An ambitious to do list :-)

Ambitions are good, right ?

I very seldom pick 5 projects for my weekly focus, but right now it is An Urge ;-)
Can you see I am sort of decluttering my desk ?? hehehe

From the top left - the lovely bunnies I got for my birthday in April, a Christmas wall hanging, the forever lasting hexagons - closing in on finishing all the background flowers now, a cute bear for a new toiletry / makeup purse. I Need a new one, Now, and last, the sparkly Dear Jane blocks - soon to be a new tote. The tote has been on my to do list for ages, being down prioritized for ages.

Wish me luck and sharp needles - stay tuned for several finishes this week - hopefully :-)

Update before midnight - one finish, photo tomorrow :-)

Hanne

More catching up

Monday both the cat and I had a R&R day during the day. We had guests in the evening, so no sewing.

It is flea market season here in Norway, so we are also sorting and getting things out of here. We have flea markets twice a year here, centralized.  The income goes to local activities for children and youngsters - I like that! It is like 2 in 1 - school band music on 17th of May (National Day) and a decluttered home.

I do have some hexagons going, even if I am working at half speed at the moment :-)

Yesterday I finished the luggage tag I got as a gift from Nancy this spring.

 

I chose pink for mine.
The pattern is now for sale. Nancy can tell you where. It was very fun to make :-)

Since my shoulders are not very good at the moment I am enjoying hand sewing of different kind - hexagons and stitchery - on half speed and with short thread. I am doing good though - all thing considered :-)

This is my current focus project, besides the hexagons.
One thread at a time :-)

Hanne

A lovely weekend was had by all

The days are flying by here - and suddenly it is Thursday again ……..

I am behind on blogging, so I will start with Friday last week.

My dear friend Bente has just turned 50, and this was her quilt friend party, with quilt class included :-)

I was the lucky teacher, and the theme was Kaleidoscope.
I decided to give the class to Bente as a gift, and it was a pleasure for me to teach.
Location: Bente’s sewing room.

We started on Friday - first Bente + May Britt and I - chatting and laughing --- and admiring Bente’s lovely hexagon quilt :-)

Shhh - I am behind on mine…….. :-))

  
Bente’s quilt(s) in the making.

 
See this beauty ! It belongs to Inger Solveig (below)

 
We are all admiring the quilt and the quilting :-)

   
Bente


May Britt and Bente


We are discussing different hand quilting possibilities.

 
Friday evening, after lovely cakes and coffee, we cut pieces for the blocks and started to sew.


Inger and Bente on one wall.

 

May Britt on the opposite wall

    
Siv Hege, Inger Solveig og Tove shared a table in the middle, and I was here and there and everywhere, with some hexagons for hand sewing when I had time :-)

Food and cakes was in abundance, both days, and we had a lovely party Saturday night after class, with seafood.

It is autumn here now, but we were lucky with the weather on Sunday morning, so we could have a nice time outdoors as well, before May Britt and I was heading home again.

   

It was a lovely weekend, with a lot of Vitamin Q !

Thanks for a lovely weekend, Bente - it was  a weekend to remember with joy  :-))
I am looking forward to seeing you all again!

Hanne

Care quilts again

Since I was going away for the weekend again, I was trying to catch up on a lot of things through the week.

I could deliver these 2 care quilts this weekend if I finished them in time, so I put the pedal to the metal and did so.

Remember me wanting to use all my black fabrics for care quilts ?
I am getting closer by these two quilt now. I think I have about used half of my black stash so far this year :-)

These 2 quilts were done just in time - 45 minutes before I was leaving for the weekend I pulled them out of the dryer and gave them a touch of ironing.

Hanne

This and that - after the vacation

Coming home from Turkey and +35 degrees C to +15 degrees C and rain was not very nice, and the first 2 days was full with getting used to the change and nurse away a cold I caught when we got home. Not a swine in sight though - just a plain ol’ unpleasant cold.

I brought both stitcheries and hexagons on vacation, but all I managed to get done there were 3 threads of stitchery and one hexagon flowers.
I got some reading done though, in the afternoon and on the beach :-)

The tan is coming off very fast……

On Tuesday afternoon Anne delivered my finished basket quilt !!

It is so beautiful and I am so happy about it :-))

Anne is doing very very beautiful work and I can recommend her with all my heart !

I can see some serious binding work in the near future :-)

Hanne

A wonderful vacation

After weeks of rain, a trip to the Turkish Riviera was Great !
This is the first vacation DH and I are doing on our own in the summer. The girls are growing up!

The lovely town of Alanya was our choice and a good choice it was indeed!

The beach, shopping, sightseeing, long walks and lovely sunshine - it was all there :-)

The view from the town castle down on the Kleopatra beach. The castle has been there for centuries and has an interesting history of different rulers and different times.
Alanya has also been a famous pirate harbour some time in history, for having a very easy defendable harbour.

 
The wall around the town castle is 6,8 km long.

 

The harbour on the other side of the castle hill - also close to the city centre, where you can find the main bazaar and the night life.

We did enjoy the outdoor life in the evenings, wining and dining at different places every night.

We did enjoy the Turkish kitchen very much!

In the impressive Dim Cave - under ground natural drip stone cave - 350  meters one way and 50 meters the other way.

A LOT of stairs in the Dim Cave, and I walked them all :-)

Alanya town in the horizon.

The view was impressive in all directions outside the Dim Cave.

Inspiration for patchwork was everywhere:

This is outside the Archaeology Museum in Alanya

A beautiful fence around the museum.

Inside the museum.
It is special to see the embroidery traditions of other countries and how they often are quite similar in many countries :-)

Beautiful intarsia work.

A wooden window cover with an interesting pattern.

Ancient mosaics. I can see elements from the Dear Jane quilt here. Can you ?

Can you see how these ancient burial boxes are shaped and carved as houses, with windows and all ?
Due to the hard ground these boxes were not buried into the ground and they are quite small, like doll houses.

A mosaic on the pavement downtown Alanya.

The Kleopatra Restaurant was our favourite night cap place, where the service is excellent and Kadri, Ahmed and the others made their best effort to make us all feel ever so comfortable and welcome. We met other night cap drinkers there, many nights in a row :-)

Ahmed, to the right, is an absolute wiz with Irish Coffees!! The best I have ever tasted! The same goes for the Strawberry Daiquiris. :-)

 
The minaret close to your hotel had a lovely mosaic / patchwork pattern too :-)

I think the bottom line to this one week vacation is that it was sooo good for body and soul, in every way.
Alanya area still has a lot to offer that we have not seen, eaten, shopped or smelled,
so we will go for “a Schwarzenegger” - We Will Be Back - some day in the future :-)

Hanne