Merry Christmas!

It's the day before the day before the BIG day, and since we're leaving tomorrow to spend Christmas Eve with my family, we've done some cleaning, tidying and decorating today. Although we don't have alot of decorations to put up, we have about enough to put a little something everywhere around the apartment.

I also opened my SSCS-present today - and my camera managed to flash a little "out of battery"-message before dying on me - so when the batteries have been charged a little more, I'll show you some pictures of our Christmas-stuff. :)

Thank you thank you thank you, Kelli!!! :D I love the bag, and the pillowcase! And I can't wait to read the book! :D *giant hugs*

***

The past couple of week we've experienced some pretty cool weather - considering that this is Oslo, where it rarely snows and gets cold this time of year - but this morning the temperature crawled it's way up to -3 degrees celsius and it snowed about half an inch (this white blanket stayed white for about an hour before getting soggy and black.. yay for pollution and cars.. :( ). I'm glad we're going up to Trysil tomorrow - to clean, white, crispy Winter (with capitol W)!

The vase in the back was painted by my grandmother - isn't it just gorgeous? I'd love to paint as good as her, but I guess I'll have to stick to sewing. :) The Santas are the same as in a previous post - only they've been mixed with a second batch we made (half of them are now wrapped in a present for BF's Norwegian grandmother).

Home-decorated Santas - it's been fun to do some crafts together on the evenings. :) We'll have to repeat that for next year (maybe even for Easter?). :)

On the crafting front I've been working on the "The Night before Christmas"-pattern from Cinderberry Stitches, and I can happily announce that they're only missing the hanging-up-systems (but since we don't have anywhere to hang them just now, I'm leaving them for after Christmas) - besides that I've picked up the whole cloth quilt again tonight, and have been working on it for a couple of hours. It's actually looking quite good, and I think I can say for certain that 2008 will be the last year I'll have to work on it. :) *cheer*

The snowflakes I bought in a store downtown early December - they look good hanging from the lamp - and since I only had four, I found a small angel amongst the decorations that matched pretty good. :)

On TV these days they're showing alot of Christmas movies - all of them making me a little sad and thinking of how good we actually have it, here in little Norway, comparing to many other places. We have a home, family, friends, jobs, a bed to sleep in, someone we love and care about, time to do things we want to, extra time to actually get bored every now and then, the resources to travel to far away places (according to my travel log on FaceBook I've visited over 40 major cities during my 26 years on this planet - and I haven't even included them all yet, this takes time!). There are so many placed I'd like to see, placed I'd like to go back to and things I'd like to do - like going back to Egypt (not just the touristy places but actually do some travel, see things and meet people). I greatly admire people who not just think about these things but actually do something about it, who give so much of themselves to others. I guess sometimes you'd think that you're just one person, a small percentage of the world's population, and that one person cannot do that much, cannot change the world - but I guess that every person, every step counts - no matter how great or small that step might be. It's still a step - and it's worth taking. That's why I want to make 2008 the year where I try to find ways of helping others, and do that - no matter how small they might be. I'll have to think about just what it is that I can do - but what time could be better then Christmas?


It's no secret I like rats - and mice, although rats are my favorite pets - and over the years rattie/mouse decorations have appeared here and there, and this year they're on the top of the cage, giving some Christmas spirit to the lazy little furry critters inside (really, they're quite lazy these days..). Speaking of the rats, I have to make them some new hammocks soon. If they're not chewed on - the washer's been eating on them too. But, I've got fabric and fleece, so just need to find the time.

And now, for some packing.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Day - I'll be back on Wednesday! :D
*snowy hugs*

SSCS - Christmas is here!

*almost*

Well, my SSCS parcel has arrived anyway. :) Which makes it very close to a real Christmas. :)

Friday afternoon a note came with the mail saying there was a parcel at the post office for me. I picked it up on Saturday, brought it home, and have tried not to open it since then. And I will save it - for Saturday. BF is off on a Christmas party that evening, and since I'm spending the evening home alone, decorating for Christmas, annoying the life out of the other people in the building (who very much deserves it after the last few Thursday mornings *aaaargh* long story) by playing Christmas music extremely loud, I think I deserve to open the very exciting parcel from AfricanKelli.

