Takk for det gamla

Today is the day for saying thanks for the old year according to local tradition. Thank you to all of you who read my blog. Thank you to all of you who share your lives and creativity through your blogs. Thank you for your friendship and support. May it all continue through the next year and the next.

Stavanger is dark and rainy today, so I'm leaving you with images from our living room window where all 5 orchids have decided to bloom at the same time in the middle of winter.

See you next year!

Lovely Linen

The lovely linen pillow is now residing in my sister’s couch. The batik circle is a cut out from a wall hanging which they got for Christmas 3 years ago so I thought it would be a fun addition. It needed a little punch and she does love cerise, so this is a match made in heaven.

I love the hand woven linen from a thrifted table cloth; wonder if there’s more left. Hmm.

It looked quite fabulous on my couch too, didn’t it.

English Delight

I received a little surprise yesterday from my friend Sherry. I cannot link from my phone, but you will find her fabulous mixed media art here http://sherrysimpleblog.blogspot.no/?m=1.

A feast for both my eyes and nails! Thank you so much, Sherry, I love them both!

Rainbow Round Six

The colour theory blocks were assembled into a rainbow top some time before Christmas. I was so happy with the warmish brown fabric which I found in my stash as it enhances and bring all those different colours together. That’s a quite tall order I’d say.

Because of the weather, getting proper pictures was quite challenging. The first day it was too much sun and the fence would cast shadows from the back. Then it was too much wind and it would blow this way and that. Then too much snow. Then too much rain. Anyway, now the pictures have been sent off and even with a few days to spare. Puuuh.

Will I quilt it? Sure. Some day, when the how-to’s have grown upon me. Right now I’m just thrilled with looking at the top.

Ill lit

Even though the darkest day of the year was last week, today was worse lightwise. The clouds were hanging so low, letting next to no light through even at noon. Of course this was the day I picked to get some decent shots of, amongst others, my little mixed media forest. Habitant: one orange moose. The trees are a mixture of old and new, the newest being a mixed media quartet made this year.

Ill lit or not, they keep me smiling. Now it's time to clean up and have dinner at the in-laws. Hope you're having a peaceful week!

Happy Holidays!

We're having our second winter storm here, just a week after the first. It's freezing outside, but I got to spend a few hours today preparing for Christmas with my favorite little guy. I had promised we would make toilet paper roll santas so that is what we did after finishing up decorating.

May you all have peace in your hearts and enough toilet paper roll santas to brighten your days.

Cold winter's day

Monday was Christmas card day. All the cards were made up front, but it still took half a day to get everything glued, signed, stuffed and stamped although I have to admit I use my computer as much as possible to spare my hands.

I make small Christmas quilts for family and friends each year: the number varies from year to year depending how much time I am able to spare. You can check out some of my previous cards here.

I wanted to use my painting with fiber technique this year and put some simple shapes into good work. I still am quite taken with the process itself, watching the little bits and pieces transform from a happy mess into something totally different right before my eyes.

I wish I had taken pictures before I cut the two panels into pieces, I really did not want to, they looked so good, but here they are: “Cold winter’s day” 1-30

all different but yet the same

The title was very appropriate as we had our first winter storm here over the weekend. It was so freezing cold that we stayed indoors unless we really, really had to go out. Now most of the snow has rained away. Wonderful. All the chaos that comes from massive snowfalls with no White Christmas perks.

Green stocking

One of the Christmas traditions I brought from home is the Christmas stocking. I’m not sure where my parents picked it up because it was not something lots of my friends had. My mother used to make so many beautiful things, and I still have the stocking she made for me, linen fabric with felt appliqué. I love it and hang it on a door every Christmas to enjoy.

My daughter grew up with stockings, and she has passed the tradition on to her boys. I made the oldest a blue/soccer stocking three years ago, and with a new grandbaby around this year, I was happy to make another one.

I don’t have a lot of Christmas fabrics, but I had a bright green starry one which was perfect as green was requested. In addition I finally cut into the cutest ever snowman fabric that was a gift from a friend.

One green stocking, same size and shape as the first, one step further towards peace of mind.

I have a few things to clear away so that we can all sit down to eat (at the dining room table which husband questions whether it’s still there or not), there is grocery shopping day (not my favourite) on Thursday, baking day with daughter on Friday, and decorating day on Saturday. Sure, it will be Christmas this year too.

I wonder if my mother and grandmother ever got overwhelmed with the sheer amount of holiday preparations, they always seemed to have everything in order and never complained as we filled the house with kids and mess and noise for the holidays. I plan to finish up early and spend the day before Christmas, lillejulaften (the 23th), doing something fun – like maybe sewing something non-Christmassy.

How about you, how are you doing with your holiday preparations? Do you ever get overwhelmed?

Travel money

Getting the perfect gift for loved ones is not always easy, is it, especially for tweens and teens who seem to have pretty much everything already. This year I decided to give a little travel money to a few of your young family members who will be travelling abroad during the next year. Don’t worry, they don’t read my blog, they probably don’t even know it exists.

Anyhow, one side of my brain wanted to make fun little quilts in which to put some appropriate foreign currency, but fortunately the more sane side decided on easy suitcase shaped paper envelopes - with a little stitching added of course, after all I have a stitching quota that needs to be filled to make me happy.

I was planning to make them using plain paper embellished with lots of images, but then I remembered I had some pretty handmade (??) paper.

In case you too are in need of such a gift, you will find a step by step tutorial on how I made mine here on my tutorial page.

Since I already had lots of gift tags from our crafting time the other week, I used those, but wouldn’t the suitcases look adorable with little luggage tags attached! Maybe quilted ones??? Like an additional little gift??

Enjoy!

Make a Travel Card

Make a fun envelope to fill with a little travel money or anything else that fits the pocket!

What you’ll need
A letter sized (or A4) sheet of paper
A piece of cardstock (half the size)
Printed images and/or text

And what you’ll do
Draw a suitcase shape onto the cardstock and cut it out using scissors.

Fold the paper in half with the wrong side (if any) out. Place the template on the paper so that the bottom (along the folded edge) and one side align.

Trace the shape onto the paper

and cut it out.

Fold the shape right side out.

Print whatever images and/or text you would like to add onto plain paper and cut out.

Glue onto suitcase using a glue stick.

Now it’s time to fill the envelope

Place the content in the middle of the suitcase, close it, and stitch around the edges using an approx ¼” seam allowance.

Done!

If you’d like, you could make a luggage tag to tie to the handle.

Enjoy!

Pink pillow Winner

Thank you to all of you how entered the Pink Pillows giveaway! I was pleasantly surprised how many of you who would like to add a little pink to your Christmas decor.

I have drawn the winner and the lucky lady is

Vivian who wrote

Vivian’s blog is called Quilting under the midnight sun which has kind of a familiar ring to it as I spent quite a few childhood years living in a part of Norway that has midnight sun. There was one summer that we actually slept outside and I am sure the light is perfect for quilting.

Congratulations to Vivian who will receive the Pink pillow, and thanks to the rest of you for playing along!

If you would like to make a Pretty Pillow of your own, you’ll find the free pattern here. As already proven, it would look lovely in any kind of colour scheme.)

Pretty Pillow

 

 

 

Download the pattern here

Pink & Purple pillows by Sissel Hagen