Annual Spring Report 2023

It’s May 1st again, and time to check on the progress of spring.

We had a quite rainy and mild winter until March arrived with lots of snow and cold temperatures. April gave us some sunny weather, although cold at night. It is not often we see deep all-over snow disappear solely by the help of sunshine around here, – usually it is the wind and rain that gets the job done. We had a warm spell, so the woods suddenly turned into that beautiful spring green colour. The photo above is what it looked like about ten days ago.

Since then the weather has been more or less like in the photos above, with some short sunny spells which luckily melted away the white layers during daytime.

So the green has not progressed much, – it is more or less like it was ten days ago.

The borders of narcissi have large yellow buds, but the plum trees, or what is left of them, have no leaves or flowers yet. Just as well, as no bees or other insects are out and about during the showers of snow and hail anyway.

The narcissi by the south wall are in full bloom, but have been partly beaten down by the north wind and hail.

There are still more than 30 tulips by the other south wall. I think we planted a lot of reds, but yellow is now the dominant colour. The small group of tulips in the second photo was planted more than 30 years ago, and a few of them turn up still, – mostly yellow as well. We can also be very sure that the weeds will turn up, – every year. I persuade myself that it is not a bad thing altogether, as these are edible, and are full of vitamins and minerals and other good stuff. So if there is a famine, they might save our lives.

The white anemones pop up all over the socalled lawn, which we will not mow till the grass is quite long, and also the cuckoo flowers have had a chance to bloom. Lots of food for the bees.

Not a single rhododendron bush has shown its colour yet, not even the early red ones. We have a lot to look forward to still. The spirea bush has large buds, – compared to the size of the blooms, that is. The cherry laurel also has lots of buds.

We planted this primula last year, and I am happy that it has survived. Love the colour.

As usual, the flowering currant has been in bloom for a few weeks now, – lots of flowers this year.

The forsythia bush is also still in bloom, poor thing. It is quite old, but has always been a bit thin and straggly, – maybe the spot is too windy. It is still alive, though.

And here is another optimist popping its head up. Not many around yet, but there will be more. Although it is late this year, spring, and then summer, will eventually come.

🙂

Eldrid

Sewing from Fabric samples

Some time ago I received a message from one of my nieces. At her workplace they were about to throw away some older fabric samples, and she wondered if I could make use of some of them.

I happily accepted to take everything she got, and here is the lot, released from the books and cards they were fastened to. They were mostly curtains and upholstery fabrics, which are heavier than ordinary quilting fabrics, and with lots of interesting textures.

I chose this two tone twill weave to start with. After scrubbing away the paper backing, I cut off all the pinked edges, and made sure all the rectangles were exactly the same size. Then I separated the sample pieces into piles of dark, medium and light, and one pile with pieces that had a bit more colours in them than the beiges and greys which dominated the sample collection.

I arranged the three different piles in a 3 by 4 grid, and also put some of the coloured patches into the layout. The samples measured 12 by 16 cm, so each group layout ended up as a 48 cm square.

I drew a full scale simple pattern: a large circle touching the edges, with a smaller circle inside, then a large pie shape that intersected the two circles. Then I drew the mirrored pattern on three pieces of paper backed fusible web. I also drew the 3 by 4 grid, and the outer edges.

I turned the diffferent groups of samples upside down, and ironed the fusible web to the back side of the samples, taking care to line up the grid lines exactly between the patches.

I cut along the pattern lines, and then turned the pieces right side up, keeping the same groups for now.

Then I had some fun shifting the different pattern pieces from one group to another. I played around for a while till I was satisfied with the effect.

Then I removed the paper from the back of the pattern pieces and placed each group onto a fabric backing, taking care to line up the grid and pattern lines. Then they were ironed to the backing, and I could sew the patches down with a double zigzag stitch, using a dark grey thread.

I decided to make the panels into three cushions. The samples came with one fairly large piece in one of the beige colourways, so I used that to make zippered backings for the cushions.

And here they are, resting on the sofa.

🙂

Eldrid

Memories coming together

Three years ago, just before the Covid19 pandemic hit, we were on holiday in Morocco. While staying mainly on the coast, we also took an inland trip all the way to Tinghir at the outskirts of the Sahara desert.

We visited the impressive Todra Gorge just north of the town, and while there, husband was approched by a small Amazigh (Berber) boy, who gave him a horse made from a palm leaf, shown in the picture below. Apparently, this is something most children there know how to do, – also in the likeness of other animals.

Husband thought it was cute, so he put it inside a book, and it came home with us. I did not quite know what to do with it, so it stayed pinned to one of my design boards until this autumn.

On our previous trips to Morocco I had noticed all the beautiful carpets displayed everywhere, both outside in the streets and in shops, and also used in and outside many hotels, – and this time I had more or less decided that I wanted to take one home with me. The problem would be to choose just one, as they are all beautiful, each in their own way.

