Update Tango and some knitting

I have been a lousy blogger lately, but here is an update on the Tango project. Their clothing is in place, but their hands are still missing. It will take me some days to do them. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so detailed in my work, but it is probably what it takes to get the result I want :-) It was fun to do this clothes and I think I have got the right fabrics. I'm especially satisfied with the fabric for her dress. It's velvet in real life and I had to google a bit to find fabric that looked like that. I'm always excited when I recive the package, because the colors are not always as I see them on my screen.

I have signed up for a new class at Quilt University that start January 16 next year. It's Carol Miller that has created a new intermediate class in machine quilting. I need to learn more about it and maybe get some good ideas for quilting the Tango, too. So I'm looking foreward to learn some new things.

Jeg har vært en elendig blogger i det siste, men her er endelig en oppdatering av Tangoprosjektet mitt. Klærne er på plass, men hedene mangler fortsatt. Det vil nok ta meg noen dager å lage de. Noen ganger slulle jeg ønske at jeg ikke var så detaljert i arbeidet mitt, men det er vel det som skal til for at jeg skal få det resultatet jeg ønsker :-) Det var morsomt å lage disse klærne og jeg tror jeg har fått tak i de rette stoffene. Jeg er spesielt fornøyd med kjolen hennes. I virkeligheten er den av fløyel og jeg måtte google ganske mye før jeg fant stoffer som kunne forestille det. Jeg er alltid spent når pakka kommer i posten fordi det er ikke alltid at fargene stemmer med det jeg ser på min skjerm.

Jeg har meldt meg på en ny klasse på Quilt Universty som starter 16 januar neste år. Det er Carol Miller som har utarbeidet en ny videregående klasse i maskonquilting. Jeg trenger å lære mer om det og kanskje få noen gode ideer om hvordan jeg skal quilte Tango også. Så denne klassen gleder jeg meg til.

This is the sweaters I knitted for my two grandsons when they both had their birtdays in November. The motif is from a popular kid TV program. I also have two granddaughters that will get one for Christmas. One is almost finished and hopefully I will manage to finish one more in time. The only problem is that one of my granddaughters - Mina - she wants a real tractor, too!

Dette er to Gråtass gensere som jeg strikka til mine to barnebarn som begge hadde fødselsdag i november. Jeg har to barnebarn til som også skal få jenteversjonen av den til jul. En er snart ferdig, og jeg håper jeg rekker å få ferdig den andre også. Bare et lite problem - Mina ønsker seg en ordentlig traktor også, som virker!

New Project - Tango

I have finally started a new large project - Tango. It has been a long "pregnancy" so far. I started to search for pictures about 6 monts ago. I found a lot I liked, but this picture was what I realy was looking for. It expresses the feelings I assosiate with Argentine Tango. A lot of passion and drama.

The picture is of the famous professional Argentine/German tango couple Luis Pereyra and Nicole Nau. The photographer is Guido Gayk and I have got his permissin to use the picture. I wanted more in the picture than just the two, so I have merged three pictures to make this one. The background is a street scene and I have added an accordion-player to the left of them, too.

Jeg har endelig kommet igang med et nytt prosjekt - Tango. Det har vært et langt "svangerskap" så langt. Jeg begynte å lete etter bilder for ca 6 måneder siden. Jeg fant mange jeg likte, men dette bildet var akkurat hva jeg lette etter. Det uttrykker alle de følelsene jeg forbinder med argentinsk tango. Masse lidenskap og drama.

Bildet er av det berømte profesjonelle argentinsk/tyske paret Luis Pereyra og Nicole Nau. Fotograf er Guido Gayk og jeg har fått hans tillatelse til å bruke bildet. Jeg ønsket mer enn bare de to i bildet, så jeg har blandet tre bilder for å lage dette. Bakgrunnen er en gatescene og jeg har også lagt til en trekkspiller til venstre for dem.

The size of the project is 59" x 43" and my largest so far. The persons are in full size. Most of all I love to make faces, but this one has so many details all over so I think it will be lot of fun!

Størrelsen på dette bildet er 150cm x 110cm. Personene er i full størrelse. Det jeg liker aller best er å lage ansikter, men her er det så mange detaljer over det hele så jeg tror det blir masse moro!

New pictures of fabrics

Since the picture of all the dyed fabric was so terrible I will add some separate pictures of some of the fabrics. There is so many gorgeous colors!

Siden bildet av alle de fargede stoffene samlet var så forferdelig, så kommer det noen separate bilder av noen av stoffene. Det ble så mange herlige farger!

