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Another month gone

We have passed summer solstice, and winter is comming (in a few months). With the speed of the passing days, that is not so far away. The society has started to open, people are on holidays, even abroad. Nobody knows what the autumn will bring. The Health Institute warn about a new breakout of Corona in the autumn, so we’d better be prepared.

In the meantime, life goes on. My theme for the June book was of course the Summer solstice, and we had some really hot days. So my book is filled with suns! Or circles in different sizes and yellow colours, even the spine is yellow. And I could use this varigated yellow thread I dyed ages ago but could not find use for.

the front:

This print with compressed sponge at the back reminds me so much of close up photos of the sun:

I also finally got back my entry for the Norwegian National Quilting competition. I did not win, but that is ok. I got a chance for a feedback from fellow quilters.

My quilt is a hommage to my favorite flower in the garden, Meconopsis betonicifolia, when the sun is out and it opens the flowers, it is just «Days Like This»

Some years ago I got some of my photos printed on cotton at Fingerprints, Laura Kemshall. This is one, surrounded by rust dyed fabric. Machine and hand quilted and embroidered.

I made a second one, using another photo, also printed at Fingerprints, this one is surrounded by eco dyed fabric, machine and hand quilted and embroidered. This is called «That Day»:

I hope you have enjoyed this little update from my studio. Take care and keep distance.

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I Love Tulips!

I really love tulips with their many shapes patterns and colours. And May in my garden was filled with tulips. I first fell in love with the flower when I read about the history of tulips and my home town Bergen.

A young Doctor, Henrik Höjer, travelled to the University of Leiden, Holland to take his examen. There he met and befriended Charles de L’Ecluse. When he moved back to Bergen three years later, 1596, he brought with him many bulbs and thus introduced the tulip to Norway. He continued to receive bulbs from Charles de L’Ecluse for years to come.

There even is a tulip that only exist in Norway, named Tulipa norvegica.

So it was natural for me to use tulips as my theme for the May book. I picked up all my tulip stamps and sprayed, printed and draw tulips on a big sheet of paper:

After cutting it up and made a book of it the result is like this:

I have also working on some ideas from my design wall, trying to get together some new quilts. Back on my Dragonfly theme, this first one is a piece of paper used to blot of some printing and painting:

I thought it would be a great background for some machine embroidery, so I bonded it to wadding, and surrounded it with strips of old sari-silk. I have never used paper in my works before, so this is a try and learn. Will the paper hold all the stitching from the machine embroidery? Time will show. It is up on the design wall while I figure out how to proceed.

The next one has been waiting for a year for me to proceed. I tried to bleach the sari strips used, but it didn’t work, so I painted it instead. The dragonfly is free machine stitched, and painted as well. Now I have to deal with the background, what to do next.

As you see, they can end up well or be total failures. Time will show.

I hope you have enjoyed this glipse into my creative life.

Enjoy your summer, keep distance and be safe.

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Halfway through May already!

We’re halfway through May already! Sorry for the late update of April, but I’ve been busy taking care of my garden after winter. And since April has been filled with the comming of new life., my April-book is filled with prints using new leaves from the garden, both directly and some gelli-prints with the leaves as stencils. Not so many to choose from as it was still early spring, but I used the few I could find. Unfortunately, I was halfway through cutting my sheet of paper when I rembered to take a photo:

And here are the finished Book of April:

Corona is still affecting our daily life, even if the society has slowly started to open up.

I have been enjoying Bobby Britnells on-line course «Inspired by Ben Nicholson» and here are some of my results:

    My prints on textile are still on my design-wall waiting to be processed.

    I hope you have enjoyed this little update from my studio.

    Stay safe and enjoy life!

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    Corona and spring

    Two weeks ago, I were supposed to be in Stavanger for the annual meeting for the Norwegian Quilt Association. I had sendt in two quilts for the exhibition and one to the competition. Then came Corona and everything shut down. The meeting has been postponed and my two quilts for the exhibition are on their way home. My entry for the competition now awaits new time for the meeting, hopefully somtime in the autumn.

    I cannot show you my quilt for the competition, but the two for the exhibition I can

    This first one is called «Light and Backlight». It is in two parts, Cotton and silk, machine and hand quilted. It is a rather personal quilt, because the danser is ME! Way back in my youth!!! But still a part of my history, I danced classical ballet for about 18 years, back in the 70’s. The last years in one of those little «free» dancing groups which appeared outside the established companies at that time. I used an old photograph and traced. The grey cotton fabric, a reused sofa-cover, together with a little too soft wadding gave me some troubles. Even if the quilting is rather even it was almost impossible to get those clean straight bindings. It is too soft and I have to live with that.

