Kiruna and more

After a couple of days filled with mountains and lakes and mosquitos we reached the civilization again. It is the northernmost city in Sweden, Kiruna.
Maybe it´s mostly known for the mine but also for its church. A very special building. Inside nearly everything was made of dark wood. Very special....but "cool".

In that town I also found a very special quilt store, don´t remember the name, sorry. But there where lots of beautiful fabric - my style. Couldn´t resist this reindeer fabric - what a souvenir.

After that visit it was time for the wilderness again. This is a picture of Kebenekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden. A beautiful view.

Just beside that lake was this hamburger bar called Lap Dånalds. A hamburger made of reindeer meet and a cold beer together with that veiw, that is what I call quality of life.

More beauty! Lots of clean water, fantastic to drink.

Even more water!

And mountains! Driving up high,,,,,

......up to the highest situated road in Sweden, passing Stekenjokk. This high location was our home for one night.

Guess who´s sitting here, stitching.....wrong, it´s not my hubby!

Tomorrow I will show you the last pictures from our trip, then we went home again.

But on Friday it´s time for another trip, going south. Of course we have to visit the southernmost place too this summer, within a month.

Happy stitching and take care,

Helena

Follow that reindeer!

Towards another neighbour country, Norway.

Reindeer on the road! Look at that white one....cute!

Just "around the corner" we found Norway and started to drive towards the coast. Now we had come north of Sweden, far away from home.

I love Norway, it´s so beautiful when the high mountains meet the sea.

Why did it have to rain when we came to Tromsö? But I loved that town anyway. Cute wooden houses, small streets and hills.

Look at the view, quite cloudy, but if you take a closer look you can see high mountains in the background.

More than 5000 km on the road, did I just sit there? No, of course not. A lot of stitches were made. I started this hexagon quilt last summer, but this year it has grown even bigger....

How fun is it? This is my road trip project. More hexies next weekend.....

Happy stitching and take care,

Helena

Visiting "Treriksröset"

That´s the place where three countries meet, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
We chose to go there from the Finnish village Kilpisjärvi.

You can walk all the way if you want to, but we decided that a boat trip to start with was the best choice.

When you leave the boat you are in Sweden.

Walking. It´s not a river, it had been a rainy day.....perfect for the mosquitos, big as elephants....

Beautiful views....

It´s not easy to get there.....

....it´s in the middle of a lake.

Here I am. I believe I´m in Sweden, but I´m not sure. Maybe it´s Norway....or Finland.
If you walk around that stone you have been in three countries. That´s why I´ve been in Finland a lot of times now.
This is not only a border of three countries, it´s also the northernmost place in Sweden.

Tomorrow I will take you to Norway....

******

Here are the stitching pictures for today:

This one was finished earlier this summer.

You can find the pattern in Fat Quarter, the Swedish quilt magazine.

Happy stitching and take care,

Helena

The Artic Circle

Far away from home, passing the Artic Circle. Here begins the midnight sun area.

You have to drive carefully. Reindeers on the road!

On the Finnish side of the border. There are 999 more lakes......?!

The northernmost village in Sweden, Karesuando, in this shop you could buy everything......almost.

Straight up north, just turn on the auto pilot and relax......

Follow me to the northernmost place in Sweden tomorrow.....

.....but even today there will be a stitching picture.
I´ve finished an UFO, what a wonderful feeling. And it´s up on the wall, all in the same day!!!!
It was only the loops that were missing. why?

Do you remember my cups? Maybe not, it wasn´t yesterday......

Happy stitching and take care,

Helena

Back south

...and back in Syverkstan again after a couple of weeks on the road. We have been far up north, living in our mobile home. It has been a wonderful time, the nature is fantastic, sooooo beautiful.

But it´s nice to be back, I´ve missed my sewing machines and my computer and everything.
Do you think I haven´t stitched? Wrong! A lot of hexies are added to my quilt, but I need more loooong trips to finish it.... It´s a big one.


We started in the morning, and as we live far south in Sweden there has been a lot of driving, more than 5000 km. The first day we drove trough Stockholm and up along the east coast.


Next day we reached Höga Kusten, "The high coast" where you can find this bridge.

Next stop, Umeå. And yes, it´s called Björkarnas stad (The town of birches) and that was true. Birches everywhere, along all the streets, wonder how many.....

This one we found in the river. We parked our car on the quay and everytime I looked out, OMG! A little bit scary....


We drove on, up along the coast and reached Piteå. We just had to visit their famous beach, but, too cold for me. That´s something that´s better at home, the beaches.

Here is my travel companion, my hubby Conny. In the background you can see the Finnish border.
It was the first time for me in Finland, but now I´ve been there about ten times. More about that later. It was just a short visit in Finland. Our trip went on along the border, mostly on the Swedish side. More pictures tomorrow, further up north......

But before I stop for today I have to show you something from the stitching world too.
Another sneek peak from my web site. It´s real close now!


Happy stitching and take care,

Helena

Still stitching.....

This is one of the projects I´m working on just now. It´s a stitchery for my web site......



Take care,

Helena

Sneak peek

Working hard....a sneak peek....this is for my web site.....tutorials.....soon.....

But not only working....have to go outside....beautiful....

Last week I took a trip to my summer paradise....words not needed....






Stitching, stitching, stitching.....that´s my life.....and a bit of HTML....soon it will be there - my web site.

Take care,

Helena