Roughly four years in the making..

Back in the winter of 2010, I prepared the stitcheries for the Cinderberry Stitches pattern Sublime Season - and... february 2014  I put the final stitches in the binding. Not bad, huh?

Originally, the pattern called for windmills around and between each block, but I'm not very good at piecing these kinds of blocks.. I suppose that's why most of my quilts have squares or simple lines.. In this one I decided to use a black flamelike fabric, changing shade from deep black to lighter charcoal gray. The yellow strip is my final leftovers of a very warm, yellow butterfly fabric. I bought this back when I lived in Tønsberg (between 2004 and 2006) and have been saving this last piece for something special.

Sublime Season on the grass.

 Now, Sublime Season is a Christmas themed pattern, with parts of Twelve Days of Christmas written in the center block, but the colors are so cute and light, and I really wanted to reflect that in the outer border. The yellow fits perfectly - and there are shades of light blue and pink there too, in the butterflies.

Almost sunlight - so much better than the gray of winter.

 I figured, 1) it's my quilt so I'll do what I want with it, and 2) the pattern's from Australia, where I bet there's butterflies at Christmas, so the fabric was just perfect.

On our bbq-bench - unfortunately, slightly wrinkly. 

I had to chase the quilt a bit when trying to photograph it, as the wind kept trying to steal it from me. Now to wait for Christmas, so that I can hang it in our living room.

Hedwig and Herbert

Last year - almost exactly to the day - I fell in love. I fell head over heels in love with a pattern from Northern Quilts called Hedwig and Herbert. It's a pattern for mug rugs or small table toppers (also included is a pattern for place mats) featuring the owls Herbert and Hedwig. (I say small table toppers as the mug rugs are slightly bigger than the average size used for mug rugs - at least min ended up that way, but they're still too cute!)

The quartet.

I decided to make two of each - using blues and browns for Herbert, and purple-pink'ish for Hedwig, swapping the colors, so that the wings of one of them came back in the body of the other - and vice-versa.

Hedwig(s).

I love how simple it is to change the design of the eyes - and the eyes really give personality to the owls. That's probably why all four of these owls have different expressions in their eyes.

Herbert(s).

In our house there are usually always a cup or a glass on the table, and I really like using mug rugs - they leave a little extra space for something else. Sometimes there'll be both a cup and a glass (or a bottle) for a person, sometimes there's a piece of snack that needs to be put down somewhere - and a mug rug is just perfect for that!

Bear Hats

Continuing to knit from the book Monster knits for little monsters (as mentioned in a previous post) I wanted to try the pattern called Santa Bear (only, I didn't want to knit a red&white Christmas-y hat, but found the idea of a brown hat with light details more interesting). Thus the Brown Bear Hat was born!

I've knitted two of these, size 6-12 months. I really like the basic pattern, with the tighter field around the face, and the part covering the neck and going down to the shoulders. (Basically, it's the same base pattern as the dragon hat I knitted for Peder, it's just got squishy little ears instead of spikes.)

First hat just off the needles.

I ended up with a warm, dark brown as base color, and chose off-white as the contrast color.

Outside, in natural light.

The first hat has details in off-white around the face, on the ears and the bottom edge of the neck.

Second hat in natural lighting.

On the second hat I ran out of off-white about halfway down the bottom edge, and decided to swap the off-white edge with a brown one (instead of buying a new skein for only a few grams of yarn). 

Aren't they cute?

Dragon Hat for Peder

For Christmas my mom gave me a new (for me) knitting book - Monster knits for little monsters, by Nuriya Khegay - and some skeins of yarn in a bright green color.

I quickly fell for one of the patterns in the book, called Dinky Dragon - which also Peder loved - but didn't quite understand the description for how to create the spikes. So, after casting on and frogging about 4 or 5 times, I decided to knit a plain hat, and then figure out another way to make some spikes.  (Typically, after finishing it, I got an epiphany - or whatchamaycallit - and finally understood it, so making another one would be a piece of cake.) 

