Vestlandstreff at Voss

Life has been a whirlwind since I left my beautiful room with a view and travelled home from Voss. It was a great weekend. The journey up there was rather quick and half way there I realized I was totally orange. Orange jacket, orange scarf, orange purse, orange bag. In case you were wondering, I do love orange.

I could have caught an earlier train from Bergen to Voss, but I’d rather spend a couple of hours with my fabulous niece who is a student there. I was admiring the station roof as I was waiting for her, the structure and lines would look nice in a quilt.

This is what 30+kg luggage looks like. Oh man; heeeaavvvyyy.

The weather was perfect and so was the view from the train. Not too cloudy, no wind and glorious fall colours just starting to pop.

 

 

 

I stayed at Fleischer Hotel, one of the historic hotels, on the top floor facing the fjord. Being shuttled back and forth to the school where I was teaching, I never got around to getting a proper picture, so I borrowed this from their website. Fantastic, isn’t it!

And with lots of traditional details everywhere.

The ladies from Voss Quiltelag, who hosted the event, were ever so kind and fun and helpful and everything went smoothly. The classrooms were light and airy and everything was in order. Thank you ladies, for a great Vestlandstreff!

The only little hiccup was that one of my students had forgotten the pedal and chord to her machine at home, but she was able to borrow a set from a sewing machine supplier. Phhhew.

The Saturday class was “Mix and Match for Christmas” with 7 lovely and eager students. They all made wonderful Christmas projects and we had lots of fun.

The Sunday “Med hodet på skrå” class was equally fun, but somewhat smaller with only two students. Fortunately they were great, so we had lots of fun, and they too both made wonderful projects. I knew it would be a small class up front (although not that small) so I had prepared another sample and kits that we got started on.

The journey home on Sunday was mainly spent in company with some old and some new friends. It was really funny as we all pulled out our knitting projects on the train. Maybe it is possible to be all quilted out after all. My luggage was fortunately 10+kg lighter on the way back after unloading books and kits and handouts and whatnots, and I was very good buying only a teeny tiny bag of paper shapes for English paper piecing.

 
Now I have just a few little details to put together, and I’ll be ready for my next adventure - travelling to Trondheim on Friday to teach the Lag på lag class. See you all later!

Visiting Jæren Quiltelag

A week and a half ago I got to spend a dark and rainy Saturday with a lovely group of quilters from Jæren Quiltelag at Bryne. The project of the day was Mix & Match for Christmas and these ladies whipped up some wonderful projects.
As usual on any kind of quilting class there were stash and stuff everywhere and lots and lots of glorious colours. I must say getting to play with other people’s fabrics is quite enjoyable. I even got a hot lunch, a delicious Mexican soup prepared by one of the ladies. Yeah, brilliant day indeed!

Vestlandstreff, Day 3

While I taught my students to make oval trees, mine are round and thus appropriately named “Pumpkin trees”, created to show different ways to quilt trees.
Sunday was the big yarn day with 4 drop in classes where the students learned how to build a flower quilt like “Luscious pinks” and “Bluebells & Whistles” and yards and yards of glorious yarn were floating around in the room (and floor).

50-60 minutes sound like plenty of time, but it’s really not when you’re having fun. The classes were over and done almost before they started and newborn yarn-obsessed quilters were sent out into the world, probably heading for the remnant bins of their local yarn shop first thing Monday morning. They all enjoyed just playing with colour and texture without any kind of pattern or rules, just simple techniques. I also got my first experience teaching with an interpreter doing sign language which made me want to learn more than the basic stuff we all use like thumbs up, showing and pointing at things. It’s amazing how much you can communicate through simple gestures and facial expressions though; it takes more that not knowing the language to stop me from talking, you know.

We had to rush a bit through the last class to make it to the closing ceremony, but everyone left with their projects properly pinned and ready for quilting at home. A part of the closing ceremony is Show & Tell from all the classes, but most of the participants leave before this. Fortunately a few of my students were there and a friend took pictures.
Then there was not much left to do that getting back to the classroom, clean up the mess (read stuffing everything into the suitcase) and get back into the car for the drive home. I caught up with some of my friends at the ferry and the ride was perfect, no unruly water in sight.
Another great day!!

Vestlandstreff, Day 2

Another flower arrangement for the Playing with yarn class, “Bluebells & Whistles” from this post.
I got up early on Saturday morning, ate a bigger-than-usual breakfast (hey, how often do I stay at hotels) and was ready for my Mix & Match for Christmas class. A few spare minutes in the morning are precious so I was happy the classroom was set up already.

The class was full, 12 lovely ladies lugging most of their sewing rooms with a little kitchen ware added to the mix. The room was filled with colours, fabric and chatting; and I had a wonderful time guiding everyone through their projects.Although my feet get tired, teaching quilting classes is so much fun and inspiring and I learn a lot every time. My students seemed happy and everyone finished their tops. Hopefully they (i.e. the tops) will become full grown quilts that will adorn someone’s home this Christmas and not languish in the corner of dark closets with ugly fabrics won at guild raffles, batting scraps once intended for Easter ornaments and other forgotten UFOs. Thanks, ladies, for making my day so enjoyable!

I had an hour between class and dinner so I slipped into my PJs and crawled into bed with a little light reading and my cell phone alarm set, you know just in case. I made it to the dining room in time but without my ticket, had to go back and get it and thus arrived too late together with another teacher who also forgot his ticket. Oh well, live and learn – always bring the appropriate tickets!

The food was tasteful and there was plenty of it. I got my mushroom free main course (allergies) and sugar free dessert (fruit salad), and the entertainment was entertaining until one of the members of a gentlemen’s choir fell off the stage during exit because there was nothing (like a wall or a hand rail which you would have expected) behind the backdrop by the stairs.

Except for that; great day, great day!!

Christmas Mix

Here are some glimpses from my Mix & Match for Christmas Workshop 3 weeks ago and some fabulous projects made at the workshop and by other quilters out there.

My samples

Now, with 22 students at the workshop, there was not much time running around taking pictures, but I managed to get some of the last bunch to leave. I did not ask their permission to post their pictures, but here are their fabulous projects, although not very well lit I'm afraid...

Santa’s Cats by Gunn, Brit and Margit
Urban Christmas by Inger Marie, Sissel, Marianne and Liv Kirsten
Santa by Marit
Christmas at the cabin by Kari and Mari

Lorene sent me this picture of her wonderful Santa’s Cats table runner
Lynda has posted a picture of her wonderful Santa’s Cats table runner here,

and cottonreel of her fabulous Urban Christmas projects here.