This and that ..

...which means I haven't finished anything to show you but wanted to let you know I'm still here. Mr. K has finished something:

 

 

This is our new pergola/patio/terrace - I'll be happy to hear what it should be called. Our new outdoors coffee place with no roof, half walls on three sides, and a trellis for future parthenocissus or other creepers. Last Saturday we celebrated the opening of this space with most of our sisters and brothers and all our children, and their spouses. The weather was hot and sunny, and this was definitely the place to get the most sun and warmth. It was very nice to be gathered "just because".

 

My Summer flowers enjoy this warmer than usual weather. Six weeks ago they looked like this. The begonias (pink, on both sides of the Blacke-Eyed Susanna) are hiding under the other flowers now.

 

And while you looked at that post with the flower box you saw the quilt in process. It was finished a while ago, but last week I finally made the label and this week I took the Peek-a-Boo Street quilt to the nursing home where Mr. K's father lived his last years. The staff was surprised and happy to get the quilt, comfortable size for someone sitting in a wheelchair.

 

I promised to make other quilts for them in the future. I think it makes more sense than sending them to the other side of the world. I just didn't know this need excisted so close to home. A perfect address for quilts I want to make but have no space for!

 

The other day we heard a humming sound and saw something very black flying in the living room. It couldn't be a bumble bee! It was like a heavily loaded cargo aeroplane compared to a passenger plane. It bumped into the window and left a black mark, and I think it fainted and died. I swept under the sofa and found this:

 

A mini chimney sweeper! It was indeed a bumble bee that had come down the chimney and past the dampers, and it was covered in soot and therefore could not fly properly.

 

Knitted graffiti revisited:

 

 

My piece has stretched and it has been moved to the other end of the rail, and now I can touch it every time I come from the train and cross the street right here.

 

Other pieces have also moved a little, but no real damage seems to be done. I even comeared these with my old photos and I think nothing has been removed - or added after I added mine.

 

So, what is the newest red and white  building in our yard?

 

Tour de Fibre 2013 - Finale

The Tour is over for this year, and I managed to get one project finished during the three week period of watching TV and sewing. It is the Peek-a-Boo Street quilt.

 

 

Let's walk around this neighbourhood but maybe we can take a cup of coffee with cake in the café first? There is a café in both corners of this first street, and between them a fabric store and a shop that sells both sewing notions and silks for fly-tyers.

Around the corner is something for babies in two shops, yet another café (!), and a yarn shop.

 

The Lavender Shop sells herbs and spices, the next one is a music shop. The shop with the yellow roof is specialised in mushrooms, wild berries and such. I had to think hard to find a suitable product for the shop with my sun-dyed leaf fabric before I had an excelent idea: In Finnish we can use the same word, lehti, for a leaf and a newspaper or magazine, so this is a newsstand.

Along the last street runs a little brook. There is a plant nursery (because they have a very big backyard up here), the first house for flowering plants and the second for trees. Next is a place where you can buy treasure maps and all kinds of equipment you might need for adventures, and the last one is a fishing gear shop. Test fishing is possible in the brook.

 

Thank you, Stephanie for the pattern! This quilt will go to the nursing home where Mr. K's father spent his last years. It will keep someone warm when they go out in wheelchairs, or whenever their old bones feel like they need to be kept warm. This quilt is also for my Cratft Olympics, my second thimble for the New projects category.

 

Scandinavian Snowball Fun is now my main project:

 

 

And this is the secret project I started and finished during the Tour, now arrived and taken into use. It is my version of Kaffee-Momente stitcheries by Diana.

 

 

To celebrate the end of the100th Tour de France I baked a cake and had an Oops experience:

 

 

 

With a fairly liquid inside the cake collapsed, but the taste was still nice. Next time I'll need to bake longer and test more than one spot!

 

The July stitcheries of Happy Scrappy Spring are also finished and I'm putting the row together between other projects.

TdF 17 to 19 - Stitching

The binding of Peek-a-Boo Street is finished, but I'll show you the quilt when it has been ironed and the finishing touches have been added.

 

 

I have played with the June row of Happy Scrappy Spring and pieced some blocks for it. I need some new fabric to get the row finished.

 

Once again it happened to me that I cut the stitchery block too small to begin with. This time it was just half an inch too narrow, so I will adjust it by making the sashing wider here. I will add the applique later. The first little bunny will get a kite, and there will be lots of leaping bunnies, carrots and hearts over the blocks.

 

Today's weather has been rainy, but here you have some sunny day flowers.

 

 

TdF 13 to 16 - slow progress on Peek-a-Boo Street

The past few days have been busy with a secret project so I'm showing you other pictures. My old rattan basket flower table could not bear the weight of rain but fell through the frame. It was only supported by the pleated rim, and when soaked in the rain it was easily bent. I must soak it again and put it under some weight upside down on a flat surface. The geraniums will get another pot.

 

 

We have had two anniversaries over the weekend, and celebrated the beginning of our story with a wild raspberry cheesecake. Dear Mr. K went to the forest to see how the bilberries are and whether there are any chanterelles yet. Bilberries were not yet ready, chanterelles were not to be seen, but he found lots and lots of perfect, worm free wild raspberries. Delicious!

 

 

 

I have machine quilted the Peek-a-Boo Street quilt and made the binding. I just need to iron it and sew it on, and I will have a perfect TV project for tomorrow's Tour de France.