Anyway, I'm still very pleased with the results - and so is Peder. 

The hat is great, sits nicely around the face, with good cover for the neck going down to the shoulders. Peder likes that he can pull it back, as if he was wearing a hooded jacket, when he's inside a store or on the bus/tram/subway. It's cool - and both the design and color makes it really easy to spot him in a crowd. (Which is damned practical, if I may say so.)

Before the spikes.. 

The pattern calls for 5 or 6 spikes, but I
managed to tweak in 4.

Happy boy in his new hat. 

Knitted Space Invader-hat

A colleague of mine asked if I could knit a Space Invader-hat for her husband a few weeks ago. The question came on a Friday, and Saturday I went shopping for yarn. She wanted it to be knitted in the traditional Marius sweater colours, which are dark blue, white and red. So I picked up a skein of each of these colours in the yarn Free Style produced by Dale of Norway. 



The blue is not really as dark as it is
in this picture.

 The pattern is a Arne & Carlos design, the two guys who came with the book of knitted Christmas balls a couple of years ago.

This shows a more correct shade of blue.

The hat (and yarn) calls for size 4.5 and 5 needles (European sizes) so it's a fast-knitted project. I started on it after buying the yarn on Saturday (well, more like Saturday afternoon) and had it finished by Sunday afternoon.

Both Kerstin and her hubby were very satisified.

***
I don't get many requests or questions regarding knitting (or sewing) for other people, but so far, I've said yes when I've gotten a request. I know that there are many who won't knit for others or take orders, and I understand that, especially if they get many requests. But I haven't gotten that many yet, so for me it's still fun to knit (and sew) for others.

Doing some modifications on the blog

I've been thinking about making some changes - or adding a few pages, to be more precise - to the blog, and started by adding a Swaps and SALs page (located on the top of the page) where I intend to list all of the swaps and SALs (stitch-a-long) that I've joined over the years (mostly for my own memory and stuff, but perhaps others might find it interesting too, I dunno..). But after talking to my mom on the phone earlier this afternoon, I've decided to add another page, listing all the finishes I've made this year (both quilting and knitting/crochet) on a page called 2014 Finishes. My plan is to list the item, and link to the post describing the project. 

Now, after adding the page and starting to list the finishes I have so far in 2014, I realize that I am waaaay behind on my blogging! (And the main reason for that is.. the lack of photo-light..) There's nothing more depressing than trying to show off a finished project than by doing so with ill-lit photos, taken in boring locations. (I'm trying to say that I'm sick and tired of the grayness that's been all-over these past few months.. gray mornings, gray middays, gray afternoons - pitch-black evenings and nights..) Today was the first day I actually saw a sunrise! Blue skies during the day! Had to close the blinds because of the sun shining in (I spent the day at home with a sick little boy, otherwise I would've been in the office, not seeing the bright blueness or getting the sun in my eyes). Apparently, this phenomenon might actually happen again, tomorrow (before the return of mushy snow on Wednesday and Thursday..) so maybe, just maybe I'll manage to get some nicer photos taken tomorrow.. (When I look at the list I've started on the 2014 Finishes page, I seem to have some work to do..)

The view from the 21st floor

Last week I went with a colleague to get a photo taken for a new ID. We had to go to the 21st floor in the building next door to ours, and while being up there I couldn't help notice how small the city feels from that height.

So, here are a few pictures showing the view around the part of Oslo where I work.

The Opera is the flatfish, white building in the center. 

The harbor up at the right, where the ferry to Denmark docks.

The huge "blob" at the bottom is a concert arena called
"Oslo Spektrum".

The Radisson SAS hotel, which is next to "Oslo Spektrum".

This picture is taken in the direction of our
neighbourhood in Oslo - barely visible is the
swimming pool building, "Tøyen Badet"
(a "half circle" building), and our apartment is right below it. 

