Weekend job and 'winter' approaching

It feels like yesterday we all complained about the heat and humidity.

'Winter' is approaching - I love this time of the year! Situated 20 degrees South of Equator, it never snows here of course, but the temperatures may go as low as 8 C (46F) in July/August. I love the crisp air and cooler days - reminds me of Norway.

April 14th is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. I don't think the day is celebrated anymore among Norwegians.... Tamil New Year was celebrated here this April 14th. I don't know if there is a connection between the Tamil New Year's celebration and the first day of summer in Norway.... You can read more about Tamil New Year here. 

Sunset between Corps de Garde and St. Pierre Mountain.

Batting and backing for the bedcover. I hate doing this, but a quilt will never be finished if this part isn't done! :)) I tape the backing to the table so that it doesn't move... Not the table, the backing! :)) Then I put the batting and the top, pin, and....

... ready for quilting.

I didn't have enough safety pins so I sent DH to town buying 100 pins! :) It's not that he had to go buying the pins only, he had other errands too.

This photo was taken some days ago. Yesterday I finished the quilting and this weekend I'm going to do the binding.

I can't believe it! I've received another Award - this one from 'Lappedamen'!

As I said in this post, I find it very difficult to choose other blogs that deserve an Award. There are SO MANY great blogs and crafty bloggers in Blogland, so in a way it won't be fair to choose a few only.

I have seen quite some bloggers who say 'no thank you' to Awards, but personally I feel childish honored that I can be to any inspiration to others, and by that I do add the received Awards to my blog.

Therefore - if YOU feel you deserve this Award, please grab it and add it to your blog!

YOU deserve it!

It's such a beautiful morning; 20C (68F), blue sky and crisp air.

I'm ready for the garden!

Star Burst Mystery Quilt

I'm doing a 'mystery quilt'!

Susan-Claire at 'Gourmet Quilter' is doing a 'mystery quilt' called 'Star Burst'.

I have never done any 'mystery quilt' before, so I thought I'll give it a try. Susan-Claire suggests black background fabric, but I have chosen charcoal - kind of marble - and 12 contrasting fabrics. She suggests olive and dark blue as two of the contrasting fabrics, but I found them not contrasting enough to the charcoal, so I'm using dusty blue and chartreuse insted.

The 'mystery quilt' started in the beginning of March, but since I've been busy with other projects, it was first a couple of days ago I did part 1 - the stars - 12 blocks.

I did part 2 over the last couple of days. PHEW!!! That was a lot of cutting! If I've done the mathematic right, part 2 consists of 336 pieces!

When I had done part one, I was a bit 'worried' the quilt would concist of stars only, but then part 2 came with a nice surprise! I do love this block - quite untraditional - if you ask me. Now I can't wait for part 3 that comes in the beginning of May! I've never done any quilt with black background, but after doing part 1 and 2, I find it interesting and I'm sure it's going to be a nice quilt! I'm quite excited about it! :)

Thanks to Sigrun who introduced me to it! :)

During the weekend I did - basted - the binding to the 'disappearing 9-patch' quilt. When I intended to sew the binding, Birre-liten decided the flannel (backing) is just so soft and wonderful to sleep on! He'd spent the whole day outside - must have been exhausted - so I let him sleep there and did some tidying instead. :)

Alouette's Quilt (UFO) finished

'Alouette's Quilt' is finished - at last!

It took much more time than expected, because I had to wait 7 weeks for the batting and backing to arrive from the US! Usually it takes 10-14 days for a flat rate envelope to arrive, but this time..... Oh well, I am happy it DID arrive!

If you have been a reader of my blog for some time, perhaps you will remember it all started here - the pinwheel blocks that turned out bigger than they should to match some other blocks for this quilt.

The 'error-blocks' were put away - I was fed up! :) In the beginning of this year I decided it must be possible to make something out of these blocks - and it turned out to be 'Alouette's Quilt'.

This is my own design. I must confess I am proud how it turned out! I almost ended up with headache, so much thinking how to do it! I have used fabrics from my stash, but had to buy batting (flannel and backing). I forgot to take a photo of the backing. It's quite cute; pink with small dots in blue, yellow and red. Oh, here's the link to see the backing. I've used several pink, green, blue and yellow fabrics and Beatrix Potter fabrics. I didn't have enough pink for the binding, so after some 'brain work' I decided to use yellow in the corners. These fabrics are the same as I have used in the pinwheel blocks.

I had to use some fabrics with dots on the short sides, because I ran out of the star fabrics.

For the quilting, I've stitched in the ditch, using Superior King Tut threads.

When I worked on the quilt I called it 'little girl quilt', but I think 'Alouette' is a nice name - it's French and translated it means skylark (the bird - lerke in Norwegian).

I'm sorry the photos are not good. I can't do close-ups with the simple digital camera I have, it always turns out blurred. The photos do not give justice to the quilt and its colors.

PS - my birthday is approaching (in June) - I have to pester DH for a new camera! :))