Norway

Our cruise took us from Southampton in England through the English Channel across the North Sea to Norway.
First stop way Flåm at the Aurlandsfjord. There we took a trip with the Flåmsbana, a railway line that goes over a distance of 20km to 863m above sea level. It is the steepest standard gauge railway line in Europe and has very beautiful sights to see.
One of the stops is at the Kjosfossen waterfall and just when we stopped there the sun came out and made this beautiful rainbow.

Second stop was Skjolden. We didn't take any of the official trips offered but walked up to a viewing point 120m above sea level. Looking back the Indepences of the Seas doesn't look that big after all.

 We also hiked to a fantastique water fall (there were lots and lots of waterfalls ...)

In Olden, our next stop, our weather luck turned and we had rain. Cold rain! The whole time! Still, we did a trip to one of the side arms of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, the largest glacier in continental Europe.

The next day brought as closer to civilization again and to Ålesund. The weather improved and we had great views.

Next and final stop before returning to England was in Stavanger, where we visited the Sverd i fjell monument, three, 10m tall swords rammed into the rock in memory of the Battle of Hafrsfjord (around 872) when Norway was united for the first time under one king.

Of course, there was much more to this trip, but I just don't have the room here to show you all of my pictures.

Also, this was not just a normal cruise, but this was a Quilting Cruise, so next time I will show you some of the things I made on the two days we had courses.

Independence of the Seas

The 'Independence of the Seas' was the first cruise ship I've been traveling on, and now I might be a bit spoiled for any other possible cruises in the future.
For once, the Independence is big. Really, really big.

With 3600 passengers and 1350 crew there are also a lot of people on board, but thanks to the size of the ship, you normally don't notice.

There's a lot of entertainment, starting with three swimming pool areas, a rock climbing wall, tennis court, mini golf, theater (with very good  shows twice per evening)

 And, of course, there's food. Lots of it and all the time. And most of it also very good (my only complaint would be that there was no decent rolls at breakfast, but that's really nitpicking) 

All in all, a very pleasurable way to spend a vacation.

Teaser

I've been on vacation last week :)

As I won't have the time to work much with the photos until next weekend, here just one very quick teaser.

Yes, I've been on a cruise. And even though I'm not yet 60+ I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it very much.

I promise, there will be more later ....

Rhubarb 2013

I tried to repeat the experiment from last year, making rhubarb-banana jam. Only, this time it didn't come out the same way as last time.
First, the rhubarb juice turned out a bit on the weak side - the sirup I made from it only seems to have a hint of the fruit (okay, I know, technically, rhubarb is a veggie, but I disgress). Then the bananas were just about ripe (as in not ripe enough). And the lemon zest I've used came on pretty strong.
I'm not saying that the jam is bad ... it's just not as good as the last time I made this.
As I also had a mango I needed to use up, and some strawberries, I've also made a rhubarb-mango-strawberry jam. This one didn't want to gel in the first round, so I dumped it all back in to the cooking pot and added lemon acid and more pectin and now you could cut butter with it.

 For a very good friend, who's birthday was this week, I made potholders. For me, they would be a bit on the large side (they turned out 28cm across), but my friend said they are the perfect size for her husband.

Stars and Rainbows

The latest update on the 'Oh My Stars!' quilt.

I now have 8 large stars, 21 of the medium size and 50 of the small ones. Following the pattern, that means I still have 32 stars to make: 7 large, 7 medium and 18 of the small ones.

Yesterday evening I was looking out of the window and saw a lovely rainbow.

I've always been facinated by rainbows. Perfection (as they represent a section of a perfect circle) and beauty in one. Love them.

Scrappy Scrap Baskets

I'm made a couple of fabric baskets to hold my scraps. And I used scraps. Basically, everything bigger than a square inch was fair game.

The bottom is jeans fabric, the lining linen. The size is around 4 to 5 inches squared and about 3 to 4 inches high.

And as I also needed something to hold my thread spools, I made an extra one...

Shades of Blue

Some knitting for a change.
The patten is called 'Shades of Truth' by Laura Aylor. I used Wollmeise Twin in the colors black, nature, 47Ag, Blaue Tinte and Wolke.

