Autumn is a new beginning

September means the beginning of Autumn and (old) school year, new hobbies and courses. This is how high the temperature climbed on Sunday at noon, and it was a sunny day:

 

 

 

9 C, or 48 F if you prefer. It is not warm any longer, and I have worn gloves already. It is time to put away the summer clothes and start wearing comfortable sweaters that mercifully cover most of me. Yesterday I noticed the first maples that had changed colour from green to red and yellow and orange. Autumn leaves are also in these fabrics Stephanie sent me some time ago:

These fabrics I bought in the Spring for  some future project.:

 

And here are my newest fabrics from a trip to Helsinki a few weeks ago:

 

 

 

Looks like I'm well prepared for different kinds of Autumn projects. Melanie is organising Craft Olympics for anyone interested, and for the first time in my life I'm being called an athlete:

 

The simple rules of the game are at the end of Melanie's post here. My plans are not all set yet, but I think my five crafts will be

1. Wool appliqué (my almost new craft)

2. Something knitted

3. A quilt

4. Some stitchery

5. Needle-turn appliqué as my new craft

 

The deadline for all projects is the end of this year, and the projects are as small or big as you like. Sneak peeks are allowed, so you can very well include secret Christmas projects in your list. Melanie has a list of all athletes on her blog. When you have completed a craft just let her know, with a link to your blog post showing the finished project, and get a thimble for your own sidebar. Once you have finished all five crafts, you can show five thimbles like  the Olympic rings. Melanie tells more about the Craft Olympics in this post.

 

Guess how many jars of apple sauce I cooked this morning? 22. You can't even notice I have picked two buckets full of apples from the lawn. This was the beginning of apple cooking season.

Farmers' and Crafters' Market, and finally a quilt top

Last Saturday was the first weekend of September, and time for the 20th annual Maa Elää event in Järvenpää. It is a bigger than usual Farmers' and Crafters' market and harvest fair with nearly 200 stalls instead of the under 10 on a normal Saturday. There is often also an exhibition of old tractors or lorries. The first one is a grey Fordson from the very early '50s. See how small it is!

 

 

 

This red beauty is a Valmet, made in Finland.

 

 

The green one is Zetor from Czechoslovakia. The blue one in the background is another Fordson, in case you are interested.

 

 

The scent of the apples was delicious. I must start cooking my apples now too, but our eating apples are almost no longer good. They can't be stored, cooked or baked, just eaten fresh. These stalls were on the market place.

 

 

The rows of stalls reached all the way to the end of the pedestrian area. New harvest: honey and garlic, separately and together.

Autumn's flowers

more of them

Autumn wreaths made of birch twigs or willow, and hand made jewelry.

Hand knitted wool socks in every size and colour. There were stalls with beautiful handicrafts, but the best ones were hidden behind buyers' backs so no pictures of linen dresses, more hand made jewelry or gorgeous knitted scarves and hats.

 The day was chilly but luckily there was no rain.

My craft room has finally something to show. I have added a white border and a multicolour piano key border to my Helping Hands quilt top. Choosing a backing is the next step.