I firmly believe I will do so. :)

Ooh ooh! Dinnertime! Btw, Kelli's blog keeps my stomach growling.. I've never seen so much goodies on one blog before! *cheers*

For my Secret Santa

Dear whoever you may be (I'll find that out in about a month or so - yup, I'm gonna try to save mine for Christmas eve, which is when we open our presents here in Norway). :)

If you want to post a picture on your blog, please go ahead. :) Just, don't mention who the receiver is (me) or the country.

Christmas in November?

One might start to wonder, when this bunch of guys came in, got together and started to make secret plans. You can just barely hear them mumble through their beards.. Although, I think the second one from the right thinks it's kinda boring.. it looks like he's taking a little nap.


I finally got the bell on my "Velkommen"-stitchery! (And have sent the picture to Jordbærstedet to enter the competition.) *phew* I only needed like one bell, but had to buy a pack of 10.. :/ Anyone out there who needs any? The result is noisy and fun - and I like it. :)


November is coming to an end - and I managed to finish the November-block for the Annie's Calendar Quilt-BOM last night (it's not a real BOM, just something a couple of us decided to do, just for fun). I've made December ready for stitching too, but thought I should wait until December to start working on it. :) So I guess I've got to figure out something else to do for today. Got some plans for some Christmas presents ready (in my head, gotta get it out in fabric and stuff first), and yesterday we bought a small present (very cute! I'll post a picture some time - perhaps a post about presents, but no mentioning of names though, that'll be a spoiler..).


And, last but never least, todays greeting from two very tired rats.. Swiffer and Igor doesn't really like to be terrorised by the camera before 5PM, but I bribed them with a treat. Gizmo is on vacation - a friend of mine has a lonely rat, so Gizmo is staying with her for a little while. She's greatly missed, of course - both by the ratties here, and me and my BF.

Oh well, off to work I go (or to the kitchen.. where my sewing stuff are taking over every inch of available space..).

Hm.. almost to post nr 50.. perhaps I should have a give-away too? Would be fun.. What do you think, you out there in the world of blogs?

Finally!

Yes, finally! After about 8 tries - and one complaint to sweet BF - Blogger wants to upload my pictures again. :) So, here are the pictures I wanted to post in the previous post.



This is a picture of me and one of my collegues - Angela - wearing HUGE orange jackets during the stunt our job had. You see, our job has like 500 awailable positions, and wanted to make a stunt so that people would notice them - and hopefully be able to fill the 500-and-something positions by Christmas. So, one early Tuesday morning, about 50 of us dressed up in these huge jackets and handed out business cards, reflective bands and bags of dried fruits and nuts to people on the central train station. It was fun - and a video of us (well, I'm nowhere to be found in the video, but Angela's there) can be seen on pages like DN

Back to the weekend in Trysil..


On Friday Vigdis came over and brought her stitchery from Jordbærstedet to compare with my mom and me. Although they originally were identical, we all have different tastes in color and stitching, so the results will be fun to see. This is as far as we had come on Friday (about mid-day).


And, would you believe it, all three of us were working on the same stitchery from Cinderberry! Mine is the one with the darkest green, my mom's is the one with the lighter green, and Vigdis' is the smallest one (she shrunk the pattern to about 70% of the original size). And again, the colours are not the same - not even the threads for the stitchery. I'm using all the colours from the pattern, but I know the others are making adjustments. :)


Monday morning I was out for a walk - or, I went to the dentist. Nothing big - just a small correction and a note saying to contact him in about 18 to 24 months. Or, whenever I feel like it - but there's really no need. :) Neat! Anyway, back to the pictures.. This is taken from "our" side of the river (with my back against the mountain and facing south) an shows parts of the south side of town. And a very icy river..