Dyeing a triangle of colors

I have done a lot of dyeing lately. It's a real passion to see the fabric turn from white to a wide range of beautiful, vibrant colors. This triangle contsist of 66 different colors with yellow, red and blue in the three corners. All the other colors are a gradiation of the first and last color in the row, both from side to side and top to bottom. It gave a lot of greens, browns and purples in variations. All the colors are mixed only with yellow, red and blue. The picture is not very good, but I am going to take a picture of each color. I hope to add a web shop to my web site next year with a collection of hand-dyed fabric for sale. This is only the first step.

Jeg har farget en hel del i det siste. Det er blitt en lidenskap å se stoffet forvandles fra hvitt til en hel masse vakre, vibrerende farger. Triangelet består av 66 farger med gul, rød og blå i hvert sitt hjørne. Alle de andre er en gradering av den første og siste fargen i hver rad både vannrett og loddrett. Resultatet var masse grønne, brune og lilla varianter. Alle fargene er blandet fra kun gult, rødt og blått. Bildet er ikke særlig godt, men jeg planlegger å ta bilde av hvert enkelt stoff. Jeg håper å kunne tilføye en nettbutikk til hjemmesiden min etter nyttår med en serie håndfargede stoffer for salg. Dette er bare første trinn.

New Web Site

I have spent the last three weeks creating a new web-site. I could not find a template I wanted to use, so I have built it from scratch. I made one with some bluegreen pattern first, but I think the colors stole a lot of attention from the pictures. So I removed all the backgrounds except for a narrow stripe from my peacock painting and I am much more pleased with this version.

My good quilting friend Gwen in Ohio has edited the site "About me". She did a wonderful job rewriting some of what I had written. It's great to have such good friends!

The link to the English site is: http://www.bentekultorpandresen.com/welcome.html

Jeg har brukt de tre siste ukene til å lage en hjemmeside. Jeg fant ingen mal jeg kunne tenke meg å bruke, så jeg har bygd den opp fra bunnen. Jeg laget først en med et blågrønt design, men jeg følte at det stal for mye oppmerksomhet fra bildene. Så derfor fjernet jeg all farge bortsett fra en smal stripe fra peacock bildet og ble mer fornøyd med den versjonen. Her er linken til den norske siden: http://www.bentekultorpandresen.com/index.html

Swan Lake to PIQF

Some days ago, a letter dumped down in my mailbox. It was a letter I had been waiting for. Inside I could read: "We are pleased to tell you that "Swan Lake" has been selected to be judged in the quilt competition at the Pacific International Quilt Festival and will hang on display during the Festival from October 16-19 2008". So now the "Swan" is going on a long journey from Norway to Santa Clara, California. It is my first judged show, so I'm thrilled!
I am working on a new web page and I will post the link when it is finished.

For noen dager siden dumpet et brev ned i postkassa som jeg hadde ventet på. Inni kunne jeg lese: "Vi er glad for å kunne fortelle deg at "Swan Lake" er valgt ut til å bli bedømt i Pacific International Quilt Festival og vil henge utstilt under festivalen fra 16-19 oktober 2008". Så nå skal Svanen ut på en lang reise fra Norge til California. Det er min første bedømte utstilling, så jeg er kjempefornøyd!
Jeg jobber med en hjemmeside og vil poste linken til den når den er ferdig.

The wedding

It was a wonderful weeding and a great party on Saturday! They were both so happy and beautiful and little Mina (their three years old daughter) was very charming as a bride's maid.

On of the most touching moments were under dinner when they played a beautiful lovesong my DIL had recorded for her husband. She surprised us with her beautiful voice!

Here is the newly married couple outside the church

Mina was adorable!

The bride's flowers were so beautiful. It was made by a friend of one of our daughters. She's the best and has been a Norwegian champion in flower arranging several times.

This is how yhe table was decorated. Our daughter did this early Saturday morning.

The wedding cake was spectacular! The couple LOVES chocolate cake, so the wedding cake had to be made of chocolate!

Her is a picture of me and my son quite late in the evening

Wedding card

This is the card I made for the wedding of my son and his wife. It's made of silk satin and some ribbons. The letters are sewed with my machine in silver thread.

Dette er kortet jeg laget til bryllupet til vår sønn og hans kone. Det er laget i silkesatin og litt band. Bokstavene er sydd med maskin i sølvtråd.

This is the back of the card. I free motion quilted it with a shiny rayon thread. Loops and hearts was a natural choice.

Dette er baksiden på kortet. Det er frihåndsquiltet med en blank rayontråd. Løkker og hjerter var et naturlig valg.

This is what it looks like inside. I'll try to translate the poem:

Not too close - no, not too close - then we shadow for each other - we want to live in the sun

but not too far away - because our branches must be able to stroke eachother -

in the evening breeze

and in the deep nights - we want to feel the slow breathing of the other

in time with the stars and the clouds that slowly drift away

and in the first glitter of morning

I want to hear your leaves rustle near me

not too close - then we nourish from the same soil

and we never can get great

but so close together - that we can touch each other when we are lonely

and fall close to each other in the end

Dette er hvordan kortet ser ut inni. Det har et dikt av Egil Ulateig som heter Ikke for nær.

