Stash Use Update

January is over and it is time for me to see how I managed with my own challenge of using my stash.
First the incoming stash: only one plaid shirt for 2 € from the thrift shop, a colour I needed for the Shadow Plaid quilt still on my list. Pretty good, I think.

Fabric used from stash:

1) A Christmas Wish BOM quilt completely from stash, 75 x 75 cm finished size

2) So far 8 pillowcases for the Hole in the Wall Gang's summer camps through Jackie:

3) three blocks for Abbe who is making a purple quilt for a dear friend:

4) by Sunday evening 28 string blocks which also qualify for Stephanie's No Strings Attached challenge:

5) I almost forgot the Country Calendar quilt!

Not too bad at all! February is such a short month so it will be difficult to beat January's results.

It has been snowing again, 8 inches since yesterday. I was clearing the driveway from the snow the snowplowman left there when plowing the street and the cycle path. It took me over an hour, and once I sank in the snow as deep as over my knees when I was taking the snow away from the street. I felt like a little girl when I came back in with my boots full of snow, my hair clinging to my forehead all sweatty, and my cheeks red like tomatoes. I even wanted to drink some cocoa, like when I was little. This time I had to make it myself.

New start and another finish

Last week I finally started my string blocks for Stephanie's No Strings Attached challenge. It also qualifies for my own Use Your Stash 2010, as everything comes from a box in my sewing room. Here are the 14 first blocks:

I think this will be a bed quilt. The blocks will be 7" finished, so I need a few more. Luckily there are more blue scraps than I can use. - Reading the blogs joining in this challenge and another one I joined last year has made me think where I'm going with my life. In real life I'm a rather shy,  usually quiet, middle aged mother of three grown kids and happily married to Mr. Kotkarankki. Last May I became a hooker when crocheting the granny squares, and now the string block ladies are writing about stripping and referring to themselves as strippers. Great Aunt Saima would have understood this kind of play with words. Oh yes, and my mother (a very talented word twister as well) has called me an angel maker because I sew angels for Villa Cooper. I don't know about the term in English but the Finnish word has been used for someone illegally helping women with unwanted pregnancies. Oh dear! Sounds far more ominous and exciting than it is.

My first real finish for this year is the Country Calendar quilt. I have been working on it all last year, and now have put the month blocks together to make a wall hanging. Finishing it I only used fabric from my stash for the sashings, corners, borders, batting, backing and binding, so this qualifies for my UYS 2010 challenge as well. I only bought the black fabric for the October block background, and it was last year.

This morning was again beautiful like from a fairy tale. I took these pictures about 8.30, twnety minutes before sunrise. It has snowed a little last night. This is my washline, waiting for warmer, sunny days:

And this is where the sun comes up, not yet East but more like Southeast:

The days get almost 10 minutes longer every day here in South Finland. Up North the change is bigger: from the 'no sun at all' day the first day has almost an hour between sunrise and sunset, and a week later the day is 3 hours 15 minutes from sunrise to sunset. By Spring Equinox their day is longer than ours, and in mid May they will have no more sunsets for 10 weeks.

New Projects

This year I'm starting my Christmas preparations early. I have already packed the Christmas ornaments and lights in such a way that they can easily be taken to use when the time comes. I suppose vacuuming the house doesn't count, at this time of the year, as a Christmas preparation. But I have started a stitching project I admired on many blogs last year, A Christmas Wish by Gail Pan Designs. I altered the pattern a little, translating the words into Finnish. The first block is Love:

And the second one is Merry:

Believe it or not, but I have finished a third one too (there is SO much snooker for Mr. K on Eurosport!), the original word is Joy:

This is a perfect project for TV programs you don't need to see at all, just listen and when it sounds intresting, you can look up and see what is going on. Crocheting and knitting are better for watching Grey's Anatomy or CSI or Rebus. Spooks is too exciting to do anything else but watch. America's Next Top Model is my ironing program only.

Yesterday was my first sewing class of the year, and I stitched the binding and sleeve on my Country Calendar quilt. Hand sewing the binding will be my evening project of the weekend. I also cut some pillowcases and tested the 20 Minutes Pillowcase pattern. Stephanie of Loft Creations gave here a challenge for this project for the Hole in The Wall Gang. Jackie of Canton Village Quilts is organizing a giant donation of pillowcases for all the kids who go to the Summer Camp. Follow the links to read more and see if you could make a pillowcase for them as well. It would be a nice way to use up your stash, at least I see it that way. I have not yet finished my pillowcase, but there will be pictures later!