Here we have a picture from the same position, only facing north. Don't you just love the fog? It's really blue back home now - almost like the blue hours up in the mountains around Røros (for those who have ever seen the Christmas calendar shows on childrens TV here in Norway).


The trees and bushes have a layer of frosting now. :)


And our house is getting wrapped in snow too (well, this is just a little snow, and it's early in the winter, but give it a couple of weeks and months and you'll see).


This is the mountain view from where my parents live (I'm standing next to the mailbox).

And here I am, wrapped up in my warm jacket, mittens, scarf and hat - but still a bit cold, as you can see from the roses in my cheeks. :)


Monday (before I went back to Oslo) my mom and I took pictures of all the things we'd been working on this weekend. Lots of progress, I should say. :) Neither of us can really remember the last time we managed to do so much in just one weekend..


We even managed to test out a patter for small purses - idea or shall we say the push came from May Britt.

Can you guess what these are? ;)


We just had to try to make these! I made the brown one - and inside it is a pair of my great grandmothers pair of scissors!


We actually managed to finish our stitcheries from Jordbærstedet - I'm going to take a picture and send it in to participate in the competition this week. Cross my fingers and hope to win (well, actually, everybody deserves to win, but it would have been fun if I did win).

Oh well, now it's back to work again, but the weekend's only three days away (and tomorrow I'm going to visit one of the other bloggers - and maybe even another one). ;)

Back from mini-vacation

Yup, I'm back from a long week-end up in Trysil. It was great! Sleeping long(-er), reading tons of magazines I never read unless I'm home, not having to cook dinner (except from on Sunday - but we don't really mind cooking), and having a bit of real winter-feeling (in comparison to the moist icy cold that's winter in Oslo). My BF really enjoyed it too - drinking tons of tea, doing cross-word puzzles and playing old Super Nintendo-games on his Mac. :)

And.. this was supposed to be the moment where you could see tons of beautiful pictures of Trysil, the stuff we worked on this weekend, and even a picture from a stunt we did at work a couple of weeks ago.. but, alas, Blogger doesn't want to upload any of my pictures.. :(

*sob*

I'll try again a little later..

A little progress..

Well, as I said in one of the previous posts, things have been kinda crazy around here lately - tons of work at work, in the NTF, at home etc etc etc. Not always easy to balance everything, and in the end, the things that get the least attention, is usually my sweet BF and our ratties.. Hopefully things will be a bit calmer now.

It was Halloween!!! :D But we got no trick or treat'ers at our door.. :/ But we had a very cozy time anyway. I made a test-batch of pumpkin-cakes (I skipped the filling, it didn't really sound very good) and they were GREAT! Yummy.. and on Wednesday we ate a good dinner, had way too many pumpkin-cakes and watched "The Nightmare before Christmas" on DVD, in candlelight. :) I'd bought two new candleholders the weekend before, and of course we had to test them on Halloween. ;)


The first one is with a witch on the front and back, and with bats on the sides.


The second one has a haunted house on the front and back, and a tree on the sides. They're very very prett when the candle inside are lit - dancing orange glows and shadows..


I was working on the thing you see parts of in the picture abowe... but something came up.. *duh* I'm a part of this stitchingclub organized by Jordbærstedet, where we get one preprinted stitchery plus fabrics (and silken threads for those who want that) a month, and then we have a certain amount of time to complete what it is we choose to make, and send in a picture - and one of lucky ones sending in a picture wins a prize. Now, in the two previous runs we've had about a month to complete the project, but for some reason, this time we have very much less time.. My mom got her package last Thursday, but for some reason I didn't get mine until this Thursday! And it has to be done (and taken a picure of) by November 17th at 12PM! That leaves me with barely 14 days (13 now.. stressed!!!) to figure out something to make, finish it and send it in (the picture that is..)! *eek*