Here is what I used with my dress. The bag is made from the same velvet as my dress. The gold outlines on the shawl don't show up, but goes well with my golden shoes.

dette er tilbehøret til kjolen min. Veska er sydd av samme fløyel som kjole. Konturene på skjerfet er malt i gull, men synes dårlig på bildet. Det passet godt sammen med gullskoene.

Shawl for my dress

I have made a shawl for my dress to wear in the church. I had some silk shawl and desided to try silk painting for the first time. I have used Procion MX dye to paint on silk before, but this was my first try to use the silk paints I have had for a long time. It will not be the last time I do this. It was so fun to see the paint run over the fabric.

Jeg har laget et sjal som jeg skal bruke til kjolen min i kirken. Jeg hadde noen silkesjal liggende og bestemte meg for å prøve silkemaling for første gang. Jeg har brukt Procion MX farge til å male på silke før, men dette er mitt første forsøke på å bruke silkemalingen som jeg har hatt lenge. Det blir ikke siste gangen jeg gjør dette. Det var så moro å se hvordan malingen rant over stoffet.

Here is the flowers painted. The pattern is not my own. It's a free stained glass pattern from stainedglass.co.uk. There is a lot of nice free patterns out there. But the choise of colors are mine. When I used dye on silk, I used a gutta resist I've baught in a craft shop here and I had a lot of trouble with the dye bleeding outside the lines. This time I used Jaquard waterbased gutta and it was so good to work with and oney one tiny bleeding. For the flowers I wet the silk with alcohol/water first. but the leaves are painted on dry silk.

Her er blomstene malt. Det er ikke mitt eget mønster, men et gratis mønster fra stainedglass.co.uk. Det ligger masse flotte gratis mønster ute på nett. Valget av farger er mitt eget. Når jeg brukte farge til å male på silke så brukte jeg en gutta jeg hadde kjøpt i en hobbyforretning her og hadde masse problemer med at fargen blødde utenfor linjene. Denne gangen brukte jeg en vannbasert gutta fra Jaquard and den var kjempeflott å jobbe med og bare en liten blødning.

I choosed a background color that is quite similar to the flowers so I wanted to give it some pattern. First I wet the silk with alcohol/water and painted it in a brown color. The I dripped alcohol on top. It gave some pattern, but not as much as I wanted so I spred some Jaquard silk salt on top. Here you can see the salt has start to work.

Jeg valgte en bakgrunnsfarge som er ganske lik fargen på blomstene så jeg ønsket en del mønster her. Jeg fuktet først silken med sprit/vann og malete den i en brun farge. Så dryppet jeg sprit på toppen. Det laget noe mønster, men ikke så mye som jeg ønsket så jeg strødde Jaquard silkesalt over. Her kan du se saltet har begynt å virke.

Here is a closeup after the salt has worked for a while.

Her er et nærbilde etter at saltet har virket en stund.

This is how it looks after it's dried and the salt is removed. It is also heat set with the iron. Now it have to stay untouched for 48 hours before I wash out the gutta line. I plan to do all the contours with a gold paint. I will have gold shoes, so I think that will be nice. I will post a photo when it's done.

Dette er hvordan det ser ut etter at det har tørket og saltet fjernet. Det er også fiksert med strykejernet. Nå skal det ligge urørt i 48 timer før jeg vasker ut guttaen. Jeg har tenkt å male alle konturene med gullfarge. Siden jeg skal ha gullfargede sko så tror jeg det blir bra. Jeg skal poste et bilde når det gjort.

Festival of Quilts, Birmingham

Last week my husband and I was in Birmingham, England. On Thursday we visited the Festival of Quilts. I showed a quilt for the first time, my "Swan Lake". No prize on the Swan, but it was fun to partisipate. The show cantained more than 1300 quilts and I'm not sure I saw all of them!

Both the Show and the vendors were well organized, but it was the opening day and it was very crowded! I had a long shopping list and got most of it before my legs didn't want to walk any more... I was at a Quilt show and didn't buy a single fabric! But a lot for mixed media - Shiva paintsticks, foil, lutradur, watercolor vax sticks, painting ink for fabric...... The catalogue also gave me a lot of links to retailors. The only thing I didn't find, was a silk screen, but I have ordered one now.

Below is the winners of the pictorial group.

# 1

"Herd Mentality" by Ferret, Bournemouth

# 2

"Night Watch" by Olga Ovsynnikova, Moscow, Russia

# 3

"Hostas after the Shower" by Patricia Collinson, Bideford