Views from Trondheim

Tomorrow it is time to continue this year's vacation to another city. We're going further south, to Skien, my husband's home town. But before we go, I would like to share a few pictures from my stay here in Trondheim. On Sunday we went to an area called Bakklandet (only in Norwegian, sorry!) for coffee and cakes. I had a delicious brownie and a cookie. Afterwards we continued our walk through that neighbourhood and discovered a Sunday-open bookstore (not usual) which was going to get rid of 5000 books and sold a lot of them for NOK 10,- (1.5 USD). I'm sorry I hadn't room in my suitcase to buy anything
On our walk to our destination, a family restaurant, we spotted these lovely flowers.
The next picture shows a decoration detail from inside the restaurant. What was really funwas that I met a neighbour from over 30 years ago. I didn't recognize her at first, but she recognized my mother and when she introduced herself, I remembered her. She is the person I have my earliest memory about. I was only 5 when I saw her last time!
The next picture shows a view of Trondheim, and the restaurant we visited is situated in the tower, 74 meters up!
Yesterday and today I visited a couple of quilting shops. Had to buy new needles and ended up with a little bit more;-)

Now we're heading further south.

Inga

Holiday crafts

When I'm travelling, I usually get a lot of crafting done. The potholders from the last post are already done and I've done a lot on my next project. A couple I know is getting married later this summer and I've decided to make them a special gift. I'm knitting towels and today I found the perfect soap with lovely hearts that matches the towels perfectly. I hope to finish the first towel in a couple of days.

My mother has found another treasure for me. She gave me all these wonderful fabrics that you see in the second picture. Some of them are flanels, but there are several lovely cotton fabrics also. Tomorrow we are going to do some tidying in the attic and I suspect there will be more lovely finds I can share with you later.

Normally I buy a lot of fabrics and sewing accessories when I visit my mother. There are several nice shops here in Trondheim, but since I know I'm going to far more exciting textile areas later this summer, I've decided to wait spending all my money until later. (If you want to know where I'm going, just continue reading the blog for the next month;-) )But I found a lovely knitting encyclopedia at a nice price, so I couldn't resist it.


I've been tagged at least three times the last week, and I will try to follow it up, but since I'm only at dial up connection for the moment, you have to wait a bit until I follow up those tags. I hope you also are patient about me commenting on your blogs. Next week, when we continue our journey, I will be on a ADSL connection for a while, and I will try to catch up with you.

Inga

On the go

I'm on the go at the moment. Because of the appendectomy earlier this month, we had to reschedule our holiday. That means we will be gone for a whole month from today. First part of the trip is spent in Trondheim where my mother lives. To get there, we had to take an airplane to Oslo! That's 500 kilometres south of Trondheim. After one and a half hour we took a plane from Oslo to Trondheim. That's the prize of living above the Arctic Circle, I guess. I don't mind waiting in airports, in fact I enjoy buying fancy magazines, having a glass of wine and doing airline-secure crafts ;-) (no scissors or sewing needles). When standing in line to pay for the magazine, I spotted some incredibly cute hankies with red hearts on (in the back of the picture). I thought they were very expensive, but they didn't cost more than normal plain ones. The knitting in front in the picture is a pair of potholders I'm knitting as a houswarming gift for a friend of mine.


When I came to my mother's appartment, she had a surprise for me. As a belated birthday gift I got a vintage handbag that once was a gift from my father to her. I remembered I really wanted that one when I was a small girl. I still find it adorable!


Inga

New afghan in progress

I would like to share a project I've been working on for a couple of months. The pattern for the afghan was published in the Norwegian magazine Allers earlier this year and I fell totally in love with it at first sight. I'm making it with my favorite yarn, the Baby Wool from Dale. It's the same yarn I make my mittens with. At the moment I've made 102 out of 247 blocks, and 5 of 19 rows are assembled. I've even secured all the thread ends!

As you may have noticed, my blog's look is changing again. Nothing dramatic, but small changes that will make it more ME and less BLOGGER. I hope to change the background and heading with personalized images. I'm just waiting for the licence key to the new Adobe Master Collection, so I can play around with the new Illustrator and Photoshop. It's a real bargain because of my student status. 80% off or something....

I've also added a couple of new links. Please check out Allsorts and Bemused
where I've found so much inspiration lately.

Inga

A finish or two

I'm happy to report a couple of finishes. The first one is a curtain designated for the window in the wardrobe. The wardrobe redecoration has been going on for a couple of years now, and I hope to finish it before Christmas........

Here I'm modelling the curtain on my studio window, and I'm tempted to leave it there, but no! My studio will have a red and white theme when I'm finished with it, so I have to make another curtain matching that colour scheme. But I like how the curtain came out and it will suit the redecorated wardrobe perfectly. (By the way, this picture makes me painfully aware of the need of a white coating on the upper part of the window).

The second picture shows my version of May-Britt's pincushion. It didn't take long and was quite simple to do. So check it out.

Inga

Heidi's work

Remember the handsewn card I got for my birthday? Heidi, a friend and clarinet-playing colleague, was the master of that. Yesterday she came to visit and we had a long and nice chat while working on our crafting projects. She brought with her a couple of projects she works on at the moment.

I want to share her latest patchwork project with you. I think it is marvellous! I don't know the designer's name, but it's from a Norwegian book. It's handpieced the English way, and I love her way of using colours. She has been very uncertain about the project, but I'm convinced that it will become a great quilt when finished. Now she's going to pick out all the templates and baste it. Then she'll bring it here once again so we can figure out how she's going to quilt it.

Well done, Heidi!

(Photo: My husband)


Inga

Hi there!

Hi there! I'm still alive, in case you've wondered. Too much life going on lately, including three exams, two solo perfomances and an appendectomy. But now I'm returning back to my normal strength working in the garden and taking walks.

One month ago I celebrated my 40th anniversary. 25 girls showed up and we had a good time with nice food, lots of wine and great talks. I got lots of nice presents. In the picture you see a part of my gift table. The box contains 7 gorgeous silks and linens, 4 spools of my favorite silk thread and two spools of ordinary thread. My friend Ingrid conspired with two other friends, Yumi and Heidi, and ordered the fabric from Stockholm. It's sooooo beautiful! If I only knew what to make of them. Maybe a hand bag? Heidi even handpieced the card to the right. Behind the bottles you see a card made by one of my former students. She had glued crocheted granny squares onto paper and made a lovely card for me. I even got a birthday cake made of paper, fabric, lace and buttons. You could lift the top and inside the cake I found:

fabric :-D


At the moment I'm crocheting. My new dining room curtains need ribbons. I've made two and a half ribbons. Only one and a half left. Not the most exciting work, but it looks nice when done.

See you around

Inga