The Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø

On the other side of the water, in the suburb of Tromsdalen, you find a church which is a masterpiece of architecture, designed to reflect the nature, culture and faith in the Arctic regions. Its spires are said to represent the 11 apostles left after the betrayal. The entire east wall is formed by one of the largest stained-glass windows in Europe.

The Tromsdalen Church (Tromsdalen Kirke), which is more commonly known as The Arctic Cathedral (Ishavskatedralen, literally "The Cathedral of the Arctic Sea"), was built in 1965. The church is a parish church and not, strictly speaking, a cathedral.The church was drawn by Jan Inge Hovig, and its building materials consist mainly of concrete. Because of the church's distinct look and situation, it has often been called "the opera house of Norway", likening it to the famous Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. The church is probably the most famous landmark in Tromsø, although Tromsø does have another church of interest, the Tromsø Cathedral, which is noted for being the only wooden cathedral in Norway.
These pictures are taken at midnight.

The front of the church.

A little peek of Tromsø in the background.

At daytime....

My Mother-in-law's birtday and quilt

600 rectangles make this quilttopper.
I quilted it by machine in the four-patches diagonally.
The sewing-stiches were chosen long to make a soft finish :-)
My husbond and his mom. They look very alike :-)
Hilde, my husbond cousin, and our two oldest daughters.

The cook; Alf-Gunnar.

He made a perfect meal for all of us. Thank you so much!

Roger, my Mother-in-law Gunhild and Alf-Gunnar.

The cakes.

She could celebrate her 85th jubilee. Not bad. I think she looks great!

New block posted on Grandma's Kitchen

Grandma's Kitchen has posted her fourth block; beautiful butterfly.
Use my bottom on the right sidebar (Friendship Flower Quilt) and get inspired :-)

Freebie from ELEFANTZ

HAPPY EASTER to you and your family from Tromsø in North of Norway.

We had a great celebration yesterday. My Mother-in-law had her 85th birtday and she got her quilt from us. (Pictures later....)
Today I discovered this cute stitchery on ELEFANTZ blog. Jenny has added this freebie "Shabby Roses" as an Easter gift for you. So go to her blog an find the link to her pattern.

EASTER MYSTERY FROM ME TO YOU, part 2

Step 8.

Please go back to my Easter Mystery part 1 and look at picture under step 6 and 7.

I have layed my strips or rows displaced compared to eachother. This because I want to arrange my rectangles like bricks.

The easy way to make my rectangles look like bricks is to cut every second strip/row at the top and every second at the buttom.

Cut 2 1/4" off every strip/row number 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 AT THE TOP of the strip/row.

Additional you cut off 2 1/4" on strip/row number 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 AT THE BUTTOM of the strip/row.

Now you can sew the rows together.

Sew strip/row 1 and 2 together, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10.

Iron the seem open.

Sew row 1+2 together with 3+4, and so on until you have one piece of all your rows. Press all the long seems open. Look at the picture below...........

Close-up of the back.
Another view of the back.

The front looks like this :-)

Further specifications:

Unfortunately you have to wait until my return back home to get the rest of my Easter Mystery. This because I had too much to do before our travel to Tromsø. I'm really sorry for this and I know it may be a little tiresome for you. I had to give priority to my Mother-in-laws birtdaygift and my time was tighten up. During the National Championship for skijump and Nordic combined late in March, I had leader responsibility for all the people who were volunteers (nearly 200). This work came on top of my everyday-work as a RAMS engineer and it took a lot of my energy and strength. A report had to be send to one of our customers at work, so two of my days off were cancelled as well. So my time-limit was crossed.

But; You can follow the Easter Mystery and make this tablerunner for Easters to come :-)

Anyway; I want to wish you all A HAPPY EASTER.

TAKE CARE!

Mother-in-laws quilt

My mother-in-law has her 85th birtday on Eastereve. My gift for her is a four-patch/one-patch-quilt. It is made of flannel bought some years ago at Sømsenteret Gjøvik. 600 squares make this topper. The picture is taken before I were going to baste it.

Close-up.

Binding. Me at my brother-in-laws place.
I didn't manage to get it finished before we traveled to Tromsø, so I had to do a little handsewing in Tromsø :-)

A little blogchat..........

My father-in-law has embroidered this beautiful picture. We decided to get it reframed and this modern frame suits the colors of the embroidery I think :-)

My husbond got this a few years ago and the picture means a lot for him. In September it is 22 years since his father died. Roger had just become a father himself, our oldest daughter was 3 months old when his father died.

Ingrid, a very good friend of mine, gave me this flower after my breastcancer operation. Now it is carrying beautiful flowers again :-)

Ingrid; we have to meet soon!

A little Easter atmosphere.....

I love the pottery dish with Lofoten-theme on the wall and the angel on the table. My daughter Hanne Beate gave me the angel last Christmas :-)

Yellow flowers for Easter.

A funny couple :-)

Let me introduce you to my youngest baby. Mira is a very kind and cuddly cat. We are having the time of our lives (every day....)

Mira.

EASTER MYSTERY FROM ME TO YOU, part1

I promised a long time ago to make an Easter Mystery.

My Mystery is very simple, everyone can make it and "it" is going to be a tablerunner. So if you want to make this; stay tuned!!!!
Step 1.

You have to collect a little of your light fabrics to the middelpart of the tablerunner. You are not going to need much of each, but four of these is also playing a part in the endings of the tablerunner, so you need a little more of these four fabrics.

I choose to make my runner out of these 14 fabrics. In addition to these fabrics you will need some scaps for your applique.

Step 2.
I iron my first fabric on my ironing board. Then I place my second fabric on top of my first fabric. Make sure you place the edge of each fabric nearly on top of each other. Then I iron the second fabric. I do the same for the third fabric. Now you have a pile of three different fabrics, each folded in half. The ironing make the fabrics stick together in a way, and this makes it easier to cut the fabrics later :-)
My first fabrics layering.
Step 3.
Cut one strip in 5" OR 1,5".
Explanation; You need a total of approx. 100 pieces cut in the size of 1,5" x 5".
(When I cut my strips, I cut in the size of 5" because I will make more than one tablerunner.)
So if you have chosen 10 fabrics for the mid-part, you have to cut 10 of each.
Step 4.
From my strips of fabrics I cut them in my width 1,5" (since I chose to make my strips 5" tall).
If you have cut your strips in 1,5", you have to cut them in 5" width.
Step 5.
In every stock you now have 3 different fabrics cut in the right size. This metode is very accurate and easy to do. Repeat step 2 to 5 until you have cut every fabric you have chosen to be in your tablerunner. Pile each fabric for the record :-)

Look at my palette :-)

Tip: I use a tray for carrying my cut fabrics.

Arrange you rectangles in rows; 11 rows with 7 rectangles in each.

Step 6.

Sew the rectangles into rows.

Tip: I always use my stilletto to make sure the fabrics don't get displaced in the start and ending points. (We quilters simply LOVE every sewing tool in the world....)

Step 7.

Iron the rows by pressing the seem in the same direction all the time. I simply iron from right to left each row. This make the seem more steady and firm and it is easier to sew the rows together later.

This is how the mid-part is going to be :-)

Jippy, we have easter-meeting in my guild Gjøvik Quiltelag today