In Autumn we fill our cupboards and cellars

Last Wednesday I visited my mother in Tampere as a surprise to her, while Mr. K was on a fair all day in town. He brought me there very early, and as I waited for my mother to wake up, I hand sewed the binding of the Giraffe quilt. It is just plain dark brown, a leftover bit from the birthday quilt I made for my BIL in June. The length was exactly right for this little quilt when I used straight seams instead of bias to combine the strips.





This is the reverse side. The green and the dark brown are again leftovers from the Maverick star quilt, the beige is new flannel.






My visit at my mother's included, once again, a raid through her sewing room (guided by her), and another trip to the attic with my sister P, who came there in the afternoon. My loot included small and bigger bits of fabrics like this:

and some old clothes from the attic, some of them made for me by mother, others handed down from one sister to another and another and even another. We usually kept the home made clothes and recycled bought ones to the church or Salvation Army.

I think my mother has even more unfinished projects than I have, but of course she is much older than I am, so there is plenty of time to break her record! This looked like an interesting apron project. It is not just one but at least three aprons. They may have been meant for my school's fundraising fair. The mothers in the "ladies committee" made a tremendous job arranging Christmas Fairs, children's parties and other events to raise money for the school. Not only did they buy and sew curtains for the whole big school, but they managed to get a language lab with 20 sets of tape recorders, headphones and sound isolated desks in the 1960's. For my young readers I can tell that it was very advanced technology, and I spent many lessons there learning to say: I like reading my books. Ann likes reading her books. She sits there. She is sitting there. Do you want to play? Does he want to play? - And the same in French.

On Thursday I will show a couple of the dresses I saved, very vintage as they are! And if I manage to find all necessary parts to make an apron of this mess or of the other project I didn't photograph, you will see the results some day. It is so good to know there is material to work on when the dark, long evenings are just almost there! My fabric stock has never been so full before.

Now my duty calls, I have lots an lots of apples to cook. It is such a lovely, sunny, clear autumn day today. Rain is to be expected tomorrow, so I'll try to pick as much apples as I can today.