So on route from Tinghir back to the coast we made a stop at Association Iklan in the small village of Talouste, close to Tazenakht, some distance southwest of Ouarzazate. It is a cooperative where local Amazigh (Berber) women can sell their carpets. ( Here is an interesting blog post with more information on the cooperative, posted by a travel company)

One of the members of the cooperative, a sweet older lady, demonstrated how they spun the yarn using a drop spindle, and how to weave the carpet on an upright loom. We were also showed the various plants that were traditionally used for dyeing the yarn in different colours.

Then it was on to the shop to choose a carpet. There was a lot to choose from.

We were served mint tea, sweets and nuts while contemplating our choices.

I finally chose the one below.

I wonder if I was drawn to this one because of my patchwork background. Anyway, it has lovely warm colours, and I never tire of looking at and studying all the different triangles, – each with their onw smaller pattern inside, – and also how they line up, and the overall layout of the design.

So this autumn I decided to make a small quilt inspired by this carpet, and use it as a background for the plaited horse that my husband got.

I chose some warm, red colours, and made four borders with equilateral triangles in some of the other colourways found in the carpet. I deliberately chose patterned fabric to reflect the patterned triangles of the carpet. It is barely quilted, – just to hold the layers together, as I wanted to put it in a frame.

Here it is in the frame (hard to avoid the reflections in the glass). The size is 40×40 cm.

The plaited palm leaf horse finally got a home, and we are reminded of our interesting and exciting trip every time we look at it.

🙂 Eldrid

Annual Spring Report 2022

It looks like if it were not for my annual spring report, this blog would be dead by now. But here I am again, with a few photos from our garden.

Winter this year has been mild, but spring has been rather cold, until we suddenly got a warm spell around Easter.

Then one morning two weeks ago we looked out of the kitchen window and discovered that the woods had turned green overnight. We had some beautiful days before the chilly weather returned.

Hopefully the colder weather will cause the flowers to bloom a little longer. Almost all the narcissi came out at once, and the early rhododendrons are just starting.

The narcissi by the south wall are starting to fade.

Also by a south wall, 36 tulips are in bloom.

On top of the old compost heap, two kale plants have survived winter, and are starting to form flowers.

The lilac has large buds already, and looks promising.

The staghorn sumak is budding, and behind it, the flowering currant has been in full bloom for some weeks now.

The wild anemones show up everywhere in the garden, and in the woods. Great food for the insects. Very soon the cuckoo flower will bloom all over our lawn. We usually postpone cutting the lawn, or some of it, until the flowers have faded.

Spring snowflake is also in full bloom, which is a bit early, – but of course they are welcome. I seem to remember having theese in bloom around June 1st in previous years. But it could have been a cold one I am remembering.

The downside to posting so seldom is that the platform has changed a lot since my last post, so it took some time to find the functions that I needed. I have not figured out everything about photo placement yet, but hope it will look ok in the post.

Happy springtime.

🙂

Eldrid

Annual Spring Report 2021

This spring has been quite cold, as was also the winter this year.

On May 1st there were not many green leaves to be seen in the woods, and there is still snow in the mountains. Crocuses and snowdrops are all finished, and most of the daffodils along the fence have large buds.

The earliest daffodils and those by the south wall are in bloom, and so is the flowering currant. The rhododendrons have lots of buds this year, so we expect a riot of colour later in May.

Last year DH cleaned out our raised beds by the steps, – they were so weed infested that they were impossible to keep. So instead we bought some large pots to place in the beds, planted roses and perennials in them, and filled some gravel around the pots. We will be getting a couple more pots this year. Everything has survived in the pots despite the cold winter.

The begonias have come out from the basement where they have been kept in a chilly and dark place all winter. Usually they have a lot longer sprouts than this, so maybe our basement was colder this winter. Keeping an eye out for the weather forecast to see when we can put them into the earth. May can not be trusted not to bring on some night frost and snow occasionally.

Our white rosebush is sprouting despite the chill, and the spiraea bush is turning green, but no flowers yet. The old rowan tree has large buds, at least on the branches that are not dead yet. It is very old, – my husband who is 68, can remember there were two trunks when he was a little boy, and his grandfather cut down one of them. So it was already a big, grown tree 60-65 years ago. We will have to cut it down eventually as it is getting unsafe.

The lilac bush to the right is not quite as old, – only 45 or 46. My father brought a sapling from their garden, where I grew up, and planted it here the year we moved into our new home. Some of the oldest stems are starting to give, and we had to remove a big one a few weeks ago. But there are lots of younger stems, so we hope for lilac blooms many years to come still.

