Happy Christmas

The Icelandic Yuletide Lads are descended from trolls, and were originally bogeymen who were used to scare children. Children feared  these  lads in the past.  The Yuletide Lads started to change in the twentieth century and became more friendly. They started to wear red clothes and they give children presents in shoes which the children put on their windowsill at night, starting thirteen nights before Christmas. The Yuletide Lads have mellowed but still tend to pilfer and play tricks.

I made these Lads many years ago,  and take them up every Christmas, I just love them. They all have different names like:  Sheepfold Stick, Gully Oaf, Spoon licker, Pot licker, Door slammer, Shorty, Bowl licker, Curd Glutton, Sausage Pilferer, Peeper, Sniffer, Meat Hook and Candle Begger.

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

1st block

My first block finished, and boy did I have fun sewing it and listening to a audio-book at the same time.

But it takes a lot of time. Now I will  prepare the second block and take it with me to Iceland over the Holidays.

Christmas poem

Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.
I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.
Could it be fat quarters or a pattern or lace?
Or a quilt kit, I said, with a smile on my face.
And that's when I heard him,
"Hi Santa," I said"
You know....good little girls should be in their beds ".
"I know I should Santa, and now I've got caught.
But I was just so excited to see what you brought."
"Well, let's take a look in this room where you work.
"He shook his head quickly, And left with a jerk.
I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.
"You've got enough stuff, I'll see you next year!"
author unknown

This Christmas poem was in my e-mail (dearjane-list) yesterday from Caroline Van Maele, in Belgium.

I just loved it, and wanted to share it with you all, the photo is of a Santa I made many years ago.

I have not been doing any sewing for the last days,
 I have been in bed with flu.

Last Tuesday I went to Strasbourg to pick up my new Bernina 830, but haven't been able to touch it.

Civil War Bride

This weekend I started the Civil War Bride quilt.

My first block is being hand applique. I'm not very good at applique but it will get better as the quilt grows.  I'm needle turning and using silk thread. I find the Desk Threader a must have, it really saves time.

This is the desk Threader from Clover. I got it in September in Alsace, France. It really works, but for how long I do not know!!!!

Broken Star

Hi every one. This is a picture of my Broken Star, quilted and finished at last, and a close up of the quilt.

It is 260x260 cm or 100"x100" inches. I'm very happy how it turned out.

Birgit at http://www.creativebits.biz/ did a very good job quilting it for me.

It is though a strange feeling, having someone else do the quilting. Is the quilt just half mine and half hers?

No it is mine I paid for the quilting. But she did an excellent job.

Click on the picture and see for yourself.

Dear Jane

When I got back from Portugal this was in my post. This summer I signed up at Twiddletail doing Rainbow Jane and this is my first month.  But I have already started my journey with Dear Jane. -  25 blocks and 2 triangles done, using my hand dyed fabric.

This is a beautiful fabric from Twiddletail, bright colors. I guess I will be doing two DJ.

I have heard that some ladies do more than one DJ quilt - even up to five!!!!

I just love doing these tiny blocks.
I post then on: http://www.paula-dearjane.blogspot.com/ 

Going on a trip

I'm going to Portugal to morrow,  play golf for two weeks,

and this is what I make sure to take with me,

prepared fabric for three Dear Jane blocks, to be hand pieced,

my knitting, and of course Jane Austin book.

What a lovely journey  this is going to be.

Happy quilting everyone.

View

The picture in the middle of this wall hanging is from

a golf course in France printed on a muslin.

Next step is to quilt this wall hanging.

This is a little landscape.

My Broken Star went to Germany, I found a "Longarm lady" there who is going to do the quilting for me. It will be finished in December. If the quilt had been smaller I would have enjoyed quilting it myself. I love free motion quilting.  At the moment I'm quilting a silk quilt, will post a picture later. I just wanted to tell everybody I found this lady in Germany just across the border. Her link is http://www.creativebits.biz/ 


Now you all take care and happy quilting

Autumn

Now the autumn is indeed here in Luxembourg,

with all the beautiful colors the nature can show.