This is as far as I got with the stitchery this weekend.. I still have to decide on a design around it, make it and finish it.. *argh* But I WILL make it. I want to win a prize too, and I want to finish it - even though I thing it's silly to give such a short time.. I heard that they hadn't even been able to send out all the packages yet, so I'm not the only one with a busy time ahead of me. (Lazy as I am today, I didn't flip the picture before posting.. oh well, I'll post a new picture when the whole thing's done.) ;)


On the other side, these little cutesies will have to wait a while for their November-friend.. These are the BOM my mom, a couple of her friends and I are making. They're from a pattern called "Annie's Calendar Quilt". They're very cute and very funny, and I can't wait to see them all finished - and maybe even all 4 different quilts together at one point - it's fun to use the same patterns as others, and then seeing the differences afterwards. :)

I've been playing with the two charm packs I brought home this summer too - not quite sure of what they'll become, but so far it's been fun, and I've learned lots. :)


Well, this is it from me for now, but if things don't get as crazy as they have been, I will be back soon. :) Right now I'm waiting for Quiltoholic to answer the mail I sent her - as a reply to her very sweet mail. ;)

Until next time, happy stitching! And remember to share some good times with a friend or two - like Gizmo and Swiffer in their little fleecehouse. ;)

Tagged!

A little while back, my mom tagged me for this Meme. So I guess I'd better complete it and send it on it's way. :)

Here goes:

4 jobs I have had:
- quilt-/tourist-/crafts shop (a three-in-one solution)
- IT-department in college (student assistant)
- school librarian
- document controller

4 films I could watch over and over:
- Lord of the Rings (all three)
- The Matrix (the first one)
- Practical Magic
- The Nightmare before Christmas (and basically any other Tim Burton film)

4 TV shows I watch:
- CSI (preferrably Las Vegas)
- Bones
- Veronica Mars
- The X-files (we're on a memorability-run through the series now, almost done with season 5!)

4 places I have lived:
- Trysil
- Oslo (studying)
- Tønsberg
- Oslo

4 favorite foods:
- ostehorn! (cheese-and-ham-filled baked hornshaped pastry, if anyone understands that.. it needs to be tasted!)
- Sloppy Joe's (Martin-style)
- Indian food (mmm... curry.. chicken.. spices..)
- roasted ham with creambaked potatoes

4 favorite colors:
- black (duh..)
- blue
- purple
- brown

4 places I love to be right now:
- Japan
- San Fransisco
- Paris
- London

4 names I love but could/would not use for my children:
- Quentin
- Taran
- Vilja
- Dominic

4 people I love to tag with this Meme:
Anyone who feel like doing this little Meme - I know so many of you have already completed it, so I'm making it open to anyone who feels like taking it. ;)

Still here..

Just a little busy..

I heard a little bird say that Chookyblue had wondered where I was. ;) Still here, I can assure you.

It's just been a couple of crazy days and weeks - both at work and at home. Not just trying to be social when the occation demands it (although it feels so much nicer to just go to bed after dinner and sleep for a couple of hours), but also getting the annual NTF (Norwegian Fancy Rat Association) party on it's feet and pulled through, but also - again - work.. Been working over-time at work, and trying to get things done both here and there, so eventhough I have blogged in my mind, there hasn't really been much to look at in here. :/

I have managed to do some things inbetween though (just not blog them) - I've come quite a long way on my SSCS (gonna wait with the picture until it's all done), and "Love is.." is now done! Hurray!!! Thanks to my mom who machine quilted it (it was a matter of getting it done - after almost three years of working on it, I got kinda sick of it, but the quilting suits it, and now it's waiting for a couple of nails in the wall so that it can be hung in our bedroom - the only place with a big enough empty space on the wall). I've even almost finished the october-part of our miniature BOM (my mom, two of her friends and I decided to only make one block a month of this calendar quilt back in June, almost halfway now).

