Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Country Threads

@brittarnhild

For many years I was an avid quilter. It started in 1980 when I found a book on patchwork, quiting and applique in England, on our honemoon, and it continued until a few years ago when my hands refused to follow my instrictions. In the early 1990ies I started to subscribe to Quilters Newsletter Magazine, a couple of years later I had my name in the penpal list there, and soon I had a basket full of quilting friends, from all over the world (this is how I first met my Indian mother, Carolyn).

In 1997 Terje and I took our four kids and went to the US for a month. Marta was only 17 months old then, Torgeir, the oldest was 15. What a month we had. Starting with a few days in Iceland, we continued to Washington to be tourists, then went on to Chicago where we stayed with friends which I had met through quilting. We also rented a car and drove atround in the Midwest, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota and a few other States. We visited relatives of mine, but also quilting friends.

One of the penpals I got after my add was Judy, who lives in Britt. "when I saw your name I just had to write you, do you know there is a town called Britt here in Iowa". Through our writing I soon found out that Judy and her husband Darrell lived not far from a quilt store which I had dreamed to visit for some time, Country Threads. So while we were in Britt, Judy took me there, while Terje and the kids stayed at the farm with Darrell, enjoying his huge collection of John Deere tractors (in ALL sizes)

It is early morning at the cabin. I am looking through the quilts in progress I have out here, all of them made my hands only, and I am missing the days when my hands could make these lovely heirloom pieces. I take one of the simple one down from where it hangs over a cupboard door, let my hands cheerish the fabric, my eyes enjoying the fabric like they were candy.

I don't quilt any more.
But still I can enjoy the dozens of quilts I already have.......many of them unfinished.

And quilting has not only given me quilts,
more important, it has given me friends from all over the world.

 

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By the way, I did a search and see that Country Threads is online now, even with a blog. Has probably been online for years and years. I knew them when internet was only a toddler. I remember I wrote them a letter once, and some time later another pelpal of me, who visited the store, told me that my letter was hanging on the board in the store :-)
My moment of fame.

Decorate with quilts

I love to decorate with quilts, both big, small and miniatures.

This one is machine pieced by myself, and handquilted by the Amish in USA. It hangs in our livingroom. I made the quilt on a workshop the American Nancy Martin gave here in Norway many years ago.

December 1st.

It is still dark outside. The girls have left for school, but I am spending a quiet morning at home before driving down to my office later in the day. Today's advent basket is unpacked, and I have just read through my advent diary from this day written during the last couple of years.

December 1st is always a special day. The day I start my basket, the day I start to do the first decorations waiting for Christmas to come in a few weeks. But still the purple colour of advent and of waiting dominates our house. The advent wreath candle is lit during every meal now, though only the first candle still. And this morning we also got another candle to shine through our meals. Marta gets a small packet every day from today untill Christmas, her advent calendar, and as always, today's "surprise" was the special advent candle marked with 24 numbers, one for every day untill Christmas Eve.

I will spend advent this year together with Mary, this young girl who was chosen by God to give birth to Jesus. This young girl, later a grown up woman, who laid her life in the hands of the God Almighty. An angel came to her and told her what turned upside down on her whole life; she was pregnant and would give birth to the Saviour. Alot is written about Mary, and alot is still to be written. I have a good friend who writes hymns and carols. She is working on a special hymn right now about Mary, or Maria as we call her in Norway; Ave Maris Stella, where she describes Maria as a star who shines the Word of God on us. I will bring the hymn with me trough this day.

December is for me also a period when I work on my many Christmas Quilts. I used to quilt ALOT, and then also started alot of different Christmas projects. Nowadays, when my quilting is alot more limited, I find joy and pleasure in working on old projects. And this log cabin is a typical example. It is tucked away in a cupboard during most of the year, but every December it comes to life again. I basted it last December, and have now started handquilting it. Will probably not finish it this year either, but it will follow me, and it will, though it is still unfinished, be part of our advent and Christmas decorations.

Quilting inspiration.

I am a long time quilter. Started quilting back in 1980, after buying my first quilt book on honeymoon in England. For many years I quilted all the time :-) But for the past four or five years my quilt inspiration source has been almost dry. Tonight I have been packing for a week away (on work) and suddenly decided that I wanted to bring a small quilt to work on. I had to do a search in the cupboards in my studio, but after a while I found what I was searching for, my "green with envy" quilt. It is a miniature I pieced many years ago. I was a member of an internet quilt group then which we called Best Friends (unfortunately I lost contact with the group some years ago). One time many of the members in the group, who were mostly Americans, were going to meet. It was not possible for me to cross the Atlantic and take part in the meeting. I asked the members to send me small pieces of green fabric, and I pieced this green with envy miniature.