 

 

TdF 11 and 12 - I'll never be up to date!

It seems that I spend too much time watching the Tour on TV, because I'm always a day late with my posting! Anyway, the central panel for Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring is now done. I just need to make the quilt blocks for this row now, before putting it aside to wait for the applique.

 

Today I started the July stitchery, a cute little chick with an umbrella and rubber boots.

 

I have been machine quilting the Peek-a-Boo Street quilt, hoping to get the binding as my hand sewing project during the Tour. Bindings are such a dull job that they require some TV watching. The backing is a smoky blue flannel.

 

Here you have a glimpse of my new flowerbed with a malva just opening its first flowers. The background is a part of Mr. K's 5 year plan waiting for its turn.

 

 

TdF 9 and 10 - just some progress on two projects

 

This is still the June stitchery for Happy Scrappy Spring. I'm also picking fabrics for the quilt blocks in this row and in July's. I have misplaced a fabric I wanted to use for the connecting chequerboard rows, and I need to find nice wool fabrics for the applique all over the quilt. There will be bunnies, carrots, hearts and flowers at least.

 

The Peek-a-Boo Street quilt is pin basted and ready to be quilted.

TdF 5 and 6, a little this and that

Have some wild strawberries! The taste and sweetness of a big strawberry squeezed in this size, smaller than a fingertip, and add some sunshine and childhood memories, and a delicious scent. Mr. K picked these for me this morning before he went fishing with DS1.

 

I have almost finished another one of June's stitcheries for Happy Scrappy Spring, and worked on the corner blocks for Peek-a-Boo Street.

 

The babies of Pied Flycatchers came out yesterday. I noticed this one through the kitchen window, on the ground, testing his wings and his lungs. "Mama, I'm hungry! Where are you?", he was chirping. And then louder: "Mama, Papa, can't you see I'm starving? I can open my peak even bigger so you can see where to bring the food!". And finally, in a small voice: "Have you forgotten about me already? Mama, bring me at least some foooood!"

 

And then the Mama came, gave him a mosquito or two, and said: "Look, little fellow, I have others to feed too, but it is time you all start learning how to find your own food and use your wings. Everything is fine, I'm here now. Look here, there is an ant, they are easy to catch. Let me show you!"

 

Tour de Fibre 3 - The village is up

 

My Peek-a-Boo Street has the centre built and all houses are standing the right way. I must learn to keep all my seam allowances the same width! I had to make the yard of the last house along the moss green sidewalk a little bigger because the houses came out a bit narrow. Triple borders and corners with yo-yo's and flower applique will be next on this list.

 

My summer flowers start to fill the empty spaces in their box and grow nicely. Today was a fresh day after last night's thunder and rain.

Tour de Fibre 2 - building houses and roads

Look how busy I have been in the Peek-a-Boo Street! All houses are built, the garden work is done.

 

 

The pavements need to be finished. This will be such a nice street with cafés, fabric and yarn shops.

 

Wild Summer flowers in an old milk can. Have a wonderful day!

Tour de Fibre 2013/ 1 and pictures from my book fair tour

The Tour de France has started, and so has Hanne's Tour de Fibre 2013. With hours and hours of daily sitting in front of the TV, I'm trying to use that time in a creative and useful way. I'm working on Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring stitcheries.

 

 

I have also a little housing project going on. It is called Peek-a-Boo Street, and Stephanie sent me the pattern. I'm using recycled and new fabrics mixed.

 

 

 

 

Near the town of the book fair is an old stone church from the beginning of the 16th century. It is called St. Olaf's Church, and it has an interesting history.

  

 

 Like many old churches it had been replaced by a new church in town and was only used in Summer. It needed renovation, including a large restoration of the 18th century shingle roof. Volunteers completed this work, including 17,000 aspen shingles carved by hand for the roof. The renovation was finished in 1997, but only three weeks  later the church was almost entirely destroyed by arson.

 

 

What did the good people of Tyrvää do? They decided to rebuild their church, and volunteers were called again to the building work. Over the years 1997 to 2003 more than a thousand volunteers participated, with a small core group working every day.

 

You see the text Anno 2000, that is when the new roof was finished. On the other side of the building I noticed the "signature" talkoilla rakennettu - made by volunteers. This time 34,000 shingles were needed because the whole roof needed to be built again.

 

 

 

 The interior is built in the style of old churches, but the paintings are the work of two contemporary artists, Kuutti Lavonen and Osmo Rauhala.

 



 

Kuutti Lavonen painted the panels of the galleries. St. Mark with a lioness.

 

St. Luke with a lamb.

 

St. John with a young eagle.

The pulpit and the altar area have paintings by Osmo Rauhala.

Some pictures of the Story of Creation. The First Day - The Birth of Light. The swirl shows the line of movement of a dove's wing.

The Second Day - The Creation of Rain.

Altar table - The Lamb

 

The Fall of Man - Eve and the Apple, Adam and the Serpent. Rauhala didn't want to paint humans, so he used elephants to picture the Fall of Man. Female elephants offer fruit to the male as a part of their mating process.

Thirst for the Word, the deer.

Door to the sacristy seemed to be original.

Tools used in the renovation work, and some of the original shingles.

Remains of the church door after the arson.

 

The Septenary Cross in the circle on this wall was a theme in one of Lavonen's paintings too.