However, when I put the finished shawl into the sink for washing, the dark blue bled onto the white. Still wet, I put it then into the washing machine and used a color catching tissue, in the hope it would get the blue spots out. The blue spots are gone now, but the whole white section in now a pale grey (here in comparison with the original yarn)

 It's not super terrible, but at the moment it does annoy me. I'm thinking about riping, but am not there yet.
Basically, I still like the shawl, but it does does look kinda ... dirty, not clean, at the moment.

Important lesson - pre-wash darker shades of hand dyed yarn before knitting. Repeatedly. Especially when mixing it with white.

Partial Eclipse of the Moon

On Thursday night, we had a very lovely moonrise:

But there was still another show in the starting blocks - a partial eclipse of the moon. I admit, as lunar eclipses go it wasn't super impressive - the moon was only for about 2% of it's surface in the Earth's umbra - but as the weather was so nice, I still took a couple of pictures.
The series below was taken between 21:12 and 22:53, one shot roughly every 10 minutes. I used fixed apperture (5.6) and exposure length (1/800) for all pictures.
I plugged the pictures into Photoshop and enventually managed to create this composite.

You can just about see the umbra scraping along the upper edge of the moon.

By the way, did you know that the fact that the Earth's shadow shows up as a circle on the moon (when you have a bit larger coverage of course), was, among other things they observed, proof already for Plato and Aristoteles that the Earth was a sphere.

Big Reveal

Some time ago I gave you a sneak peek of a quilting project I was working on at that time.
Now that the intentend recipient finally received the finished quilt, I can show you what I was doing. It's a scappy nine-patch / hourglass quilt in blues and aqua. The pattern was in a magazine but I would need to search, which one it actually has been.

I used a charm pack and (mostly) farbic from my stash. For the backside I used a lovely blue fabric with little golden dots all over, which I picked up in the closing sale of the patchwork store I just had discovered barely a month before it closed it's doors forever *darn*

The quilting itself was simple straight lines in the diagonal, so nothing fancy, but the pattern didn't need anything fancy and I'm very happy with the outcome.

Making Stars

When I make the stars for the 'Oh My Stars!' quilt, I usually make them in groups.
One 3 1/4" stripe of the white fabric makes for 8 of the small stars, with a 5 1/4" stripe I'm getting enough for 6 middle sized stars and a 7 1/4" wide stripe is good for at least 3 large stars. So, instead of making one star at the time, I'm making 8, 6 or 3 stars in one go.

This is all the material I need for 8 small stars:

I mark the smaller of the blue fabrics on the back side and pin them to the larger of the white squares.

 After sewing along the marked lines, I cut between the two seams. I now have 16 triangles.

 I iron them open and attach the remaining blue squares.

After sewing those, I cut again between the seems, iron them flat and trim them to the correct size (1 1/2" to 2 1/2" in case of the small stars).

In the end all that remains is to sew on the smaller white squares for the corners and the other pieces to the center part and, voilá, 8 stars are done.

Current status: 50 stars are done (large: 4, middle: 15, small 31). Only 61 more to go ....

Oh My Stars!

Okay, there's a new quilting / patchwork project in the works. Officially this is a quilt along, but I'm not going to be too obsessed about that. Anyway, it 'started' in November 2011, so I'm probably way out of the time frame given for the quilt along.
I found the project while I was browsing for quilts with star patterns and came across one that simply blew me away. I searched for the pattern and was overjoyed that it's a freebie - who doesn't love a freebie? Now, of course, I can't find the original quilt, but hey, that's life.

Anyway, I've started with the stars. At the moment I'm planing on doing only the simple basic star pattern and so far I like what I got, but I might change my mind sometime in the future.
Of the 111 stars needed for the smaller of the two quilts (which is what I'm aiming for right now) I've got 28 put together (of which 26 just fit on my table). Main color - obviously - is blue, but I'll throw in a couple of yellow/orange stars in to lighten the whole thing up a bit.

