Wednesday 13 March 2024

To pass the time

The Winter has been long and my energy levels low, but my needles have been busy anyway. Here is the collection I have finished this year: socks in different sizes and some mittens too.


The quilt top is now waiting for some final ironing. I need to put the backing together from two unused sheets before I can layer the quilt for machine quilting.


When the weather is not good or the pavements too icy, I prefer to stay in the house and do something fun, like putting together the jigsaw puzzles together with Mr. K. This one was especially tricky, and irritating at the same time.  


The pieces were sawed in a peculiar way so the rows didn't hold together sideways except in the top and bottom edges. Anyway, we managed to finish it before taking the photo above:
 


I love the old fashioned pictures on many of my puzzles, like this couple:


I don't like cats, but this puzzle was fun as it was so tricky. The boxes don't have a photo of the puzzle so it will always be a surprise to see the finished picture.


I wish the snow and ice would melt away!

Thursday 1 February 2024

The new year's first quilt

After a holiday break from everyday routines I have started a new quilt. I chose ten or so blue and white(ish) plaids from my endless stash and made lots of HST's with white. Trimming them to 2½" took a long time.



Almost all the 2½" white squares I needed were just loitering in my 2½" squares box, so it didn't take long to finish the strips for the other sides of my blue stars.


I used the same plaids for the 4½" center squares. I thought I would need 24 stars but made 28 just in case I wanted the quilt a little wider or longer. 


Now the stars are all ironed and stacked away, waiting for the next burst of inspiration and wondering how the alternating blocks will turn out. 

Tuesday 19 December 2023

The Best Mittens Ever

Knitting is my favorite craft nowadays. I have been improving my mitten design with every pair I have knitted, and I think I have reached my goal with this pair. The pattern is one my Grandmother used a lot, but I have changed the overall design. Instead of her ribbed wrist in one color, the pattern begins at the wrist and continues all the way to the thumb and the tip of the fingers. As the pattern uses lifted stitches, the rows are tight together and thus warmer. Granny's thumb and top of the mitten were in plain stockinette in one color, so our fingertips were easily cold.



See how beautifully the pattern continues in the thumb gusset and thumb!

The mittens are a gift, and so are the socks in Broken seeds pattern.


Our Christmas tree is a mini version on the balcony. Happy Holidays for everyone!
 

Wednesday 15 November 2023

Finished quilt

Here are some of my favorite blocks of my newest quilt. First, the last two 2½" squares from a vintage Moomin fabric from my childhood:


Some of my favorite colors,  latte and dark chocolate. I could have both right now, thank you!


My Liberty cotton blouse and a burgundy men's shirt


Two very nice and soft shirts from my dear Mr. K


I bought an extra wide satin sheet for the backing and quilted this big (for my machine) quilt in maybe four sessions.


It is about 155 cm x 205 cm or 61" x 81". Luckily the quilting went without too many problems and unstitchings.

The quilt is now for sale to support the Finnish Red Cross and through their Disaster Relief Fund to help the victims of the crisis in Ukraine. Our handicraft club's donations have brought over 4,700 € by now, and our campaign is continued as long as possible.


 

Monday 23 October 2023

New Quilt in Process

Sometimes I want to start a new quilt just to use up the hundreds of little squares I have cut from final rests of fabrics and stored in neat boxes. I made the dolls' quilts with such squares and other project rests when I was looking through my 2½" square collection. Naturally I had to cut just a few new squares to get the required number of 4-patch blocks.


For the alternating 150 HST squares I allowed myself to buy some new fabric, my all time cheerful favorite grey! The beige is from my stash. Here I was testing the arrangement of the blocks. One upside down 4-patch escaped my control and I had to unpick it later. Luckily it was so close to the end of its row! (Right end of second row from the top, to save you the trouble of finding it.)
 

And this is how far I got before I got my first flu since the pandemic started, and recovering has been very slow. The backing has been washed and ironed, and I hope to find the energy to get back to work later this week.

Wednesday 4 October 2023

Finally some new quilts

I had been itching to finish a sewing project. I'm working on a bigger quilt, using 2½" squares from my stash, but that seems to take ages. While going through my pre-cut stash I found a box of leftover bits from some really old projects. One was 1½" squares from a  QAL Between Charming Friends in 2010! Some rearranging was needed, but soon I had a sweet little quilt for dolls. I used some flannel for batting so the quilt is not too stiff for play.


In the same box was a huge collection of HST squares from the Shadow Play quilt you can still see in my header. First I made these two little quilts,


and then one more:


Naturally pillows were needed too:


After I had sewn pillowcases and sheets, my Susan tested the sets:


The HST quilts were all the same size so we only tested one.


I was going to show my newest sock in September but never had the time to take decent photos of them. Sock selfies are not easy!


"Fake Cable" pattern on my Autumn heather.


Bright colors for the coming dark and rainy days.


I like to try new patterns for my knitting but usually end up knitting stripes with yarn rests and coming back to my trusted favorite patterns for interesting surfaces. 

Monday 14 August 2023

New Mitten Collection for Winter 23/24

In spite of the warm weather I have been knitting. These are my new mittens for next Winter:


The brown and green pair on the left is closest to my grandmother's original pattern, but I wanted the thumbs to be warmer so I continued the pattern knitting all the way fro the thumb as well.


For a more modern look I started the two colored pattern from the wrist.


Then I did the same with grandmother's other pattern.


Finally I knitted a pair of Aino'S mittens in a slightly bigger size.

At the moment I have a pair of socks on my needle (yes, a pair, and yes, it's a long circular needle), but after that I think I'll look for a nice color combination for mittens again.

I hope this new setting and smaller photo size will make my blog more smart phone friendly.