I'll leave you with a picture of the completed "Love is.." - have to remember to mark it off as done in my UFO-list too - and I will post a new picture when it's up on it's wall. :) Kinda hard to get a good picture when it's draped over the sofa instead of hanging on the wall.. but it's done! And that's what matters. :)

Another week..

Yup, another week has passed, and sadly (or, well, yes, maybe) most of my time and energy has been spent on my " I actually get paid for this"-job then on the things I'd like to do (like sewing and playing WoW, watching moves - and cleaning my warderobe - well, I've atleast _started_ on the last one, but it needs some more attention I guess..).

Anyway, I took a trip up to Kathrine's Quiltestue last Saturday, and came out with a couple of patterns (ofcourse..). I didn't know that Bareroots had come with mini-patterns! Cute! :D Two of them had to come with me home.. I'm thinkin Christmas presents.. maybe.. hmm..

And I found a new (I think) appliqué pattern, also by Bareroots, I just had to have. It's been a while since I've been doing any appliqué now, so I'm looking forward to making parts of this pattern. Isn't it cute?


Well, I returned yesterday - was only supposed to buy some silk thread, but these three fabrics just called my name. ;) You know the feeling, I bet. I don't know why, but they just really kinda felt like "me", and even though I'm not _quite_ sure what to use them for right now, I think that answer will come soon enough.


On Friday I got the silk threads for the second stitchery BOM from Jordbærstedet too - the pattern/print and the fabrics arrived on Tuesday, sent by my mother who'd picked them up when she was in Trondheim last weekend. I'm not going to show you the pattern/print just yet, I'm thinking of finishing my idea first - and then showing you the result. :)


I've been working on a small Tilda-stitchery too lately. This one is in need of some borders, but until I find the "perfect" fabric, it'll have to wait. :) But it turned out pretty good.


I've finished (I think - I'm considering the need for more quilting atm, but not quite sure yet) the table runner I bought in the States this summer, with the wool appliqué. It turned out nicely, I think, and I'm sure this is a keeper.


Also, 11 months (almost to the date) after starting, this "little" piece of work is finally done! It's the Bareroots wallhanging "What color is spring?" - a mix of both patchwork and stitchery. I just love it! But I think it's going to be a while until (or if) I make another one.. Lots and lots of work.. Martin (dearest BF) is being kind and holding it up for me (so that I won't have to risk my health and balancing on a chair in order to get a good picture). Now it only needs a good and available wallspace, wherever that might be.. but, this one is also a "keeper". Definitly. The 11 months speak for themselves..

Oh, why are the weeks so long (or the days at work so long and the nights at home so short) and the weekends so short? I feel like I'm never able to do or finish all the things I want to.. :/

*iiih*

*over-tired and high on popcorn, candy and "Shrek the third"*


But, then again...

*iiih*

My picture is on the Stitchery club's photopages! (The stitchery club arranged by Jordbærstedet - a store in Trondheim, btw.) Anyway, they have started this over-6-months-stitchery-club where you get one printed fabric, 4 FQ's and - if you want - a matching pack of silken threads. And you can make whatever you want from this pack - the pattern is printed, so just follow the dots and lines. They challenge you to take a picture of the result and send it to them, and they will select a winner of.. I haven't really figured that one out yet.. but might find out soon... The deadline for this first one is on September 15th.

I finished my pillow last Tuesday, took a picture on Wednesday, and now it's on their pages (well, the pages are for "members only", but I'll put it in here - coz, I'm kinda proud. I mean.. it's pink.. well, not completely pink, but, hey, I'm really not a pink person.. There is a reason why I need a flashlight to find clothes in my dresser in the morning.. *giggles*

Well, here it is - what do you think? (Never mind the crooked seams here and there - my first attempt of machine quilting a pillowcase..)

Finally, a few pictures.

Well, here they are - a few of the closer to 400 pictures we took during our 3 week trip to the States.

This is a picture taken while we were flying over Greenland - my oh my, that was COLD! We almost froze to death inside the plane.. but the view was beautiful. A little foggy picture, but, hey, I wasn't going to climb out of the plane to clean it's windows, so just bare with me on this one.