In the more crafty news I've completed a couple of knitting projects, one that I can show now - I just need to take some good pictures of it - and one that's a secret. I'm also working on my mug rugs for the swap I've joined. Some stitching left, and then it's time for quilting. The send-off date is not until the 22nd, so there's still time. I'm also quilting on a project that's been on it's way for a few years now (I think I started working on it before Peder was born, or when he was a baby, I don't really remember). I'm excited to see it so close to being finished - and it really makes me want to finish other projects hidden away - to make a clean slate (at least while I'm still in the "finishing" mood).

:)

Last year's most used Christmas present

Last week was the sixth week of the new year - and the fourth time I've used the double-waffle iron that we got for Christmas last year. It's brilliant! Making two plates of waffles at once, cutting the preparation time in half.

Mmmmm.. waffles..

I'm not sure if it's a Norwegian thing, but we do love waffles here..

Joined a swap

I signed up for the Quilting Gallery "Olympic Mugrug Swap" a while back, and am waiting for the details of my swap partner later this week. 

Not much going on these days. Work in the day, doing stuff in the evening. I've prepped a project for quilting and have picked up a knitting project I started last year. The knitting project is a long time-project that I hope to finish some time soon , but I'm not even half way yet.. It kinda de-motivates me. I wish it was completed now, so that I could enjoy it - and start something new.. 

Monday, and the start of a new week.. I hope it brings something good for everybody. And rain to my friends in Australia. 

Found it!

The stitcheries from the last post were from a series of stitcheries from Hatched and Patched, and I bought and finished them back in 2007. 

While looking back on older posts on my blog, I also found the SSCS-badges from the first two years too (2007 and 2008), and have now included them on the right side of the blog, with the others. 

:)

Sunday - not as lazy as you'd like..

Today's Sunday. There's perhaps 1-2 centimeters of snow outside, and it's suddenly cooler out - about -6 to -7 degrees celsius this morning, and somewhere around -2 or -3 now.

It was another early morning this morning - as it has been all last week. It's not that we're busy doing things, but Mini's been awake a number of times every single night this past week, and last night was no different..

Today he and I were up around 7AM. Managed to fill the entire living room full of toys before all three of us got dressed and walked up to the local pool. Spent a couple of hours there, with what seemed to be about half of the population in our neighborhood.. And now there are only a few minutes left until we have to get dressed again to go to a Christmas party (yes, I know it's January) at hubby's office (it's for the employees' kids).

But right now, we have a couple of minutes to relax..

When I was packing away all the Christmas decorations, I found a small wallhanging I made a few years ago (I think I made it back in 2006 or 2007.. there should be a picture somewhere on the blog..). Anyway.. We don't have that many things hanging on our walls in this apartment, and seeing as I enjoyed having a small tablecloth on my little corner table, I thought I'd use it as a topper for a while.

My little nook - corner table by the sofa.

The two main fabric are the same, only in different colors. There are four stitcheries, and five squares of different light fabric in between. Simple, and yet very decorative.

Flowers, lady bugs, bee hive and a large flower, all from
the same series of small stitcheries.

The stitcheries were pre-printed, but the pattern was also included printed on paper. I think I have a few more of these designs, my mom and Vigdis swapped as we all bought different patterns. They are.. somewhere in the collection of patterns and designs.. 

***

The sun is finally shining, and I can see just how dirty my windows are.. oh well, time to get dressed and get out of here. ;-) The dirty windows won't go anywhere. 

Monster-mail!

Today I made waffles for dinner - it was just Mini and me home, and I figured that it had been a looooong time since I'd made waffles (not since last summer, when I ended up with a burn on my arm..). I found a recipe on the web from the Norwegian seamen church in Copenhagen (apparently voted the best waffles in the world a couple of years ago). The recipe was a little different from what I've been used to, but they ended up really yummy! (I think there's even leftovers so that I can bring some to work tomorrow, for lunch.. mmmm…)

Yummy-yummy waffles! With strawberry jam..

