Gudrun´s World

Summer is here

That's right. Summer is here....all my car needs right now is a TAXI sign on top because all I seem to be doing right now is carting my kids around town for their activities. What a change for me to have everybody at home, I am used to having the house to myself to do my work. Now it is hard to concentrate on work with the distraction of the kids.....and the husband!! That just makes it so hard to get stuff done (including blogging), especially for a scatterbrain like me. I had a bunch of deadlines creep up on me last week which I got done, a couple of quilts for magazines to finish, ads, pattern writing for the Minnesota State Wide Shop Hop & more. I will post pictures of my progress when it is time for those things to launch. I am also working on new fabric designs for spring 2009.

We have spent two beautiful weekends at our little retreat on Pelican Lake so far this summer and hoping to get there more in July and August when soccer schedules and summer camps run it's course. It is a heavenly place with a great beach and lots of activities for the kids.

I had to post this picture of my two youngest kids, Svana on left and Gisli on right with their cousin Arnor between them. Arnor is my godson, my sisters first born, and they were visiting us from Iceland for 4 weeks in may and june. We had a great time, we really miss them......it was very fun to have a baby in the house to play with. Not that I am wanting to go there again......don't get me wrong, ha ha ha. It is nice to be able to hand them over when you are done having fun with them;-). We will see them again in august when we go to Iceland.

Have a great weekend.

Incredible rollercoaster called LIFE!

Hello everyone, it has been a whirlwind of emotions running in my head lately. You never know what life will throw at you at any point. One of my dearest friends was just diagnosed with cancer in the prime of life and it has had a real effect on me. I am just determined to be there for her every step of the way, because a journey like she is facing is not fun to take alone. I know that for a fact because my husband was diagnosed with Brain Cancer 2 years ago, and we went through hell and back with him. He is doing very well right now after 2 surgeries and stable MRI's since then, so we are just blessed for all we have been given and try to live life to the fullest every day. So the news of my friend threw me right back into Cancer-Caregiver-Mode. It is like I was just put on autopilot, making phonecalls, doing research, keeping her spirits up and trying to share my experiences and give advice through our own journey. Everything else is put on hold....your priorities change drastically when something like this happens. So please say some extra prayers for my dearest Glo, we need all the help we can get.

So.....sorry for the "no posts" lately, here are the pictures from my Iowa workshop I had promised. We were working on a strip pattern called Strip Search, which is a very fast and easy quilt, so we had lots of fun in class. The best part about the pattern is that you only need 1 jelly roll for a lap size quilt, so they all showed up with the strips ready and could start right away. It was so much fun to see all the different colors and fabric choices, they all looked great.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Last week I travelled to Cedar Rapids in Iowa, which is about a 4-1/2 hour drive for me from my house. I was invited by the Eastern Iowa Heirloom Quilters, to do two lectures and two workshops. I got to my hotel room on monday night and the first lecture started 9am on tuesday. There are over 350 members in the guild so there were over 130 quilters there bright and early tuesday, ready to hear my lecture.  My lecture tells the story of how I got to where I am today, from starting out in Iceland and ending up in Chanhassen, Minnesota. This is a great group of ladies, they were so welcoming and very talented quilters, their show and tell was really great. Guess what someone brought to show and tell? My Quiltie Trio, all done up in the fabric line supporting Ovarian Cancer. Aren't these the cutest?!!

After the lecture, we went to lunch at Granite City. The food was very good, I had an awesome cup of soup and salad, but I think they really need to rethink their portion sizes!! My salad came in a bowl as big as a bathroom sink and there was no way for me to eat more then about 1/6 of it! I just hate to waste food like that. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take the leftovers with me since I was going to be doing workshops all day.

After lunch I taught a "Quilt As You Go" workshop. The ladies could pick between two different patterns, Holiday or not Runner, and Bloomin' Runner. I had about 25 ladies in class and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from the workshop.

After the workshop, I did another lecture for the evening group which went really well. The next morning I also taught another workshop for one of my strip patterns, Strip Search. I have another post with pictures from that workshop which you will have to wait until tomorrow to see. Thanks to all of you ladies for beeing so great, I had great fun visiting. Now......back to finishing the June newsletter!

Back from Quilt Market

Hello everybody. I made it back from quilt market safe and sound, very tired as can be expected after a hectic week. Market was great, Portland was fun to visit and the weather was steamy!! We spent the sunny 90 degree days inside though. Here are a few photos of my booth just to show you a little something. I will post some more about market later. I am now in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, getting ready to do 2 lectures and teach 2 classes tomorrow and wednesday.......yes things have been pretty crazy in the GE designs household, getting unpacked and market done with and right away get ready for the next trip. But things are hopefully going to slow down just a little after this so I can have more time to blog!!

The Topiary made it....But only one of them!! I was too ambitious, thinking I was going to make 3. Everybody loved it though.

My booth was right across the aisle from the Red Rooster Fabrics booth. I was so excited to see that they chose my new fabric line Amma´s Garden, for their tables and chair covers.

Booth is off to Portland

Thank you for the nice comments on the new patterns. The quilts, patterns and the rest of my booth stuff is now on a pallet in transit to Portland, Oregon. It was shipped off on thursday and you would not believe the amount of sleep deprivation and exhaustion I was feeling as I sent it off. This past week is always crazy for exhibitors at market, there is always so much last minute stuff that needs to get done. I am still finishing some things up this weekend that didn't make it on the pallet, which will have to go into my suitcase. For example, I am making a bunch of Yoyo´s that I will then pin to foam balls and make topiaries for the booth, we will have to see if they will make it!!!

Just a little note to Kim and May who won the drawing for some strip patterns, I am shipping those out on monday, sorry they didn´t go sooner. Hope you like them.

As I am working on last minute things in the studio I get a great kick out of looking out my windows and watching the wildlife all around us. We moved into this new house in august and even though it is not far from my old house, it is in a new development so there are woods all around and cornfields right next you our yard. There is a large family of deer that live here and one morning they were in our backyard and I got a picture of one through my window. Then we have rabbits and raccoons, well we haven´t seen a raccoon yet, but there is lots of tracks in the mud next to our house and my 8 year old son assured me that those were raccoon tracks (and I trust him!!). We hear Coyotes at night even though we haven´t seen them, but perhaps the funniest group of animals around here are the heard of Wild Turkeys. They are probably about 50 of them together and they are huge! They were nibbling in the corn field when I took this picture, but they were crossing the road when I was driving home one day....started freaking out and trying to fly over my car!! As you can imagine, they didn´t make it very high so I was just waiting for one to come right through the windshield!

I am leaving for market on tuesday morning, but I am taking my computer with so maybe you will get a post from market. If not...I will see you when I return with lots of things to talk about.

Poppy garden pattern

Thank you for all your great comments on the strip patterns. What a great idea Mar to make the Strip Off out of christmas fabrics. I might just do that myself, I have a bunch of christmas fabric allready cut into strips. I put the numbers into this random number generator on www.mathgoodies.com and the program came up with comment number 4 which is May Britt, her blog is http://abyquilt.blogspot.com/ and I believe she is in Norway. The other number that came up was number 3, Kim West and her blog is http://peachquilting.com/. Send me an e-mail to gudrun@gequiltdesigns.com with your adress and I will slip the patterns in the mail right away.

Another announcement; I will be guest writing on the new strip patterns on the Jolly Jabber, which is The Fat Quarter Shop's blog. Look for that this weekend or next week. For those of you that didn't win a pattern, they will be available at the Fat Quarter Shop very soon, and hopefully at your local quilt shop.

Here is another brand new pattern that will be coming from the printer this week, Poppy Garden. It is done out of the new fabric line coming out, Amma's Garden. This is a Queen size quilt and the pattern is a full color pattern, printed on a large sheet of paper and then folded like a map. The piecing illustrations feature actual fabric swatches from the Amma's Garden line, with the exact fabric I am using in the quilt it self. Included in the pattern are two bonus projects where I used the same blocks from the quilt. They are Poppy Delight, which is a lap quilt, and Poppy Court which is a square table or wall quilt. You can click on the pictures to see a larger view.

I have a long work weekend ahead of me, on the list of things to do is finishing up and sending out the next newsletter, I was photographing the dessert recipe that will be in there this morning, a yummy fudge pudding cake which is super simple to make......and of course I just had to eat the bowl of it after the photograph was taken!!! It was too tempting. A large dose of chocolate at 10 in the morning is going to start the day off right for me! Good thing I went for a run this morning.

Please write me some comments on Poppy Garden, I can't wait to hear what you think.

New Strip Patterns

My intention was to post a blog on my new products this weekend but this past week has been one of the craziest around here. Not only am I dealing with getting ready for quilt market with deadlines here and there....whizzing past me one by one, but we had some family stuff going on too. But now I am back in the saddle and ready to take it to the finish line with quilt market only 3 weeks away.

So here is the debut of the two brand new strip patterns that are being printed as we speak. They should return from the printer tomorrow or monday, eager to be stuffed into bags and head out of here. They both include 3 different sizes in the pattern and they only require 2-1/2" strips!

GE-136 Strip Off

This is a great pattern, it goes together really fast and is a great stashbuster. It honestly doesn't take longer than 5 hours to make, start to finish. I just love how the colors just pop off the background, the quilt is so playful, it really reminds me of those colorful Lifesavers candies.

GE-137 Strip 'N' Dip

This one was so fun to make. You have to cut 45° diamonds from the strips which you can do with your regular ruler if it has the 45 degree lines on it. I however got this great set of brand new Stripper templates sent from Marti Michell to play with, and they are fabulous. There is a 45° diamond in the set of 4 templates, so I used it to cut out my diamonds. As you are cutting, you are cleaning off all the dog ears at the same time, which makes putting the diamonds together so easy. All seams match up automatically, it's great. So I highly recommend those templates if you are going to make the quilt, although you can use your ruler too.

I have one more pattern coming out next month, that is a large quilt with two great bonus quilts included in the pattern. I will show you those next.

Tell me what you think of these new patterns in the comments and I will randomly pick two comments from this post and send you a brand new pattern hot off the press.

Ps. Linda, I haven't gotten your adress yet, send it to me quick so I can ship you your prize;-)

Easy Quilts Summer issue

Thank you all for commenting on our strip star project, I loved reading all your comments. And I also wanted to thank all my strip stars that sent me blocks for all the wonderful notes and letters they sent me. One even sent me my absolute favorite, Icelandic candy!! That bag disappeared very quickly....before the kids came home from school. (Takk Kolla)

After putting your names on pieces of paper, I stirred them up in a basket, pulled one out and The winner of the new Amma’s Garden fabric is comment number 9, Linda. Her blog is http://www.all-stitched-up.blogspot.com/ So Linda, please send me an e-mail (gudrun@gequiltdesigns.com) with your home address so I can send some fabrics your way. Congratulations!!

The summer issue of Easy Quilts is on the newsstands now and I am very excited to share with you that I have a quilt in there. This is a great issue with 18 different projects in it that are all quick and simple. It has a special section with baby quilts that can be put together in a jiffy. The staff at Fons & Porter are great to work with, I have really enjoyed it. Great job on this issue. Head out to the bookstore and grab an issue before they are gone.

The quilt I have in there is called Rectangles. It is a simple and fun fat quarter quilt, lap size.

I made it out of my first fabric line, Baskets and Blooms which features some folk art baskets and flowers. It can be done in any fabric and color combination and it would still look great.

Right next to my project in the magazine there is a great wall quilt designed by the fabulous Pat Sloan. If you haven't seen her blog, head over there and check it out. She is great about posting every day almost www.patsloan.typepad.com

Be sure to stop by the blog again this weekend to see a preview of the new quilt pattern....Poppy Garden.

Giveaway time!

Thank you all so much that participated in my strip star project. You are all rockin strip stars! The blocks started arriving late last month and they have all come back!!! Isn't that amazing. I put the quilt together this week and it looks awesome. It also came together really easy considering the fact that 30 different quilters put the blocks together from 4 different countries!! It is going to be quilted next week so it can be ready for it's debut in Portland next month. GREAT JOB GUYS!! I can't thank you enough. These are the quilters that participated and the countries they are from:

Linda Clark - Illinois, USA

Brynja Þórarinsdóttir - Hvolsvollur, Iceland

Gale Lavers - Newfoundland, Canada

Maryann Nieweg - Missouri, USA

Jill Hessler - California, USA

Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir - Hvolsvöllur, Iceland

Guðrún Auður - Hvolsvöllur, Iceland

Ann Maree Bieg - Moorabbin, Australia

Carey Colledge - Quambone, Australia

Jóhanna Björnsdóttir - Sauðárkrókur, Iceland

Arnheiður - Akureyri, Iceland

Eyrún Þórsdóttir - Akureyri, Iceland

Helga Guðmundsdóttir - Seltjarnarnes, Iceland

Helga Einarsdóttir - Reykjavík, Iceland

Vilborg Ölversdóttir - Reykjavík, Iceland

Berglind Snæland - Reykjavík, Iceland

Anna Bjarkadóttir - Akureyri, Iceland

Vigdís Sævaldsdóttir - Dalvík, Iceland

Þorbjörg Bjarnadóttir - Akureyri, Iceland

Sísa - Blönduós - Iceland

Kristrún Geirsdóttir - Akureyri, Iceland

Berglind Björnsdóttir - Blönduós, Iceland

Margrét Skúladóttir - Blönduós, Iceland

Guðrún Pálsdóttir - Blönduós, Iceland

Heiðrún Bjarkadóttir - Blönduós, Iceland

Þórunn Oddsdóttir - Steingrímsstöð, Iceland

Freydís Aradóttir - Kópavogur, Iceland

Fríða Ágústsdóttir - Hafnarfjörður, Iceland

Kolbrún Björnsdóttir - Selfoss, Iceland

Sigrún Jóhannsdóttir - Reykjavik, Iceland

To honor these wonderful ladies and my strip stars, I am going to have a giveaway for some Amma´s Garden Fabric!!! So everybody, post a comment about the quilt or the fabric and on tuesday, april 15th I will randomly choose two of those that commented and send them a bundle of goodness!!

Newsletter is out

The March newsletter went out on March 31st, phew. I hope most of you are subscribers to it allready. I introduced a new column in the newsletter that is written by a "Stripper Expert". Her name is Francis T. Ripper or Francie Stripper as I like to call her, and she will be giving some great advice on stripping (quilter style) in every newsletter from now on. She leaked the names of the two new strip quilts coming out in the newsletter....can you believe it, ha ha ha! She is lots of fun and has a fabulous taste in clothes don't you think?

We got 2 new strip quilts done on our little cabin getaway and you have allready seen a sneak peek of one of them. The quilts came back from Rita (my fabulous long arm quilter) on monday and she did an awesome job, as always. So here is a sneak peek of the other one......you will see full photo's soon, they are headed to the photographer tomorrow. This quilt is so fun and the colored fabrics really pop off the backgrounds. This pattern is called STRIP OFF!! But you will have to wait, it won't come out until may.