String Quilt progress, and more Kalevala jewelry

I have been busy with my String Quilt, and all 88 blocks are now joined, the borders cut from dark blue but not yet from the foundation fabric. I'm going to make the borders double layer, like the blocks are, because my border fabric is very light. I bought the batting and found the backing in my stash. This quilt participates in Stephanie's challenge, but especially my own: Use your stash - sew more so you can soon buy new fabrics!

This week I have a meeting so I can't go to class, but I will work on this later at home. I have some secret projects to finish first. They are so much fun, too bad I can't show you anything (yet).

In my last post I showed some of my old Kalevala jewelry. I often wear a new one, too, and it comes with a story.

The name of this pendant is Talon sydän, the heart of the house. This is a modern design, in the spirit of the ancient brooches and pendants. The little heart hanging inside the big one represents at the people of the house/home. I won this silver pendant as a second prize for a tactile book in a challenge by a Finnish sewing magazine Suuri Käsityölehti, and the Celia library for the blind. Unfortunately I have no pictures of my book, because I have misplaced the CD they were on. The name of the book was given, A Book of Secrets, and I wrote my own story and made the pictures for it. The book was donated to the Celia library.

This made me think of another challenge by that magazine where I was also lucky. The challenge was to make your own family tree using any method of textile handicraft. I didn't win this time either, but was one of the 2nd to 6th, together with my daughter Kaija. We all had the same prize, garden tools by Fiskars. The first prize was a golden Kalevala jewelry necklace, but I already had it in bronze, so the secateurs were welcome too! Here is our tree, with the three-dimensional leaves by Kaija:

I have embellished the tree with all kinds of things representing us, like the scissors for Kaija (she was very keen on sewing her own clothes at that time), the fishing fly for Mr. K (tied by him, of course) and the bicycle for his father and grandfather. I guess the laundry on the line is for all the women, with home-sewn clothes. Of course, all materials were from stash even then.  I hope my handicraft skills have improved a little during the years.

The weather today is sunny, it is getting really warm in the sun even when the temperature is in the freezing figures all day. The nights are still cold so the snow will stay for weeks. New snow in the forecast for the weekend! I will not be needing my garden tools in months!