I've also made some prgress on the blackwork chess board. 8 fields done, 24 to go:

Happy Easter 2013

Hard to beleave it's already Easter. The weather certainly hadn't got the memo yet. It snowed on Friday morning!
Well, if the nature doesn't comply, one has to get the spring inside:

I did start a new stitching project. At the moment I'm planing on a chess board layout, using different blackwork pattern in every other square. The fabric is a 36ct antique white linen evenweave I had im my stash. 

The first square is already done:

On my knitting project I finished the first section and am now in the second. 53 rows at 280 stitches. Oh joy!

Scissor Fob

I bought the kit for this some time ago in Scottland, but somehow only got around stitching it up lately.

Love it! No idea why I left it for so long.

Next project in the works is a wrap inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect. I did go to visit his home in Chicago a long time ago, when I visited the USA for the very first time. I loved what he did ever since. The wrap also could have been inspired by Piet Mondrian, the painter, as it's very geometrical.

Those are the colors I've picked for the wrap (all of them Wollmeise Twin)

 

 Below the color layout of the wrap:

Three of a Kind

I came across this tutorial for a lunch bag some time ago and always wanted to give it a try. And a try I did give it. Or two. Or three....

Version 1 uses some fabric I picked up at Ikea plus a gray lining and a few red accents. It was from the start a gift for a good friend and moved to its new owner yesterday. I'm sure it will end up with plenty of knitting projects in the future.

Version 2 (aka the Ladybug Lunch Bag) is actually going to be used as a lunch bag by me. The inside is lined with the same plastic fabric I used for the rim, so when I take my lunch to work and something spills it will be easy to wipe down. 

For version 3 (the Scappy Lunch Bag) I used a few scraps I had left from my last couple of projects. I sewed the scraps on some foundation fabric until I had two pieces a little larger than what I needed for the bag. I then cut it down to size and used it for the pattern.

Strangely enough, I have still scraps left (though not that many in blues, now)

This bag is also going to a friend.

And The Winner Is

I know, you all can barely contain your excitement, so, here's the layout for the pillow I decided on:

Sadely, the pillow is about half an inch too big for the inside pillow (inside pillow is 40cm, the pillow itself ended up being 41.5cm), so maybe I'll make another one. I also, possibly would change the beige/brown farbic, as it turns out to be a rather muddy/dirty brown.
Hm, I think I had a car in just that color, once ....

Variations

My friend 'complained' that she only has one pillow when she's visiting me. This was of course something I couldn't let stand, so I had to make a new pillow.
As I have a lot a scraps, I decided to make 36 little squares, with one side a beige farbic, the other side a little scrap of blue. Then I had to decide how to arrange them.
So many possibilities:

So, which one did I pick?

Come on, take a guess.



The Final (Guitar) Frontier

One of Michael's items on his wishlist this year was a book with notes for his guitar.
I got that, but I also wanted to MAKE something for him. I remembered one of the fabrics I picked up on the Creativ Market in Wiesbaden last year.
There was only one fat quarter left at the stall and Michael let me buy it, even though he was interested in it as well. A fat quarter is not much, but it was enough for the idea I had, and so he's now getting a guitar strap with a very spacy theme.

I bought a ready made guitar strap and dismantled it to get to the hardware. Then I sewed a stripe 5cm wide (2"), one side with the space fabric and the other side with some black with golden dots. Worked very well together. Some interfacing inbetween, a bit of quilting and finished.

I hope he likes it.

Sneak Peek

I'm working on something.
But it's going to be a gift.
So I can't show you really.
Only a little peek.

Ich Habe Fertig

I actually finished a big knitting project.

The Austin Hoodie in Wollmeise Pure 'Chim Chim Chimney' and just a little bit of Wollmeise Twin 'Frühling' for the edges. Though I only have a picture of one half of the cardi I promise to you I have also knitted the other half.
Even though I used sock yarn, the cardi is surprisingly warm. And compfy. And it fits. I'd have liked maybe another inch or so in length, but other than that, I'm very happy.

Snow on the Bastei

The Bastei is probably the most famous rock formation in the Saxony Swiss.
Very beautiful normally, it becomes downright stunning when the right conditions come together.
As they did last Wednesday: