New project, and swan news

This week I was looking for a nice hand sewing project for Tour de France, and came across a leftover block from an earlier project. I unpicked the outer row and two hexagons and had this flower for my new Grandmother's Garden:

When I first started blogging, it was to get this quilt finished at last after working on it on and off during 11 summers and leaving it to mature for several years before the final push in 2008.

My daughter's quilt has 2,226 little hexagons, hand pieced and hand stitched. I'm still going to work that way, and use the same fabrics I had chosen for the big quilt, but this time the quilt will just be a little one. I will share this process with you, and I promise it will not take 17 years!

The reason why I needed a new project was that I finished the previous one. I had been knitting beanies and a scarf for Jan's Oz Comfort Quilt projects. Here I used some super soft and fine yarn Stephanie has sent me:

Here is the multi-coloured green beanie again with two others I knitted with my leftover yarns.

I mentioned in my stash use report the clothespin aprons I made. Here is mine, hanging on the washline waiting for the laundry to dry. The fabric is ' "Klopins" - Sven A. Gefeldt - Design Finnish Linen printed exclusively for Nordiska Kompaniet'. Nordiska Kompaniet is a big warehouse in Sockholm, Sweden. The fabric used to be curtains in our utility room when Scandinavian Design was getting very famous, in the 1950-60's. Now the curtains are faded and stained, but they can have a new life in close contact with real clothespins. In case you wonder, the design is white clothespins on yellow background.

Some weeks ago I went to the village centre to take pictures of the swan family, last year's couple with five new cygnets, who had been seen there again. On that day there were big lawn mowers working around the pond, and a man with a trimmer too, so the peace-loving birds had moved back to the smaller, more quiet pond where they nest. Last week I was lucky to have my camera with me on an early morning walk. The pond was quiet and the weather was beautiful.

One of the swan parents was there! They obviously take some time off from childcare and fly in turns to this bigger pond for some private time and a quiet breakfast without interruptions.

I stayed behind a tree and hardly moved when I took several pictures of this whooper swan, but maybe the click of the camera was too loud for him after a while. I felt he was saying something about staring and privacy, so I put the camera away and walked home. I had private cup of tea and some newspaper reading without interruption and without anyone staring at me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the cygnets' flight practice at the end of the summer when they need to get to these wider waters in order to have long enough landing strips.