 And in the mail today was an envelope containing this little charmer :

Dox is back home!

Dox was "born" for a competition to win a feature in a book last year, and has spent most of 2013 traveling to bookstores and book launches (even appeared on TV!) to promote the book she was featured in. (The book's called Hand made, contains a number of projects created by bloggers from all over Norway, and is published in norwegian.)

***
I've been bitten by the EPP (English Paper Piecing) bug, and have had some problems getting to bed this week - and with a little boy who's gotten up annoyingly early (last night he wanted to be read a book at 03:30 AM…) it's needless to say there hasn't been much quality sleep for any of us this week. But, tonight, I'm off to bed early.

Good night!

First finishes in 2014

This weekend I managed to finish three items - one WIP and two UFOs. The WIP (work in progress, or ongoing project) I cannot show you, as it is for a competition later this year, but the two UFOs (unfinished objects, now completed) I can show you. 

I crochet the brown owl (Sir Hoots-a-Lot) last summer, and started working on the smallest one right after, but he and the gray one both ended up as "no-priority-projects" when fall came, and I started tp focus on other things and projects. Oh well, until tonight, when they were both finished, with eyes and all. 

Now to find some good names for them.. 

I have a few more projects in my "to be completed"-pile, and about a ton of ideas I'd like to test, but that'll have to wait. 

Goodnight!

SSCS 2013 - what I sent

I was so happy when the news came this fall that there would be another round of Secret Santa Christmas Swap! It's really become a tradition over the years, and I'vr grestly enjoyed getting to know bloggers and quilters from all over the world during this yearly swap, organised by the Elf Mother Chookyblue - and this year her Assistant Elf Googy Girl. 

Sneaking around a person's blog, planning and making a project, sending it off in good time for Christmas - and hoping the parcel will give some joy is really, really fun! (Although I guess some of us - ahem - can be a bit too sneaky from time to time..) 

This year my victim of sneakyness, and reciever of my parcel, was Cheryl, who writes the lovely blog http://blissintheburbs-kayly.blogspot.com (have a look at the projects she's been working on - they're amazing!). 

And this is what I sent to Cheryl : 

Both parcels in their wrapping..

The ornament (mini-stocking) and a folded star (I just learned how to fold these, and they are addictive!). 

And the wallhanging (a Tilda design) and the ornament together. 

I included a couple of more things (a reflective badge in the shape of a sheep with a traditional norwegian knitting pattern on it, and a tiny calendar). 

Thabks again, Chooky, for a great swap! It just wouldn't be Christmas without it! 

Merry Christmas! And thank you!!!

Merry Christmas! 

It's December 25th, and Christmas Day. Yesterday we had a great Christmas dinner, a visit from Santa himself, and a couple of his helpers (an elf girl and an elf dog). The kids were in awe (mildly spoken)! After dinner the presents were unwrapped and everybody were very happy (I've spent the morning today building a firetruck out of LEGO). 

Today's a lazy day. It's quite unusually warm outside, and raining cats&dogs.. But! I have a very special gift to enjoy! Just look at the gorgeous tablerunner my Secret Santa sent me! 

This year Simone (www.quiltingismydowntime.blogspot.com) from Australia was my Secret Santa, and she sent me a tablerunner with cute Christmas fabrics in the center, and with ornaments around the edge. 

I can't wait to come home and put it on our livingroom table!

Thank you so much, Simone! And thank you to Chooky and Googy-girl for arranging another Secret Santa Christmas Swap! 

Countdown

It's a short week until Christmas Eve, and the big night here in Norway (yes, we do open our presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day). I've got more or less all of the presents ready, two are missing gift wrap - and my SSCS-parcel is well hidden with the other presents.

I'm getting ready to head out to the office and get some work done today, but I thought I'd leave you with an amazing video I saw on Facebook the other day. This is an acoustic guitar-version of a song featured in a norwegian animated movie from the 70's. Quite amazing, I think.