Come by tomorrow and see what my 2nd Annniversary Giveaway is about. The winners will be drawn and announced on Sunday 17th.

Contry Calendar BOM Quilt, with borders now

Thank you everyone for your opinions about the sashings for this quilt. I looked again at the fabrics in good daylight and decided to use the oatmeal colour B. Every colour was voted for, but B looked best with the  dark olive floral print of the corner stones and the yellow-brown-black of the border.

It took me two days to finish the quilt top. First I ironed the seam allowances of the corner squares the wrong way and the corners didn't meet with the sashings. Rip off and do it again. Then I noticed that I had sewn three rows of four blocks instead of four rows of three, and had to rip again. And sew again. It is not always easy being so stupid.

This white azalea is the last one to show of my Christmas flowers. I'm glad I took the photo, because my usual thing happened: I couldn't keep it alive. I always water too little or too much, and to be honest I don't even know what went wrong this time. The  blossoms have withered, the green leaves fall on the table and all I can do is take it to the compost.

Luckily the beauty lasted over two weeks, and most of the buds opened.

Did you notice the new button in my sidebar? Stephanie has issued a challenge No strings attached on her blog. You only have until the 15th to sign in, all the rules are in that link. The idea is to use up your stash for a string block project to be completed by June 30th. It is not a swap, you sew for your own use, and your project can be any size from table runner to big quilts. If you are interested, follow the link and sign in! I think this is a nice way to help us all get rid of our little scraps of fabric and reduce our stash.

Help me with the sashings

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm still in holiday mood, but trying to get started with this year's projects. First I want to share with you some pictures of our Christmas flowers. Poinsettias are nowadays still one of the most popular Christmas flowers. They are even called  joulutähti, which means Christmas Star in Finnish.

   

  

What I really needed to show today is my Country Calendar quilt blocks. I need to choose sashings for the quilt to go on with the project, and I would appreciate your help here. The block borders will be only 1 cm wide, like the strip between the picture and the name of the month. The sashings will be 3 cm, with corner stones. I placed my blocks on three candidate fabrics, but you can suggest anything else as well. This is alternative A, a light blue solid:

B is a greyish beige with a stripy print:

And C is a greenish brownish print with a very small pattern:

The corner stones could be in one fabric or different ones. Ellie's Photo Gallery shows some finished quilts but they have not used so many colours for the block borders as I have.

Hyacinths were the Christmas flowers from my childhood, and their scent still means Christmas for me. I planted some bulbs in honey jars for our staircase. Every time I climb the stairs I get to smell a bit of childhood.

So what do you say, A) blue, B) beige, C) green/brown or D) your own suggestion?

Calendar Blocks

These are my last two blocks for the Country Calendar BOM. I have shown the November block with the cute little bird earlier. Now I finally got to the October block after buying some black fabric.

The December block was easy to make. I will put the blocks together to make a quilt, but that will happen in January. This time of the year is too busy.

Working on these blocks instead of Christmas gifts to my nearest and dearest, or at least baking lovely cakes and mountains of gingerbread reminds me of the time I was supposed to study for the final exams in high school. I wanted to study, I really did, but I always found myself cross-stitching yellow flowers on linen to make pretty placemats. I passed the exams anyway, and I want to believe Christmas will come as well.

Winter Bird

It has been  a while since I showed anything I have sewn, but yesterday I finished the November block of my Country Calendar BOM project.

I still have not started the October block, because I couldn't find my black fabric for the background. On Monday I bought some, so I hope to finish the pumpkin block in the near future.
Yesterday my daughter Kaija came for a visit, escaping the window renovation in her house. I'll be spending my time with her.

New Blocks for the Country Calendar

This September has been very warm and lovely, just a few rainy days. This week was the first night frost in the area, but not right where we live, as this is a little uphill from the village. My summer flowers are still as beautiful as ever, and the Calluna we bought yesterday will have to wait a little to take this one's place at the kitchen door.


Today I finished the August



and September blocks for the Country Calendar. This is a free BOM from Ellie's Quiltplace.

I should have chosen some reds in different shades for the apples, but I'm pretty pleased with the basket fabric I happened to have in my stash.

I know this is against my own interest in a way, but you might want to know about Paulette's giveaway. Paulette is a Canadian quilter, and she is giving away the first issue of a new Canadian quilting magazine, with a fabric pack to make the Christmas quilt on the cover. (Telling you this gave me one more entry ;->.) I found her blog a while ago through Stephanie, and immediately became a follower. Paulette is a recycler like me, but a very talented and productive quilter as well. A hand quilter, too. Go and see her lovely blog.