Our so called lawn has got quite a few wood anemones now, as we do not bother to remove the moss. I think they are prettier than grass.

Some years ago we planted 8-10 tulips by the south wall, and they have returned every year, although in varying numbers. This year they are at an all time high as I counted 32 buds. Fingers crossed that the deer do not get to them.

And lastly there was a nice surprise in one of my pots as last year’s violets seem to have seeded themselves. I will only remove the dry stalks carefully, and then leave them alone to do their thing.

🙂

Eldrid

Something Different

When we were travelling in Siberia a couple of years back, I came across this creation in a museum in the small village of Zhigansk:

I could see that it was something made of yarn, but I didn’t recognize the technique, nor did I have much time to study it at the time, so I attempted a close up photo to try and figure it out later. I couldn’t touch it, of course.

Quite recently I came across a video on Youtube which explained how to make a Pompom blanket, and after seeing the result, I immediately recognized that this was the same technique as the small mat I had seen in Siberia.

So this is a pompom blanket. Maybe there are other names for this technique also, but at least I got my curiosity stilled, and also learned something new.

What did we do before internet?

🙂

Eldrid

 

Sewing Machine Still Running

It has been some time since new projects were posted on here, but I can assure you that my sewing machine is still active, although not quite as active as in previous years.

About a year ago I finished my last commissioned piece, and decided not to take on any more commissions in the future, but to only sew according to my own whims.

The first thing I needed to do, was to let the machine run freely, – to just happily sew along without too much planning. That is what Log Cabin is for, in my opinion: Cut lots of strips in happy colours, light and dark, and just sew along. This was at the end of winter, and the Covid19 pandemic had just sent us all indoors, – so I craved some bright, sunny colours to work with.

I had planned and cut fabric for a large quilt for a double bed, but decided I did not need such a large quilt after all, and went for a single bed quilt instead. Then I suddenly had a lot of leftover blocks, so I could also make a throw.

And would you know, there were still lots of fabric strips left, so I could throw some solid black into the mix and make a Roman Stripes quilt. This one can go on a single bed too.

As we all know, scraps tend to multiply, so I had still lots of leftovers. This time around they will go into some scrappy blocks. By now I have enough for another throw, if I set them with sashings in between.

The finished quilts have all been quilted by Sølvi Quiltestudio. At the same time I also sent her a very old top, started some time in the early nineties. It is log cabin blocks sewn on a foundation, and I had planned to hand quilt it (silly me).  It was all basted and I had quilted perhaps a fifth of the surface before it was put away. I have long since realized that I would never finish the hand quilting, so I ripped it all out, and sent it to be longarmed along with the others.

Now it is finished, and I am very satisfied with that.

🙂

Eldrid

 

New Old Patterns

Time flies, new things come, and the old ones go. Among the last ones are my printers. Not gone yet, though, but are about to.

Since I no longer can guarantee that I will be able to reprint my patterns, and since they are still in some demand, I have been working on converting them to pdf-files for download.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two have recently been uploaded.

The pattern files can be found here.

🙂

Eldrid

Annual Spring Report 2020

Every year on May 1st I try to document how far spring has come at our place, – mostly for myself to look back on over the years.

This year we had a mild winter, and people were worried about plants and buds developing way too early in January. However, March and April have been chilly, so things have slowed down, and we are “back to normal”, so to speak.

On the evening of April 29th I suddenly remembered that we were going away on May 1st, so I hurried outside to take these photos. The lawn is green, and the narcissi are in bloom, or with large buds.

The cherry tree has large buds, but no flowers yet.

The ash tree in the corner is still bare.

The woods have just turned green during the week.

Our flowering currant bush has been covered in red blooms for some time.

The earliest rhododendrons are just starting to show their red colour.

This rhododendron is getting a special treatment. It was uprooted during a storm a few weeks back, and rolled down onto the road below. DH just managed to drag it back uphill and position it between some small trees, and then add some soil and extra support. Here it is getting a thorough watering before we left. We do hope it will survive.

Tulips by the south wall are in bloom, mostly.

The poor old spirea bush looks drab. It has started to bloom, but they are very few. I think some pruning is due.

 

 

 

We left for an eye doctor appointment and also visited family further inland. There is a record amount of snow in the mountains this year as shown in the sunset photos above taken on May 2nd, and it is not melting yet. There may be some serious flooding if we get a sudden warm spell.

 

Foto: Ingrid Bjørnerheim Hynne/Vestland fylkeskomune.

(Link to news article.)

Some of our mountain passes are closed all winter, and usually they are opened up during the first week of May. This year the snow banks along the edges of the roads are huge,- up to 9 metres tall, –  and may be dangerous if they suddenly collapse. Luckily, because of closed borders due to Covid19, no buses filled with touring cruise passengers will have to pass through here yet. And there will probably be some snow left even in July.

