been “Pathways” and it has been a struggle to finish it.
I started out by collaging bits and pieces of maps and flowers and stones and stuff to create pathways with little bridges connecting the different paths. Fun, fun, fun. Some of the colours were a bit bright to my liking (I know, it’s shocking!!) so I pasted a layer of sheer paper on top, tearing the edges before it dried.

Still fun.

I absolutely loved the textures and soft colours but something was missing
and it was certainly not this pathway but there it is, blurry ink lines and all. It’s done.

Vulnerable

I was freehand-cutting some heads the other day and this little fellow showed up.
Isn’t he cute in all his stripped and vulnerable glory.

Grief

Grief
is the last one of my 18 flags for the Prayer Flag Project.

Grief is often a part of big changes; for better or for worse you lose what you had. You also grieve what you never got and what you’ll never get. I was never all that good at grieving (more like an F-), so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. It’s ok, I don’t mind, it actually feels right.

Support, Love, Trust and Grief were made differently than the other 14. I found a format for flags to be part of an exhibition here, so I made these 4 flags according to that just in case. They are quite a bit bigger than the flags from last summer and my first series for this project, quite suitable for such important topics.

The materials are from the same trifty scrap bag and the prayers still written on yellow pieces of fabric stitched between the layers
but I have added more strips of fabrics so they will move even more, layer upon layer
including pieces of an old duvet cover that I brought from home when I went to college, and which was later dyed hot pink for my daughter
and black stitching.
I made a colourful string from scraps of yarn for hanging them together.
Don’t they look wonderful in all their pink prettiness!
May the wind in my back yard travel your way.

Love & Trust

Love and
trust
all wrapped up in one little perfect package.
“Consistent expressions of affection and love are crucial to feelings of love and trust in our children.” (found here) Yeah, I think he’s doing all right.

(Pictures taken at Utstein Kloster, more to follow later)

Mercy & Forgiveness

Mercy 1. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency.
2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving: a heart full of mercy.
3. Something for which to be thankful; a blessing: It was a mercy that no one was hurt.


Forgiveness
1. the act of forgiving or the state of being forgiven
2. willingness to forgive

This is such a powerful scene of mercy and forgiveness from the amazing movie The Mission, and when Gabriel’s Oboe starts then so do I. It makes my skin crawl in a good way. Anyone else who gets goose bumps from beautiful music or am I just weird??

Determination

Determination
"When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit--
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit."
Anon (found here)

So true.

Honesty & Persistence

Honesty
and persistence are both deserving a prayer and a flag.

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
(Author Unknown)

Patience & Wisdom

Patience and wisdom; please give me both.

Empathy & Support

Empathy and support go hand in hand, don’t they. I have to cheat a little to get all my prayers out there by the end of the month. I thought I had it all figured out post-wise, but I keep adding to my list of prayers and have to do a few two-in-one’s to make it.

My first experience with a support group was a year into daughter’s illness. I felt I was losing my mind trying to figure out what to do and more important what not do, so I took a class for family members with a following support group. Meeting other mothers was such an amazing experience and we stayed in touch for many years.
I read somewhere that to feel true empathy you have to have felt that particular emotion yourself, and to some extent I can agree to that. No one understands you as well as someone who have had the same experience. That being said; I don’t believe you have to experience all the dreads in the world to be an emphatic person, or the world would be in great trouble indeed.

I joined another support group a few weeks ago, hoping that it will be helpful while working my way through the barrel. I have been a supporter for so many years that it’s a bit strange to be supported, but I’ll get better at it.

I’m using strands of scrap yarn for hanging the flags and number them on the back so I can keep track of them. They are twirling and spinning and I want to string them together so they stay flat flat flat, but it doesn’t really matter, they’re blowing in the wind like they are meant to do. I’ll probably give them a little press to straighten them out a bit when I take them inside. This will happen sooner than later or I’ll be running out of trees in the back yard...

Humility

A little humility will help seeing and keeping your focus on the bigger picture.

One of my favourite TV quotes is from Shark: “I am great, and yet... I am humble.” (James Woods as Sebastian Stark)

"When science discovers the centre of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it." (Bernard Baily)

Humour

A good sense of humour will get you through anything.

I read every night before I go to sleep like I have done since I was a young child. My favourite bed time literature these days are on the lighter side like Pondus by Frode Øverli and Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman which both will have me laughing out loud. No ROFL though, more like ROBL as I don’t sleep on the floor (who came up with these abbreviations anyway).

I also have a few fun, heart warming and comforting quilting (or quilt related) books which I’ll revisit over and over again like
Mary Lou Weidman’s books (any of them, I’ve got them all)
Ami Simms’ How NOT To Make A Prize-Winning Quilt (think I’ve bought 3 of these; 2 of them for myself)
Lisa Boyer’s Stash Envy and That Dorky Homemade Look
Lise Bergene’s books (got them all too)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for putting a smile on my face; it’s like nature’s own little facelift.

What I miss about sugar

Chocolate ice cream

Strength

You’ve got to stay strong.

We have had some devastating news about a loved one’s health, so mom and dad, you’re in here too.

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength” (unknown).

I love the gold metallic fabric with the red and yellow scraps and black stitches
and how happy they look in our back yard;
one brand new
one that has curled up

and one swinging back and forth.
My plan was to leave them out for a little while and then hang them in my studio; now I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Hope

You’ve got to hope for good things coming.

The most hopeful thing I took away from the Big & Strong day last month was that the more times you try to make change happen, the more likely you are to succeed. Good news for us sugarholic diabetics and barrel workers, right?