I hope you enjoy it - and that you have a great day! (All the snow's rained away here, so it's back to being wet and dark again..)

Travelling back in time..

Well, almost. :)

Tonight I've spent the evening with some guys who started their careers around the time I was born.

It's kind of interesting to go to a concert, not quite knowing what you're going to. Perhaps you've heard a couple of songs before, but not many.. considering that one of the biggest hits played tonight was from 1993 (when I was 12 years old). But seeing the bands play live was amazing! It didn't matter - at all - that I knew of just a few of their songs, it's the whole experience - going to the concert with friends, having a good time, singing along to the songs you know and nodding your head with the rhythm to those you don't know - that's what counts! And I had a really good time! (So good, in fact, that I'm sitting here, writing a blog post about it, at 1AM in the morning.)

Considering that both of these bands were Norwegian, I doubt they're very well known outside of Norway, but maybe some of you might've heard about them before.. I don't know.

The first band was Return. They played for about an hour and a half, going through most of their greatest hits, and even some songs that I knew (and could sing along to). Like this one :

Let's just say that the long hair is pretty much gone by now (except from on the guitarist.. who seemed very young to be playing in this band.. I'm thinking he might be quite new - but he was brilliant!).

The second band was Stage Dolls. Now, these I've heard a bit from before - like I said earlier, one of their songs was a really big hit back when I was about 12 years old - and I still remember the lyrics!

Sorry about the quality of these videos, but the music is still good. (Spotify is probably a better choice..)

***

On a side note, though..

Although I had a blast tonight, it still frustrates me how some people (not all.. but there's always some) come to a concert, pay lots of money - and then ends up drinking their minds away? When you're so drunk you can hardly walk up a flight of stairs, how on earth do you plan to get your butt home safely? And then you have the stupid drunks, like the guy who wanted to get one of my friends into a fight. Butt off! It's not his fault you're stupid, drunk and the bartender refused to sell you more beer, so that your girlfriend had to buy more for you (she shouldn't, in my mind, but what could I've done about it?). Needless to say, I'm not that happy about drunk people. I don't like being drunk - and I rarely drink very much. I can have a glass of wine or a drink every now and then - but that's it. I don't see the point in paying for a concert and then getting so drunk I'm not even sure where I end up the next morning - I'd rather be sober and enjoy the music. (Which is why I had one glass of very nice riesling at dinner - and drank soda for the rest of the evening.) 

***

Perhaps we should make some plans for next year, mom? According to the bands, they'll be back again next year (or, as the lead singer of Return said; first comes Stage Dolls - then Santa). ;)

Guess what arrived on Sunday?

SNOW!

Mini and I dug out the reserve snow clothes (the other snow suit was still in the kindergarten, as Mini was home sick on Friday) and ventured out. Enjoy the pictures!

***

Only thirteen days left until Christmas Eve!

SSCS - Parcel arrived!

There was a note from the mailman this morning, informing about a package too large for our mailbox. So off I went to the post office to pick up my parcel. (I kinda knew what it was, seeing as the note from the mailman was marked parcel from Australia, so I guess it had to be the SSCS-parcel.)

Wrapped in bright red - and with a bow in silvery white - were two parcels, one small one containing an ornament, and a large one still in it's wrapping (where it will stay for another 25 days..).

Adorable gingerbread ornament!

The ornament was an adorable little gingerbread man, stitched in purple on white background. It's really cute! And Mini's already stolen it a few times to play with.

Since our tree's not up yet (we're going to wait a few more weeks) you'll have to do with a photo taken by my laptop for the time being. 

Thank you so much, Simone, for the adorable ornament! And thank you to Chookyblue (and GoogyGirl) for organizing another round of Secret Santa Christmas Swap!

***

The countdown begins.. tomorrow!

Long-weekend in London

Last Saturday hubby and I travelled to London for a long-weekend (Saturday to Tuesday). Sunday we spent the whole day at a conference center (enormous building!) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the TV show Doctor Who (the day was truly amazing), and Monday was spent seeing parts of London and doing some shopping. Hubby suggested that we went to check out the Christmas fair/market in Hyde Park, and so we did.