Chilly weather is forecast for the next week.

🙂

Eldrid

A Thousand Bodice Inserts

We were so lucky as to get to see the exhibition of 1000 Bodice Inserts at Hardanger Folkemuseum at Utne last October.

A bodice insert is a separate piece of fabric covering the front opening of the bodice on the folk costume from Hardanger and some other areas.

 

Folk costumes in Hardanger, and also in other areas in Norway, were influenced by continental fashions. The renaissance fashion trend with waist and skirt in differing colours, and often heavily decorated bodice inserts, kept its stronghold in this area till the costume was embraced as the National Costume of Norway in the late 1800s. It was a living tradition, so no need to go back to study old garments in order to reconstruct the costume, as has been done later in other areas to create local folk costumes. (We now have lots of different folk costumes in all areas of the country.)

 

Luckily a lot of old and new bodice inserts from Hardanger have been donated to the museum over the years. There are also collections in neighbouring districts, and some of these were also on display, – a total of more than 1000 bodice inserts, and not two alike.

 

People have used a variety of techniques to decorate the inserts, and cross stitch embroidery seems to have been a popular method. All the inserts on the wall to the left in the photo above, are decorated in this way.

 

The amount of decoration vary from very simple to elaborate. People used the same style of clothing both for every day use and for Sunday best and other festivities, and they often had several bodice inserts to fit the occasion.

Unadorned bodice inserts were used when attending funerals, and grieving.

 

The size of the inserts vary a lot. This may be due to variations of the waist front opening, and also the fact that people come in different sizes. A couple of hundred years ago, people were generally smaller than we are now.

Even though hardly two bodice inserts are alike, there are some common standards. They all have a ribbon hem on top. Most have a defined motif of various geometric shapes sewn on red or white fabric. Between the ribbon and motif there is often a border made of metal lace or ribbon, beads, or embroidery.  The decorated parts are mounted on a piece of fabric, which is mostly made of home woven wool or linen. This background fabric is not visible when the bodice insert is in use.

It is almost as interesting, – or perhaps more so, – to observe all the different background fabrics that have been used.

The most common geometric motif is by far the eight pointed star, also called an eight leafed rose in these parts. The variations are many, there may be one big star, or a few or several smaller ones set in a grid, most often on point. The grid itself may be narrow, or wider with geometric decor elements of its own.

In quilting terms we might call the decor on point blocks with narrow or wide sashings.

 

Quite a few inserts have beads on them.

At a time when most household items were home made, purchased objects would be regarded as finer and having a higher status. Beads have been produced and sold for many years, and bodice inserts decorated with beads were regarded as especially fine and for best use. The inserts can be dated by looking at the colour of the beads. White, green, mustard, and black beads were first available. Blue beads and straw beads came later. Also the older beads are bigger and of more irregular shape than newer ones.

The motifs are again mostly geometric borders and eight pointed stars, but also heart shaped decor has been popular.

 

On one insert with very small beads, they found that the maker had used horse hair to thread the beads. The horse hair is so stiff that you would not need a needle, which would perhaps have been to thick for the small pearl openings.

 

Pearls have been combined with both embroidery, metal lace and ribbons, and also applique as in some of the photos below..

 

There is a story about three vicar’s daughters from Ulvik who used to do very fine applique, mostly eight pointed stars. When their father died, they supported themselves by making fine bodice inserts for sale. At the time, paper was used inside the top hem to make it stiffer, and much later one of their father’s sermons was found inside one of these inserts.

 

 

Not all bodice inserts were made from woollen fabric. Some used fine imported silks, silk velvet and calamanco. A few of these were displayed behind glass.

 

The pattern darning technique has also been used to decorate bodice inserts.

Pattern darning is a very old embroidery technique, – even older than cross stitch, – and this technique has been used quite a lot.  Pattern darning is often used alongside other techniques, where the pattern darning will compose the grid, or framework, for the motif, while other techniques such as cross stitch or satin stitch, are used to fill in the pattern repetitions.

A very common motif on pattern darning inserts is the “eldjarnrose”, which looks like a modern day hashtag set on point. It is most often worked in black, while the surrounding grid has been made in red yarn.

 

This last group of photos show some inserts made in a variety of techniques, and some of them with unusual motifs. There are a few examples where the cross stitch embroidery patterns are made to look like bead embroidery or threaded bead grids. There is also one with a great variety of stitches, including the only example of chain stitch that I noticed.

Lastly, here is an insert mounted on a piece of fabric cut from a beautiful woven coverlet in the “krokbragd” pattern:

 

 

The exhibition was scheduled to be taken down last January, but due to its popularity, it has been extended till 1st November 2019. If you get the chance to visit, grab it with both hands.

It is well worth a visit.

 

🙂

Eldrid