    My other quilt is a re-use of one of my very first, and not so good quilts from 2002.

    Originaly it was my first attempt at Barghello. Last spring I decided to sacrifice it, tried first to bleach it, but the fabrics didn’t want to give up any colours. So instead I painted the background, machine-embroidered and painted the dragonfly and handstitched the background. It is based on a haiku by Matsuo Basho:

    This dragonfly

    can’t quite land

    on that blade of grass.

    We had an early spring this year, and March was filled with beautiful crocuses, so of course my March book had to be filled with crocuses. As I started by drawing, stencilling and printing.

    Cut it all in pages and made myself another book:

    Front
    The binding
    and the back

    Now I have to find a theme for my April book. Wait and see….

    I hope you all are well wherever you are in the world, we shall manage this. Take care!

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    Looking at old ideas with new eyes.

    In february I have been visiting an old friend, the beautiful Oseberg Viking ship. Here in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

    Following the building of the copy they made in Tønsberg some years ago, named Saga Oseberg, from the start

    until it was finished

    I have collected quite a lot of inspirational photos and other materials, and now I want to look at it all with new eyes. I made some new stamps,

    collected some of my old stampa as well, printed them randomly on a large sheet of paper, cut it and made myself another little sketchbook:

    Now as we enter March I will continue working with my Viking heritage, but I have some other plans as well.

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    New year – new inspiration

    Last day of January already! I started the year by finishing several projects. First, I made the last pieces for my internationel group project with TexNet2. Our first exhibition will be at the European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in September.

    Next I made the finishing touches on some quilts for the Norwegian Quilters Association’s meeting in March. Unfortunately, I can not share these with you yet.

    But I have also been working on some new inspiration, first, just playing around with scraps and thread, some Slow stitchhing:

    I don’t know where this will lead me, time will show.

    And I spent most of january studying stones in my garden, at the beach and in the neighbourhood, drawing with Fineliner and Inktense pencils. First I just filled a large sheet with random drawings:

    which I then cut up and made into a little «Stone Book», with the possibility to fill in more later:

    It is a small book, only 9,5×9,5 cm. But I love the format.

    I have made myself a promise to publish here a little more often, I just hope I can fulfil that promise…

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    New Concertina sketchbooks

    I love concertina sketchbooks. Some years ago I made several like this:

    and this spring I have filled one of them with paint and snippets of photos taken in my old garden, as a memory:

    the back is printed using stencils and gelliplates

    Yesterday I decided it was time to make some new ones. I started by cutting long strips of Fabriano 160g paper:

    folding them:

    and make some nice covers:

    The blue and the golden one are covered with some nice handmade japanese paper I bought in London a few years ago. The two in front I’ve made for me and my sister to use in our holidays. They have a nice thin gift vrapping paper as cover.

    I did cut and fold 6 books, but have only covered 4 so far. Now I just have to fill them with summer memories and maybe ideas for new work…

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    Back again

    It has been more than a year since my last entry, and much has happened since then. Most of the year I have been working hard to finish my accredited course in Machine Embroidery, level 3. My final piece were this Muff, the design inspired by the Oseberg Viking ship

    .The back is decorated with a row of old knives

    and it is lined with fur to keep my hands warm.

    After a long winter, it looks like spring is finally here. These crocuses are popping up through the icy ground

    even though the rest of the garden is still covered in snow.

    One of the things I have been working on lately are these Dragonflies. I digitized some drawings, my machine embroidered them and finally I painted them to make them stand out from the background.

    I will try to be a bit more active here on my site, I am also working on some changes. I hope you like what you see.

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    Update from my studio

      

    Last year I made this row of trees inspired by the pattern on an old Egyptian bowl. And the last couple of days I’ve been playing with them and try to fit them in my new wallhanging.

    First I made a quick sketch to get my ideas on paper. Next I scanned the original drawing and fed it to my 6D Design Creator, and one of the options I was presented with was this stylised version. I liked it so much that I had to let my embroidery machine do a bit of work:

    I have also started on another version, using freehand embroidery on water solluble plastic, and I guess time will show what comes out of this.

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    Studio update

    Just a short update on my studio. It is now finished, the outdoor needs a bit more painting before winter is here. I’m just waiting for the right weather.

    studio-update-3

    These windows on the side wall gives me good working light and no sun. They are facing north.

    studio-update-1

    And inside I have just finished painting the last coat on the floor so I can’t go in and take more photos. But it is just an empty room.

    studio-update-2

    This weekend I will start moving in all my boxes. And I need to get some shelves and other furniture as well. But finally I can move in.