Here is just one picture.

Then it is time to do some knitting for the winter.

My daughter wanted a short cardigan, wide around the nect.

Well here is one I finished yesterday. I hope she likes it.

It is Marino wool, pearl stitched (as we call it in Iceland).

And for me I knitted this shawl  to wrap around my neck with Alpaca Wool

And also crochet a black shawl I found on the internet this summer at "knitting daily".

It is called Stella Circular Shawl. Maybe it is still there at interweave.com/knitting

This one is made of Cashmere

What will I do with this Kidsilk haze?

Thank you all for stopping by and enjoy whatever you are working on.

Broken Star

My Broken Star is basted and ready to be quilted. It has been waiting for over a year like that. I was going to machine quilt it myself but I keep postponing it because it is so large (a king size) and I don't have a "long arm".  I will just have to find someone here in Luxembourg who does quilting for others.

Does anyone know of one?????

By the way, basteing was easy, I followed Sharon Schamber's technique which I found on her network.  Take a look at her network: sharonschambernetwork.com  on the left side you see a Free Area.

Thank you for stopping by

A Day in the Country

The year 2001 I took this class at QU called A Day in the Country with Ruth Blanchet. It was the first time for me to do machine appliqué. It was really fun and Ruth is a very good instructor. I have taken some other online classes with her. I believe that one can buy this pattern and many others on Ruth's website: academyofquilting.com. Now this quilt keeps my darling grandson Ofeigur Geir warm.

Dyeing

I spent the whole morning yesterday dyeing in my cellar, it was very relaxing and I enjoyed every minute.

 Here are few pictures of my Shibori dyeing:

Also some batik

These two are overdyed shibori,

 covered with wax, put in the freezer,

 then cracked one up and pleated the other before dyeing.

The colours are much better live than on the computer.

I used my free motion quilting practice sandwich to make a cover for my quilt picture book. (I take  pictures of all my quilts and put them in this book and write a little story about each one.)
I'm trying to improve my free motion quilting so I have a lot of practice sandwiches. And what can you do with them??? Make some purses or a book cover. This sandwich I used was dyed with rust.  The instructions for a book cover you can find on http://www.academyofquilting.com/ There is a free class on Book Cover and it is decorated beautifully.

This is the front, the button is made from coconut.

This is the back. As you can see I need much more practice on free motion feathers.

15th European Meeting - Patchwork

Some more pictures from FRANCE

I like to share with you:

Crowded in field flowers - S. Takencka - France

Dawn Lights - Ilona S Tornyai - Hungary

Flower Window - Magdolna Solymár - Hungary

Marble Floor - Józsefné Kovalik - Hungary

Dancing Butterflies - Zsuzsa Benkö - New Zealand

They are lovely, aren't they?

Quilts from NZ

Here are some pictures from St. Marie-aux-Mines.  The pictures I post this time are all from New Zealand. They are really beautiful. Enjoy

Mother and Child 2004 - Ku Bailey

Karakia (Prayer) - Camilla Watson

Angels in My Gully - Norma Slabbert

My Love of Nature - Margaret Matthews

I'm of to the 15th European Meeting - Patchwork in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace France where they say is the Cradle of the Amish movement.
Will post some pictures when I get back.

Book Wrap

I laid the interfacing, glue side up on my workbench.

Laid my hand dyed linen on top and ironed.

Then I laid ribbons and yarn and free motion stitched,

 to keep everything in place.

Laid some yarn under organza and stitched.

I curled-up som organza with a heat gun.

Free motion stitched it in place.

Cut it up the size I want.

Stitched  some yarn around the edges.

Added strap to wrap around.

And a strap inside to stop the book from falling out.

There it is.

Based on an article In the Quilting Art Magazine issue 29.