Nothing quilty

I have nothing to show you now so I decided to tell you a little (read: much) about Iceland. I promise to have something in my next blog to show you.

Total area: 103,000 km² (39,756 square.miles); vegetation: 23.1%, lakes: 2.7%, glaciers: 11.6%, wasteland: 62.6%.

Population a little over 300.000.

Over 90% of housing in Iceland is heated by natural geothermal heat

Calendar of Historical Events in Iceland

874 - 930	Settlement of Iceland, mainly from the West coast of Norway and the Viking settlements in Ireland and Scotland.
930	Establishment of Althingi - the world's oldest existing parliament - at Thingvellir.
985 - 986	Discovery and colonization of Greenland from Iceland by Eiríkur the Red, father of Leifur (the Lucky) Eiríksson.
1000	Icelander Leifur Eiríksson becomes the first European to set foot in America. Christianity is adopted peacefully by the Althingi at Thingvellir.
13th Century	Saga Era, the golden age of Saga writing. The Sagas include some of the classics of medieval literature, written in Icelandic, the ancient language of the Vikings which is still spoken in Iceland today.
1178 - 1241	Snorri Sturluson, chieftain and historian. Author of "Heimskringla", history of the Kings of Norway.
1220 -1262	Age of the Sturlungs, a period of civil war between the leading chieftain families that vied for power in Iceland.
1262/1264	The "Old Covenant" adopted between Icelandic chieftains and King Hakon the Old of Norway. Iceland comes under the rule of the Norwegian Crown, but the Althingi retains its legislative powers.
1380	Union of the Danish and Norwegian kingdom. Iceland and Norway come under Denmark.
1402	The Black Death reaches Iceland.
15th Century	The English Century. Close contact between Iceland and England. The English regularly sail to Iceland for fishing and trade.
1537	Norway is dissolved as a state (until 1814) and becomes part of Denmark. Iceland comes directly under Danish crown.
1550	The Reformation. After strong opposition Lutheranism becomes the state religion. Danish royal power is strengthened in Iceland.
1627	Pirates from North Africa raid certain coastal areas ("Turkish raid").
1662	Absolutism is introduced in Iceland. Danish monarchs become hereditary rulers of Iceland. Legislative powers of the Althingi greatly reduced.
1783 - 1785	Volcanic eruption (Skaftáreldar) causes widespread devastation in Iceland.
1874	Millennial anniversary of the settlement of Iceland celebrated at Thingvellir. A constitution is adopted giving legislative powers to the Althingi and granting limited self-government in domestic affairs.
1904	Home rule. Appointment of the first Icelandic government minister resident in Iceland and responsible to the Althingi.
1918	Act of Union. Iceland becomes a sovereign and independent state, the Kingdom of Iceland. It shares the same monarch with Denmark. For the most part foreign affairs continued to be handled by the Danish foreign service, as decided by Iceland. Iceland declares perpetual neutrality.
1940	British forces occupy Iceland.
1941	By agreement US troops arrive in Iceland (six months before Pearl Harbour), replacing British forces. US forces remain until the end of World War II.
1944	The modern Republic of Iceland is established at Thingvellir on 17 June, birthday of Jón Sigurðsson.
1955	Icelander Halldór Laxness receives Nobel Prize for literature.
1963	Volcanic eruption in ocean south of Iceland creates a new island, Surtsey.
1971	Denmark begins to return ancient Saga manuscripts to Iceland.
1973	Volcanic eruption in Heimaey, the only inhabited island of the Westman Islands group off the south coast of Iceland. Five thousand inhabitants are relocated to the mainland of Iceland.
1980	Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President, the first woman in the world to be elected as a head of state.
1986	Meeting of Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik marks the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Reykjavik celebrates its bicentenary.

Source: Iceland.is

Mixing

Pattern from Laila and fabric from Karol Ann, fun mail from last week.
I decided to give it a try to sew strips and cut them down as Laila does and add to the table runner which I did using the African fabric I got from Karol Ann. It was really fun to sew this and took no time at all. I think I might do more of little quilts or table runners, they are so quick to make, it is so much fun to finish something!

Next I think I will do a WISP that has been waiting for a while, more of that later...

Do you women in Europe watch the Eurovision song contest? Now there are all kind of programs on TV that are about the contest.

I have nothing more to say today, have a great week.

Gleðilegt sumar

Now it is officially summer in Iceland, our first day of summer was last Thursday. It has been sunny now but still cold.

I got 2 fun mails last week, the first was from Laila, she sent me a lot of patterns including her own design! They have been published in the Norwegian Quiltemagasinet. I also got fabric she dyed herself and clips so I can do the little bag she designed.

And the other was from Karol Ann. African fabric and a little pin of Africa, you can see it if you look closely. Look at the colors in the fabric!

Well maybe I should try to get some sewing done. Have a great week.

All three

Yes I made it.

All three ready to go, and the party begins at 18 o´clock, I have plenty of time left :)
As I have been VERY busy sewing I have not blogged and I have not commented I promise I will visit you all tomorrow.

It will be a busy weekend as I will be babysitting my little angel but it is so much fun I just love to have her.


At last I think the spring has arrived and the weather this weekend will be great, zero wind and not so cold (7°C). But that means I have to go to the garden and do something, ahhh but not today maybe tomorrow!!!


Here you can see number one, for the little guy who will be given name today.

And here is number two, for the 4 years old little lady. The pattern is from Kim who was so nice to look through all her magazines and books to find a pattern, I changed it just a little bit.

Number three for the big guy who loves CARS.

And all three ready to go...

CARS

I just had to show you the Cars top, I managed to finish it yesterday.

I think I will quilt these tops with my sewing machine I don´t have the time to handquilt them besides I am not very good at it.

Well now it is time to wash and cut the fabric for the third top. You probably notice that I am not going to sandwich the two I have already done and begin quilting :( could it be that it is not my favorite job?

One top done, two to go

Well I managed to finish this one last weekend, I am well on way with the CARS top and then I have to do one for the brothers sister. I have bought the fabric and decided on the pattern. I have to finish these three quilts before the 19th of April. I think I will manage that :) . If you take a good look at the top you can see that the sun is shining I took this picture outside this morning, it is still cold but the sun does shine and that makes me happy.

The fabrics for the quilt I am going to do for the girl are very bright! She is so much for color and will be 4 yrs old now in May

Well I think I have to go and try to do some sewing. As I said then I have 14 days to finish so wish me luck :)

Thank you

You are all wonderful. I have had many great suggestions, I think I know now what I will do but you will have to wait to see it because maybe I will change my mind on the way. You can see that I have begun :)

HAPPY EASTER

p.s. this is not my Easter egg