A huge part of the park was turned into a kind of swiss/german alpen village, with rides and stalls, a skating ring and other activities. 

Alpen Hotel - lots of shining lights.

There were lights and Christmas characters all over the place, and Christmas music filled your ears.

Huge snowman in front of the ferris wheel
(pariserhjul, in Norwegian).

The snowman was waaay taller than hubby.

I think we spent a good few hours walking around in Hyde Park checking out the Christmas market. We picked up a few things for our selves, and even found a couple of Christmas presents.

Santa's head on display.

Stumbling upon the pirate's castle, we saw that it was a good thing Mini wasn't with us - we'd never been able to get him out of there..

The pirate castle.

Yarr.. the robot pirate.

Decorated bench. I liked the little squirrel carved into
the back of the bench.

There was even a ghost train!

Ghost Train of Christmas Past.

 After a while, the chill of the November morning started to be noticeable, and we stopped by one of the stalls to get something warm to drink. We had plenty of things to chose from, everything from viking mead (whatever that was..), glühwein, hot chocolate and egg nogg - but we ended up trying something none of us had ever tasted before - apple nogg with amaretto and whipped cream. (Basically, this was warm apple juice with a splash of liqueur in it, and with whipped cream on top.)

The apple nogg-cup.

After a couple of hours it seemed like we'd covered most of the market, and we decided to walk over to Oxford Street to get some more shopping done.

Troll in the Bavarian Village.

If you're ever in London around the time before Christmas, we can both highly recommend the Christmas market/fair in Hyde Park. Although we were there in the morning, when there wasn't too many people there mostly other tourists and people with young children) it looked like it could be a fun place to come back to later in the evening - and all the lights would definitely have been impressive to see in all their glory at night (and not just in the sunny morning).

The Lover's Knot

I had the urge to read something new a few weeks ago, and ended up surfing BookDepository, an online bookstore which has, mildly speaking, an ENORMOUS collection of titles to browse. Using their search function, I typed in "quilt mysteries" in the search field and pressed "Enter". What came up, was a long list of books with either the word quilt in the title, or the words quilt or mysteries in the catalogue information (I'm a librarian, we like to browse catalogue key words).

Anyway, among these titles and cover pictures, there was one that kinda popped - and drew my attention, namely The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue.

Picture borrowed from the interwebs.

The story begins as we are introduced to Nell Fitzgerald, a young woman living in New York, engaged to the love of her life - and about to get married. Or so she thinks..

The day we meet her, she's just received an engagement present from her grandmother, a quilt in a lover's knot pattern, but her joy is short-lived, as her fiancee soon reveals that he's having second thoughts, and calls off the wedding. Her apartment already being sold, she decides to take some time away from it all, and travels to the small, quiet town of Archers Rest, to spent some time with her grandmother. 

Soon Nell finds herself absorbed into her grandmother's work and life, the quilt shop Someday Quilts and the members of the quilting circle. However, the quiet town life is soon interrupted, as the body of a local handyman (and well-known flirt) is found murdered in the quilt shop, clutching a blood soaked antique quilt in his hand.  

Nell and the quilting circle are soon drawn deep into the investigation, as they piece together the pattern of clues and their quilts. Suddenly Nell finds herself torn between her ex-fiance - now murder suspect - and the handsome police chief. 

***

This was a really fun book to read - packed with suspense, romance, quilting and inspiration. I loved the way O'Donohue describes each character and the way you feel you know them after only reading about them in a short chapter or two. Each of the members in the quilting circle have their own styles and ways of doing things, each making quilts the way they prefer to - and this level of detail makes you feel like you really get to know each of the characters really well. 

I'm waiting to see if this series will continue along the same road as Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek series, as I - for one - would love to see some of the quilts described in this book as finished quilts or patterns.