From Head to Toe - a gift to a fellow knitter

In February 2014 Dolores  mentioned a new BOM From Head to Toe - A Knitter's Gifts by Denise Russart, and it sounded interesting. Each block was only available until the next one was published, so I collected the patterns just in case. At the end of January I decided to start sewing the quilt. Only two sock blocks were pieced, all the ones with round shapes were appliqued, and the long scarf and six mittens were paper pieced.

I used my bright fabrics for a change to cheer up the dark Winter days, and because this was going to be a gift for a rainbow colour loving girl. Most of the blocks don't look like knitted items but I didn't have very many striped fabrics. I used mostly small print florals and solids.

At this stage I decided the quilt was large enough so I left out the final, wider border. I was happy to use Mr K.'s knee pads again, and about 200 safety pins.

I used two pink bed sheets for the backing and the lavender fabric from the scarf for the binding. The fringes and the mitten strings I made with a  1/4" bias maker. For the applique I used a heat and bond material and my machine's blanket stitch, so it went pretty quickly.

I managed to quilt along the sashings and around some of the shapes in the biggest blocks, but this huge quilt and my not very long arm machine didn't work together too well. The batting is polyester so it will stay in place with less quilting.

I had some very exciting days when I waited for the parcel to arrive at its destination, because a smaller package mailed at the same time reached England several days earlier. Luckily it finally arrived, and still on time for Melanie's birthday. The quilt will keep her warm when she sits knitting next winter.

A new project and some new houses

Mr. K has been building new houses again, for our little friends. If you click the picture, you can count four in the trees. One came to replace an old one the squirrels had used, and one of the old bird houses was damaged when we had to cut down some birches.

 

 

The morning after the six new houses were put in the trees and four other ones spring cleaned - did you know the birds make their own spring cleaning too? - I saw house hunters at four new houses. Here is a blue tit, he chased some great tits away as he was showing this place to his sweetheart.

 

This is a birch where we never had a birdhouse before, but it was obviously a good place, because there were many young couples interested to see the house. "A modern, compact house in a respected area", I think. An old birch would possibly have natural holes tits use for their nests. The titmouse went in and spent a long time checking the workmanship. I hope there will be happy families in all the birdhouses so we can enjoy watching birds during the non-feeding season too.

 

 

My new  project suitably begins with a birdhouse stitchery:

 

The first row for Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring ROM (Row of the Month) is almost done. Tonight I will stitch a juicy big carrot and add that block to the end of the row.

I'm using all kinds of scraps from my stash, recycling plaid shirts and whatever happens to please my eye. The light outdoors is strangely blue in the last picture, where my row is on the snow. Yes, still plenty of that on the ground, and we had some new snow on Sunday and Monday, to brighten up the world. - This quilt should be finished in the Autumn so I think I can find a suitable category for it in the Craft Olympics Sylvia is hosting this year.

Special treats and new challenges

We continue our sightseeing tour in Järvenpää. This is Halosenniemi, the studio and home of Pekka Halonen from 1902. He was one of the artists of the Golden era of Finnish art. Melanie introduced another local artist of that time in her travel report here, Venny Soldan-Brofelt. We visited her 150th birthday exhibition at the art museum of Järvenpää.

 

Because Melanie is such a fan of Villa Cooper, I wanted her to see the "sister villa", Sibelius' Ainola.

The roof of this home museum has been repaired during the winter and the place will open for the public again in May. The timber walls have been boarded over at an early stage, but you can see details like at Villa Cooper.

This is an earlier picture of Villa Cooper, the big dining room windows facing town.

Melanie brought me a suitcase full of girly treats for a birthday tea. I had asked her about scones and clotted cream, so she brought those too, along with strawberry marmalade. We ate the scones ages ago, but I tried the delicious ingredients on biscuits and on toast too. The marmalade goes first:

Yumm! Here you see the wrapping from the container ....

.. and read some history:

 

In exchange, we gave Melanie a chance to try a Finnish specialty, which could also be worth a Protected Designation of Origin, mämmi:

 

 

Mämmi is a traditional Easter or Lent food, made of rye, malt and water slowly baked in the oven. It has a porridge-like consistency and is served with sugar and cream. Melanie is either really well behaved or she just happened to like it, because after the test spoonful she had a normal serving like the one in my picture.

 

Now that the busy season with birthdays, Easter and Melanie's visit is over I have had time to join this year's Craft Olympics, now hosted by Sylvia. If you need deadlines (at the end of this year!), have UFO's (new category) and feel like having company when doing your projects, you can click the button on my sidebar and find the new rules for this year's Craft Athletes. Sylvia hosts both in German and in English. Be a good sport and join in! My other new project is a BOM at Kaaren's blog, The Painted Quilt. Happy Scrappy Spring only started yesterday so there is still time to join in and make a scrappy quilt with some stitcheries and some wool applique. I'm planning to make this quilt entirely from stash, preferably with recycled fabrics. The instructions for the whole first row are waiting! A button on my sidebar will take you to Kaaren's blog.

Raggedy & Friends BOM 2, Bird news

The Summer is coming to an end, evenings are getting darker and the nights cooler, and so the TV is also getting back to routine and sending less re-runs. There is time to sit in front of our favourite programs and spend the time usefully, with a knitting or stitching. Raggedy Andy tried posing for Block 2 of Kaaren's BOM Raggedy & Friends.

This is my block finished:

Red summer apples fall from the tree. They don't make good apple pie but taste nice just so to eat. I have two big buckets by the mailbox, with a sign OTA OMENOITA, Take apples! I'm pleased to see the buckets getting empty in a day or two. I take the last, bad ones to the compost and pick new buckets.

Our tomatoes are ripening in the sun. The tiny ones taste better than the normal bigger ones. We had 5 last night, sweet and delicious. Let's hope for more sunny days, there are SO many green ones still. Maybe I should bind the leaves so the sun can reach the tomatoes?

Coot Club news: In addition to the Whooper Swan family nesting in the village for the second year, I saw a new bird in one of the ponds. This is the best picture I could take; the bird was diving before I could focus on it.

 

It was big and almost totally black when I saw it in flight, and the next moment it was diving in the pond. It was swimming very deep in the water so I couldn't estimate the size too well. Mr. K asked a bird spotter friend what my bird might be, and he told us that a Great Cormorant has been spotted here. I had thought that impossible, as we are 50 km inland, and there aren't even any big lakes but only small ponds around here. Yesterday we saw the bird better - without camera, naturally - and it really was true. The Cormorant is not a welcome visitor (you can read the reasons in the Wikipedia link), but I don't think they will ever start nesting here. I prefer the swans!

January Block

Finally I have something self made to show again. I'm making my first ever BOM, a country calendar from Ellies Quiltplace, and this is my version of the January block:

The pattern is for embroidery but can also be made as an appliqué like I did. Only the details are embroidered in my block. I decided to use the Finnish names of the months, and my hand written letters ended up a little wonky. I will finally join all the blocks together to make a wall hanging, so this will be a long project!

If you are interested, there is still time to join the fun. Just click the button in my right sidebar. You can also find the photo gallery where people have sent their version of the first block. I think they are very inspiring!