Finally a finish in October

With just two days left of October i finally finished my latest table runner yesterday. For the whole month I have either continued BOMs or started new projects. I am almost ashamed that I have not finished the projects I started at Mrs Moen's class two weeks ago, but those will have priority the next few days.

I was inspired by a bed sized quilt pattern called Wind Dust Flowers and modified it into a table runner, the size is 24" x 55". I named it 'Dandelions in the Wind'. A later picture will explain why.

As you can see, we have lots of snow here, and it's not even November yet! The light was fading quickly today, and that was not good for the pictures.

Here the quilt is on my table, but this is not the designated table where it will reside, eventually.

Here is a detailed picture of the fabrics. I especially like the apple green fabric with the dandelion seeds in silver. All the fabrics were bought at Hancock Fabrics in the US last summer.

The last picture is taken without flash, and shows the quilting details.

My 48 geese are now flying!

Heavy snowfall prevented the geese to flap their wings outdoors, so the photo session had to take place indoors with bad lighting.

This is the fifth row of Lori Holt's Row Along. In this row there are 24 different fabrics (apart from the white). I have lost count on how many colors I have used in the 5 rows this far, but it is many! The final quilt will be bright and cheerful! I love the process of making it.

48 geese not flying in a row... yet

But, they will soon! Tomorrow I will be sewing these geese in one of Lori Holt's rows.
I may not be able to take a picture on my porch this time, because today we got 10-15 cm (4-6") of snow! And there will be even more snow tomorrow!

Quilt in-between

According to DH I am involved in too many quilting projects: two BOM's, one Row Along, one mystery, and a couple of others. In order to please him and my family, I have started a fairly easy and quick scrappy quilt project. Here are some of the blocks:

The whole quilt is made from 2.5" strips, and it will really use a lot of my scraps. This will eventually become a twin size quilt for one of my DS; winter is coming. Snow is not far away here in Norway! The winter tires are already on the car, so I am prepared for everything.

In the mean time I am quilting along, and waiting for the next month's Aurifil Block, and wondering what Lori will come up with in the next episode of the Row Along.

New row finished in the Row Along

Row #4 is now completed, and this will be a very colorful quilt!

Here the rows are on display on my porch.

One of the apples were a little over-ripe, and brought a tiny 'guest' with it when it was picked...

I really enjoy being a part of this Row Along, and I look forward to the resulting quilt in spring next year.

Apples

After an intense weekend class of improvising and making artistic quilts being inspired by Mrs Moen ,  it was good to come home to my ruler and rotary cutter to do some "relaxing" work. I started row #4 of Bee in my bonnet row along (see button top left), and here are the completed apples and apple cores. Now I just have to decide the order and put some sashing in-between them.

By the way, under the link above you will find Mrs Moen's post from the weekend class in Trondheim. Look at all we achieved!

I will post pictures eventually of my completed projects from this class. I just have to do some straight line cutting and sewing first!

Weekend class coming up

This weekend I am attending a class with Mrs Moen . One evening and two full days of creativity. I am really looking forward to it!
Here is an example from her blog of what we will be making:

My first swap!

Today I received my mini quilt from my swap partner. The one I sent went to Canada, and it has been received and was very welcomed. The swap is described in this previous post.

Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

This is my first swap, and I was very exited waiting for my quilt to show up in the mail box. Today the mini quilt arrived, and I just totally adore it! It is fantastic, and my partner put a lot of work into it. The quilt will really brighten up my home!

Aurifil BOM for October

A rainy weekend gave me the opportunity to finish this month's block early. It was a pretty detailed block, and the stitching took quite a long time. In addition I decided to use sating stitch on the candy corn instead of backstitch. I am rather pleased with the result.

Bee In My Bonnet Row Along, cont.

See the button on top left of my blog. Row #3 is finished, and the picture shows all of them on my porch. This is a fun row along where I can use up a lot of my stash!

78 degrees North

That is where I spent the last 3 days together with colleagues from work; it translates to Svalbard (or Spitsbergen), an island far north of the Norwegian mainland. We traveled away from fall, and up to winter upon arrival. There had been a few snowfalls already, and the island was covered in a nice white coat.
The weather was perfect the whole time, clear sky, full moon, no wind and a few degrees below freezing point. Here is a picture of Longyearbyen (Longyear city) by night.

We did not see any polar bears in the wild, so the only picture I have is the one on display in the hotel lobby.

There was also a great quilt on display on the hotel wall, made of beautiful batiks. I am sorry I did not get a better picture, but it was difficult with the sun coming in through the skylight.

This is the view from my hotel room, Platåfjellet (The Plateau Mountain).

We hiked up the mountain the second day, and reached an altitude of approx. 450 meters before we turned back down again. When you are out hiking on Spitsbergen you have to have a person with a rifle together with you, because of the risk of polar bear attack. Last year there was a tourist killed by a bear.

Here is a spectacular view of the geology from top of the mountain.

The third and last day of the trip we went out on a boat in the fjords around Longyearbyen. It was freezing cold with the wind chill factor! But, with warm clothing we survived.

Here are two more pictures of the spectacular geology and mountain formations of Spitsbergen.

We had a fantastic trip!