December 11 - More of Villa Cooper

We have come to the other end of the dining room. The beautiful cupboard is filled with angels.

Blue wreaths - our theme is Blue and White Christmas this year.

More of the blue and white things. Many of these participated in our "My gift for Finland" competition.

Little Christmas trees for the tree or table.

Fabric hearts in many colours.

To be continued ...

More Christmas

This time an elk-looking reindeer Rudolf with an angel friend Celeste and two little Santas Shorty and Skinny. Celeste's star on a stick keeps falling and her ribbon wings are askew, but they all seem like a happy little group.

Guarding Elf

This little elf with a big beard found a place at the round little window. Christobel the Angel used to sit there, but she claimed it was too cold for her, and also uncomfortable for her long legs.

Day Two

Two angels were leading Santa's parade.

I remember the wire and gauze wings I got to wear for the school's Christmas play, impossible to keep straight.
If you are interested to follow a more artistic and not at all Christmas themed Advent Calendar, here is your link to my dear daughter's blog Paperiaarre. She will be showing her 24 boxes, one each morning until Christmas Eve.

Knitting Angel

 

 

I made this years ago for my mother.

Secrets Revealed

This weekend we went to Tampere to celebrate my Mother's 93rd birthday. Every one of her six children was there, together with two of her sons-in-law and both her daughters-in-law. The youngest grandchild, the only one still living with his parents - my younger son - was representing the next generation. Mother had cooked a giant soup for us which I helped finish, and everyone brought something to share as well, like drinks or bread or cakes or pies. Like in the old times, we all squeezed around the big dining table and enjoyed a delicious meal. - Thank you everyone who sent her congratulations! She was planning the celebration we will have in seven years.

Now I can reveal my secret project, a birthday present for my mother. It is a bedspread for her double bed, matching the curtains I made for her new bedroom four years ago. The big print was originally bought and cut to be curtains by my sister P, but she never finished them. I used the main part of the fabric for the curtains, edged with solid blue.

Now I just cut the remaining prints in biggish squares, added frames in the blue and solid white. I had just enough print (because I found some more at a flea market) for a border around the quilt, and blue for the binding.

My other secret project was a custom order of three more Unicef dolls for my sister Maija. She now has six of her own, representing herself - the first one I made for her - and all her sisters and brothers.

On Tuesday, when my sister P was visiting me, I asked her to change the eyes I had made for the doll representing her. P has heavy eyelids, and she had told me the doll should have too. I had no time to make a new doll from scratch, so all she could do was make up the doll's face. I think it turned out just perfect! The dresses of the dolls T and P are made from each sister's original dress scraps. These dolls are numbers 42 to 44 on my list. I'm still dreaming of making at least 50 of them in total. Unicef gets the adoption fee of minimum 20 €, which will rescue one real child's life through the vaccinations Unicef will buy and arrange for the child.

On Friday I had to deliver stuff for the Christmas Shop at Villa Cooper - why are all the deadlines so close to another? - and luckily I found quite a lot of things that didn't sell last year. Let's just hope the buyers will like them now. I also made some new angels, my main Christmas item. These can stand on a table or a shelf.

The other group prefers hanging around.

This was all for now. Today we have been raking leaves in our yard (yes I know it is kind of late for that) as the snow has melted away and the weather was good. 30 heaps wait for transport to the leave composting area in the back yard! Yesterday morning the temperature was -11C (12 F), and today we had + 4 C (39 F). The winter doesn't know if it should come already.

Planning ahead would protect you from nasty surprises

This picture has nothing to do with my current doings, but I have only been hand quilting like a maniac so there is nothing new to show. This is a group of Christmas angels I made some time ago. They are busy with baking gingerbread hearts and decorating the house with stars and red hearts, an one has notes for their chorus parctice.

My unability to think very far ahead has protected me from becoming desperate with my deadline for the Grandmother's garden quilt. You see, I just started quilting on Valentine's day and thought that April 19th is really far away. Then I noticed that my quilting lines are too far apart, so I started quilting the "middle" hexagons (over 200 of them) last week. And then, last night, it really hit my brain that there are the empty areas of the framing I used to get the edges straight. They will pucker and sack and look awful when the batting shrinks. There are four largish triangles on each long side of the quilt. By the time I finish the hundred and something hexagons still to be quilted I will have found a nice way to solve the newest problem. It will probably be appliqued hexagons with quilting around them like I'm doing now, scattered in the empty areas, or just hexagonal quilting, or both.

My teacher has promised me that unfinished work can also be exhibited, but I'm still really trying to finish by the end of next week.

Lucky winner

Yesterday I was busy making a bag from my new Japanese book. I made it bigger and in many ways different, but I was inspired by the picture. I also made a stupid mistake but noticed it so late that I decided to ignore it and just try to make it disappear: I sewed the side ends together before a) adding the floral print to the top, b) adding the batting, and c) quilting the whole thing. Pictures will come when I have finished the project. I still need lining with pockets, and the handles.


Today is very windy and snow is falling. My husband is away for the day (usually he comes home for lunch), and so I have to take me by foot to the train. In this weather, and because it is slippery again, it will take about half an hour. Luckily I'm going to have a haircut, which is always nice, so it is not so bad after all. And I had a good start for my own time this morning when I came to the computer. I always check my e-mail first, and there was a message from Karen. I won one of the pincushions on her giveaway! I don't know which one I'll get, but I think they are both lovely.


Because I don't have any new pictures of my recent work, I show something I have made ages ago. This little "everyday angel" has a mouth and rosy cheeks, too, but my pictures are not always perfect. I wish you all a good day and a smile on your face.