What's new at the fair, and stash use report for October

It takes me days to recover from a short trip, but today I'm ready to tell you about the exciting trip to Germany and back. Only on the day before we left we knew the strike threatening our flight was over and we could fly as scheduled to Hamburg. There we missed a train by minutes and had to wait an extra hour for the next train to Hannover. On the way back home we just had to change from a train to a bus and back again on another train to get to the airport so that the normally 25 minutes ride took more than 45 minutes. Careful travellers as we are, we were prepared and had still enough time to catch our flight. I could very well live without all this excitement.

At the fair, the EuroBLECH 2010 Exhibition I concentrated on comparing the methods of sheet metal working with my work with fabrics. They weld the edges together and we sew a seam by machine. They spot weld, and we can baste.  They rivet, we pin. They use roller seam welding in cases like where we need to add some piping in a seam. They use presses and cutting tools, laser or water jet to cut out shapes, we use a template and a roller cutter or the sophisticated GO! cutter. I think this satisfies your curiosity about the fair. It was spread in 9 giant halls, so we walked several km on both days. The machine colours were pretty much the same as two years ago, maybe purple is more up and gray and green are disappearing colours.

Saturday was our holiday, and we walked a little in the pedestrian area of my sister's home town:

It was Halloween there too, and we saw these little pumpkins at the market.

The most exciting part of my trip was the meeting with Suzie on Thursday after the fair. I was so happy to finally meet her, and it really felt like meeting an old friend. We sat down at a café for cappucino and latte and a nice long chat. I had such a lovely time, just sitting there, letting my feet take a rest, and enjoying Suzie's company. We also exchanged presents, and here is what she made for me:

The cutest little pumpkin pin cushion! She also gave me these sewing themed fabrics, both new to me and I have not seen either of them here in the shops.

This is the bag she carried as indentification, and it was also meant for me. So suitable for our coffee time.

She included something more, but I don't know if I can show it yet, because there are others who will receive something in the same line from her. It is very beautiful and useful. Naturally I forgot to take pictures of what I packed as my gifts for her, but who cares.

The next day we started to the fair very early so we could spend some time in Hannover for shopping afterwards, and finished the shopping in the local shops on Saturday. Here are my new fabrics, 3.4 m in total.

And here with the rest of my shoppings: handles for the Ladyfingers bag by Stephanie, black and blue quilting thread, and in the background is some heavier fusible pellon.

The change in my stash in October was negative: I bought those 3.4 m of fabrics, and only used 1.3 m for sewing my little blue bag, some gifts and giving away some bits to Suzie. I hope November will be better because there will be so much sewing for Christmas.

I'm off for a trip abroad

This has been a busy time, making things not to be shown yet and preparing for an exciting trip to Germany. Exciting for two reasons: only this morning we heard on the news that the strike is over which threatened to cancel Finnair flights and we can travel in the afternoon as scheduled, and exciting because I'm not only meeting my sister Maija, but I'm also going to meet Suzie of Littlebusybee! We (Mr. K and I) are visiting the EuroBLECH Sheet Metal Working Technology Exhibition (can a girl ask for more?) and staying at Maija's house like so many times before. For tomorrow we have arranged to meet Suzie in Hannover! She lives not too far from there, so we finally can sit down with a cup of tea and meet face to face. We have been good blogging friends for over two years already.

Before the snow covers everything here for many months, I thought I could show you some before and after pictures of Mr. Kotkarankki's five-year project in our yard. Like I have mentioned in some blog posts and e-mails, he is building us a new terrace for coffee drinking out in the open air. This will be the path to the said terrace, picture taken last year when he started by removing the old concrete tiles (under the sauna window by the wall).

Here is the same area this week, with new tiles and new soil for a small lawn. We can't plant anything here because this is where the snow falls from the roof all winter and stays a little longer in spring. The first snow we had two weeks ago lasted several days but it is all gone now, and there have been sunny days. It is cold though, and the ponds in the village are for a large part covered in thin ice. The swan family and ducks are still there.

This is the newly paved area late this summer.

Back to last year: here it all started. The old concrete tiles are gone and Mr. K has started to build a very good foundation for the new terrace. Frost can make such tricks in our climate, if the foundation is not properly built. The old terrace had some dales and hills and no chance to place a table steadily any more.

This summer's picture is taken from another angle. Everything is built on level here, measured twice and some more (I was at the other end of the tape most times), and just waiting for the boards next summer. The black square you can see down on the lawn is the roof of the new pump house Mr. K built on top of our old well so we can get water for the garden hose and for the little spring to be built in the old round swimming pool he has filled with sand, on the right lower corner here.

 

All I have been able to do here to help was to make coffee and bring him bottles of cool mineral water when he was working during the hot summer days and evenings. Now it is time to put the hoe, showel and rake aside and concentrate on preparing the garden for winter. I'm grateful to have a lovely husband like Mr. K. I'm happy to go with him to the big machines at the fair and see how they cut and bend and weld and drill sheet metal, and be his interpreter and act like I understood something about the things. There will be a break in blogging (like that would be some news at the pace I have been posting in the last weeks) and a travel report will follow some time next week. I know it is not as interesting for you as a quilt show would be, but I'll do my best.