We managed to spend an evening at Medieval Times in Los Angeles - it was soooo fun! Two hours with show and food (not that I think any of us really realized what we were eating, the show was so exciting). I don't really like horses that much (find them quite scary actually) but from a distance, they were very pretty. :) We cheered for the knight in black and white, and I think our side of the arena managed to out-cheer most of the other knights' supporters pretty good. "We" won actually, but our noble knight was slayed by the traitor.. :( *sob*


Ah, Las Vegas.. *smiles* So incredible fake but also a lot of fun and oo's and aa's. :) Tons of lights, thousands of people of all ages (although the picture you often see in the movies, of elderly ladies with buckets filled with quarters is kinda wrong.. most machines only takes bills these days, and they pay out in small tickets instead of cash - you have to exchange your ticket in a machine in order to get cash). This is from outside the Bellagio - I guess you've seen this marvellous fountain before, if you've seen movies like "Ocean's Eleven" with Brad Pitt and George Clooney. A very pretty sight, I must say, the fountain that is. ;)


Did you know, that behind - or inside - the Mirage, there is a small zoo? ;) Yup, there is. With tigers and lions - and this little sleepy fellow. Some of them are late Sigfried and Roy-employees, but now they get to lay in the shade and rest most of the day. Very cool to be like 2 meters from this fellow - not that it looks like he cared much. ;)

I got a new camera earlier this week - a Nikon D40. It's a mirror reflex camera (?) - not quite what I had in mind, but it was either that or some pocket-size camera (which I already had), and I kinda wanted a "real" camera.

This is a picture of Igor - I think she's telling me off for disturbing her mischiefs. ;) My very first rat-tongue-picture! (Kinda inside-info, I guess, my rat-owning friends know what I'm talking about.) ;)


We had to go to IKEA last weekend. Our DVD-shelves were getting overfilled, plus there was this workbench-idea of ours.. Well, this is what the shelves look like now - we bought two of the skinny-looking ones in the middle, those are really for CDs, but if you adjust the shelves, they fit quite well for DVDs too.

Ah, yes, the workbench. Well, here it is. :) We're missing the pieces with the drawers, but they didn't have them in at the time (it really bugs me when that happens...), so there will be some more things added to the bench some time later (about 2-3 weeks from now I think). But it looks good, and it's a nice place to sit and work on stuff.

I (or we, since we both bought one) managed to find a new work-bag whilst in L.A. We visited Skeletons in the Closet, a giftshop located in the coroner's office. A very cool place, and run by a very very nice lady. :) There was supposed to be one in Las Vegas too, but we didn't find it and were too tired to make the biggest efford I think.. maybe next time. But the bag is cool - big and nice. Those who know me, knows how much I like the CSI-series (preferably the Las Vegas-series, but Miami isn't all that bad either).

Ah, well, this is Igor again. I guess she's trying to tell me that enough is enough - for this time. ;)

Anxiously awaiting..

a work bench? *haha*

No, not really, but I'm kinda lazy at the moment (long days at work, little energy for things not related to archiving and trying to stay awake for as long as I have to - new job-related issues, I guess) and since I'm lazy - and just finished clearing out quite a bit from the kitchen (or the place where we work on projects most of the time - me cutting, ironing and sewing and BF drawing, glue-ing and other things) I'm not quite feeling like dragging all my sewing stuff out from wherever they may be at the moment, mess up the kitchen table - only to have it cleaned up and tidy again in a couple of days.. Inspiration is not exactly the issue either, I've got tons of ideas and stuff I want to do/make, just take a look at some of the patterns I brought with me from the US, it's just that BF and I have decided to exchange our kitchen dining table (our.. like in "the houseowner put it there before we moved in and said we could use it") for a work bench. more practical - or atleast we imagine it will be.

