Stash use report for March

This should be the beginning of Spring, and the shops are full of daffodils in yellow pots. They can cope about -10C /+14F, and I planted some to replace the faded Callunas of last Autumn. After their first day we had some new snow again, and then two nights with -15C/+5F. About half of my flowers have frozen to death, but many have survived. I hope the nights will be warmer from now on.

One more birthday present, a rusty brown and red shawl knitted by my sister Maija. I'm wearing it now around my neck with my winter coat, but it will be lovely in Summer on my shoulders too. Kiitos, Maija!

As you can see in the picture, there is quite a lot of snow on the ground and it will take weeks before the first Snowdrops raise their heads through the last snow.

My stash seems to be growing, but there is a perfectly good explanation: My favourite fabric shop will close in the Summer when the owner lady retires, and she started selling everything 30 % off the normal price from the 1st of April. I was looking for some white flannel for baby quilt backings, and as she didn't have any, she sold me some in red, and gave me the special price in advance. As the cotton prices are expected to go up, it is only rational to buy now.

This is the pieced backing of my 9-patch quilt, with some 9-patches in different sizes just for fun. I had to piece the backing as I couldn't buy new fabric for it, to meet Anne Marie's challege rules.

I wondered how stupid a quilter can be. You see, I straightened the edges for the binding and cut exactly at the points of the red sashings, thinking the white points will be sharp anyway. And then I machine stitched the binding on, and spent three nights hand sewing the three edges before I was too annoyed with the cut-off red points.

So the stupid quilter unpicked the binding, ironed it again , cut a bit from all 4 sides of the quilt and started sewing the binding back on. It is almost done now, so I can count the backing and binding to my March fabric use.

This is something else I did in March, after Melanie sent me the adorable book on Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery by Jan Messent.  The book is about ancient embroidery and the new use of the stitches and pictures by the author. Beautiful, inspiring pictures of her work. Melanie had sent me some plant-dyed threads earlier, and some perlé threads a year ago, so I thought I would use them to make her a small picture of the Kalevala Jewelry bird I sent her for her birthday. I added some antique silk threads from my Great Auntie Saima. My design and stitches reveal that this is my very first attempt, but I had great fun while making it, and Melanie understands all the hidden meanings important for both of us.

A few weeks ago we had a visitor from Belgium in our sewing class, and to give her a feel of quilting I helped her sew one QAYG block from my strings for the Oz Comfort Quilts. I made one too, and hope to get at sewing some more for a new delivery later this month. Counting all these projects together I have used 4.5 m of fabrics from my stash in March, but also bought 5.5 m new fabris. Increase: 1 m. I need to finish lots of projects in April to make the figures look better!

VTT 9 - Silver Kalevala jewelry

This week my blog seems to celebrate the Finnish Kalevala Jewelry, as I'm showing you the rest of my old pieces. I saved the silver ones for this week, and don't worry, I don't have any golden Kalevala jewelry so there will be something else here next time!

Let's start with three thin bracelets:

I like the simple, geometric patterns and the patina they came with - it's not that I forgot to polish them!

This other bracelet I had as a gift after confirmation school at age 15. It suits a young girl as well as someone older, and the simple decoration feels timeless. The bracelet is no longer produced, but the ring with this pattern is still on the list. The prototype for this pattern has been found in archaeological digs in Western Finland.

The last piece is a brooch my mother gave me when I was already grown up, it was hers a long time before that:

Again, the brooch is no longer produced but a similar pattern is used for earrings. The manufacturer's website gives no information of the origin of the pattern, but it is obviously an old symbol.

This was my story for today's Vintage Thingies Thursday. Suzanne is hosting, and I hope her link list is getting longer!

Happy VTT!

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!

VTT 8 - Bronze Kalevala jewelry

Thursday again, and time to dig up the vintage treasures. Sometimes I think there can't be anything worth showing any more, because I'm not an active collector, I don't go to places and buy new to me vintage thingies. Then I look around and see that practically everything here is vintage, because I'm old enough. Even our wedding presents are very soon to be counted as vintage.

This week I'm showing you some of my oldest bronze Kalevala jewelry, just because we celebrated the 175 years of  Kalevala on the 28th of February. Kalevala jewelry was originally based on archeological finds from around the 11th century and newer also. They are not exact copies, but always true to the spirit of the old finds. Usually they are made in bronze, silver and gold, often the gold version being smaller. Here is a video about the production.

This heart pendant is still produced, but mine is from my school days in the 60's. 1960's I mean.

The little brooch represents the sun.

And finally a bracelet, really dark now but this one is also bronze:

I just now remembered I also have another bronze bracelet, you can see the picture and the story here. Bracelets are not so easy to wear when you are doing something with your hands, so I keep forgetting about them. The pendants and brooches look not too festive in everyday use because the material is bronze. It is my favourite material for this kind of jewelry.

I hope I didn't bore you to death with all this history info, I sometimes get a little carried away. More fun finds are listed at Suzanne's blog Coloradolady. Happy VTT!