Making Memories

A very long time ago, (it seems like a hundred years or so ago,) I got married, and this year we found ourselves celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.  As a treat for putting up with each other for so long we booked a holiday we had talked of for many years.

We flew to the very north of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle and took a rather luxurious ferry for a six day trip south to Bergen.  We had the most amazing time, and saw some of the most beautiful parts of the world during the six days (see here for just a few of the thousand or so photos we took) but one of the highlights was seeing the Northern Lights

I knew that one day this image would be made into a quilt, and even bought the Kona solids from Cindy at Fluffy Sheep quilting (Cindy was amazing, I emailed her this photo and she sorted the colours for me).  And the fabrics sat on my desk waiting for me to start.

The push came when Fiona at Celtic Thistle opened up a Holiday Memories virtual quilt competition.

So I cut and stitched and pressed and cut and stitched and pressed, and unstitched and stitched, and unstitched and stitched, and then pressed and embroidered and finally finished.  It finished about 26.5 x 18 inches - as with most of my patchworks it chose the size it wanted to be - nothing to do with me!

And here is my version

 I decided to use mostly black as the nights were really dark.  The couple watching the lights were machine embroidered black on black, but I tilted the stitches at different angles so they would show as two people rather than as one. 

 

It is difficult to photograph as there is so much black.  Below is a screen shot of the embroidery of the couple.  It's not really based on Brian and I as obviously we are not in our own photos,  but I think with artistic licence it could be us, we were there after all!

The ship's railing were created by black satin stitch.

I used Bargello to create the staggered effect, and also to echo the vertical lines that were suggested by the lights themselves.   I then FMQed more almost vertical lines in three shades of green and in black to sort of drag each band of colour up into it's neighbour's band

 
The inspiration for using Bargello for this was this quilt made by Eldrid Røyset Førde who blogs at Kameleon Quilts.    If I was to make mine again I think I would use more shades of green rather than just the three

Eldrid made my all time favourite quilt, Blue Night, and she emailed me some much appreciated suggestions of things to see while we were on our trip, so it seemed very fitting that the style should be inspired by her too

** Pictures 'borrowed' from Eldrid's site, permission has been requested **

Holiday Photo Alert

Pics from my once-in-a-lifetime holiday - the one I want to do again!!!  Lots of pics, but hopefully worth looking through - I saved the best for last!

Our suite

 On deck

 

 My new friend, outside the ship's shop

The amazing Lofoton Islands - such a beautiful area

The mouth of the Troll Fjord - avalanche risk meant we couldn't enter :-(

Leaving the Arctic Circle

On the bridge

 The old fish warehouses in Bergen

Frozen waterfall

 Frozen Benta

 I did manage to find a few fabric shops

All of which was great, but the main highlight was sight of these lights in the night sky . . .

Countdown to holiday

Well the holiday is getting close enough that I've got the suitcase out of the loft!  The books and the hand sewing is all sorted - I'll start on the clothes a bit nearer the time.

Towards the end of the month we are flying to the arctic circle - then 6 days on a ship  down the west coast of Norway.  It's not quite a cruise: we are going on a sort of ferry, but it also has bedrooms.  Its one of 11 ships on the Hurtigruten line.  It is a working ferry - for some people it is the way to get to visit grandma in the next town, or to attend a hospital appointment, there are 11 of the ships, and the round trip is 11 days, so each town (36 of them) gets visited by a south-bound and a north-bound ferry every day.  They have been going since 1895 (don't worry, our ship isn't *that* old) and went every day even when Norway was occupied by the Germans during WWII.  We love Norway, and both would love to see the northern lights, and this year we celebrate our silver wedding anniversary - so we reckon we deserve a treat for putting up with each other for so long!

Fabrics From Half a World Away

Last night I sat and watched TV and finished hand sewing the binding onto Stained Down Under (which should really be known as The Australian Quilt)  it has taken a year to finish as it spent several months in the I'm-fed-up-with-this-quilt box, but I'm really pleased its finished - I love it!

HUGE Thank You to Sarah who came up with the design and encouraged and cajoled several of us to make our own versions, and to my lovely Sister in Law, Lisa, who took me to every fabric shop within a 100 mile radius of their home in Sydney, and waited patiently while I bought the fabrics.

This quilt is now on the sofa waiting for me to finish on the computer and snuggle under it watching something decent on TV.

I was finishing the binding while I was watching the Arctic Ice Hotel being built on Channel 5.  I've seen it before but I was especially interested in how the workers were dressed, how they were keeping warm  . . . next month himself and I are off to the Arctic circle, and will then have 6 nights on this ship

sailing down the west coast of Norway.  I'm slightly excited!