Careful planning has been put into this, and on Saturday we're off to IKEA to buy everything we need - and my parents are going to meet us there and help us move the goods back to our apartment. The only not-so-good thing about this work bench is that it is white.. but I think we can either paint it or find/make something big enough to cover it. *hmm*

Sorry about not writing about our vacation yet, but I'm not really feeling like going through it all again so soon. Not in a bad way, but the trip was long, eventful and kinda energy consuming, so right now it's just very nice to just relax and be "at home". But, sooner or later it will come - anyways, you've all seen the goodies I bought, and that was, quite frankly, what you were interested in, right? ;p Come to think about it.. we need to sort our pictures - which ones to print out and which ones to toss..

Shoppingspree!!! :D

I decided to take pictures of my moments of insanity in quilting shops according to the shops we visited. *phew* And I think I got it right. ;)

First place I managed to stop, was at Jo Anne's in LA (they were moving to another place, I think, so everything, at the time we were there, were off 20% and would've been more had we come the next week). A nice little collection of fabrics and tools, don't you think?


The next stop I managed to make, was in Bemidji - waiting for the brothers to get out from the cinema (our movie ended an hour before their) ended up in a short stop by Wal-Mart. The last time I was there - four years ago - they had a huge pile of fabrics and supplies, too bad this year it was almost nothing.. :/ But managed to find some cute charms and finally some pins. :)


Last Monday, BF's mother and father (the father being the driver) and I took a round-trip to some "known only by word of others"-quilt stores in the Bemidji-area. The first stop was at the very cozy and small Willow Wood Market (a little hard to find when you're not familiar in the southern parts of the Bemidji-area - we stayed at Grandma's farm up north, closer to Blackduck) but really worth the trip. :) She made a lot of combinations using both cotton fabrics and wool felt. I bought a kit to make a tablerunner, and can't wait to try it.


The next stop was at another "known only by the words of other"-store called Emily's Country Cottage - and I must say I loved it! An entire town house, with attic and basement, lots of small rooms and corners crammed with fabrics, patterns, gifts, cookie cutters, candles, buttons, and and and.. you just have to see it for yourselves. ;)


Another stop by Jo Anne's - this time in the Paul Bunjan-mall or Bemidji Mall, I really don't remember what it was called, everybody just called it "the mall". A small package of 5 FQ with vintage japanese kimonoprint (or that's what it looks like to me, and is what I inted to make from them) had to come along, with some yellow. The green and the red FQ are chinese - aren't they pretty? ;) BF really likes the green one.


I had to go back to the Emily's Country Cottage-house when I saw that BF's mother had managed to find a FQ of a fabric I bought 30cm/14inches of a couple of years ago while living in Tønsberg. I loved that fabric, and could never understand why I didn't by more of it. Well, now I have a yard, and the name of the creator, the fabric no and everything needed to find it again. ;)

Emily's Country Cottage actually had two stores in Bemidji - the big house and a little cozy shop near the mall. Well, of course I had to stop by both. *giggles*


And look what waited for me in the mail when I came home!!!
On the left is the first package in the stitchery club hosted by Jordbærstedet (I think it's full.. sorry..) with a preprinted pattern, four FQs and four silken threads to match. I've just started working on it.. not quite sure what it will become yet..
Also, my pincushion from Anja had arrived! Isn't it gorgeous? Shaped like a suitcase, and it even has a small rat on the back. :D
And I got a package from Helen over at Honey Bunch Quilting, a couple of NZ fabrics and a cute quiltcard. If you ever need another box of pins, let me know. ;)


And I even managed to get some new books. ;) The two on the top are the same as shown in Jacobs Quilt.

On the bottom are two of the books I bought in the US; a book about the civil war and quilters, and a second book about the Elm Creek Quilters (I've just been over at Amazon.com and ordered three more books in this series - hooked?).

In addition to all of this, we've come home with more books, a CD, a bunch of movies, clothes and funny t-shirts. :) But I think this was what most of you would be interested in seeing, am I right? ;)