This is about all I have been doing lately, so I must go and see what I didn't do for the household. Have a relaxing weekend!

Country Calendar July BOM

Today is just a short post, showing the July block I mislaid yesterday.

There it is, freshly ironed. The flowers were so sweet that I wanted to use very sweet colours, too. July is in Finnish heinäkuu, the hey month. Very bad time for allergics. I used machine appliqué, which is fast and easy.

Summer Joys

Simple joys of summer: fresh potatoes, fresh fish caught by Mr. Kotkarankki, butter and dill. Just imagine the best ever potato taste you remember, and multiply it by three if you don't live in Scandinavia, so you can have an idea of our fresh potatoes. The peel comes off by just pushing with the thumbs, then you rinse them and cook for 15 minutes. The same goes for your experiences with fried fish and fresh dill. Our herbs, berries, potatoes, everything is more aromatic because of the long days of the Northern summer. I could live at least a month on potatoes, fish and salad in summer.



This is a pikeperch or zander, caught by DH last week - I took the picture then, and we ate every crumb. It was delicious, and a welcome change from the rainbow trout we usually get from the supermarket. He was so excited when he caught this one, and a smaller one for DS1 that he had to go there today again. Fly-fishing with a two-hand rod in a big, fast river is for him like ... mmm... fabric shopping or quilting for me.

Because I was totally man-free today, I took the train to Helsinki. It was raining when I started my trip, but down in the south (50 km from here!) it was sunny and warm. This is the Esplanade park, where I took you at Christmas.

I walked my feet off, but I also noticed some beautiful details on a house from the beginning of the last century. I took some other pictures as well, but they need some background work so I will show them another day.

And of course I bought something nice, too. Some quilting fabrics just in case I happened to need them, some flannel for quilt backings, some cotton yarn and three books at bargain prices. In the top left corner is my new T-thirt.

After coming home I have already put the darker fabrics in the washing machine, finished my July block for the Country Calendar but fumbled with the picture so you will see it next time, and started sewing on the West Linn Bag designed by Stephanie. I'm using the charm pack she sent me a little while ago. This is the first time I have even seen a charm pack, so it is very exciting!

June

This June has been cold, temperatures have been staying below 15C or 60F for three weeks now. Even the wild flowers are coming out slowly, but they are very much appreciated. Veronica chamaedrys:

Lathyrus pratensis:

My June BOM for Country Calendar. June is in Finnish kesäkuu, summer month. Doesn't feel like it yet!

On Thursday I had my hair cut in Hyvinkää (walk to the station and back, and in town), the other neighbour town, and I took the camera with me to take a photo of this little statue I pass on my way:

The building in the background is a school for 15 to 19 year olds studying for the exams needed for university studies.

I liked her toes! Siskokset (Sisters) by Anne Sipiläinen 1977.

Then I met the little bear on his bike. Sirkuskarhu (The Circus Bear) by Pirkko Nukari in 1977.

The next monument is for the famous Finnish female painter Helene Schjerfbeck, who lived for many years in Hyvinkää. The monument Ovi (Door) is by Tapio Junno in 1998, and based on one of Schjerfbecks paintings from 1883.

She was born in 1862 and died in 1946.

The other side of the monument:

Her paintings are well known and much loved.

Just after I had passed Helene's monument and prepared myself to take a picture of the Welders (by Mauno Oittinen in 1963), my eyes met a surprise:

Two young female artists Kaija Papu and Aino Louhi had added something to this monument, combining the history of metal industry and textile industry in Hyvinkää in their piece of art.

Pitsihilli is the name of their work, a play with words impossible to translate. Hitsipilli could be the unofficial name of the welder's tool, and the parts of this word have been changed to make Pitsihilli. This new word doesn't really make sense, but the first part of it, pitsi, means lace. Children often play with words in this way: sanakirja > kinasarja, kahvipannu > pahvikannu.

I think this is a lovely work, and a lot of knitting.

It almost looks like the men were knitting the last stitches.

The exhibition Todellisuuden Taju 2009 will be there for the summer.

In the link you can see another knitted work, Stairway to Heaven.

I hope you liked the little walk. I made all the points in need by next week for my Moving it Like Mike!

EDIT The links to the knitted art artists are in English and you can read more about their work there. Pitsihilli fits perfectly and is hand knitted for this purpose only.

May BOM

My Country Calendar's May BOM is finally ready.

It looks like I need to rip off the side frames and cut longer strips for them. (So it is not really ready after all!) This was a difficult one, with the tiny leaves to appliqué. Once I got it started, it wasn't so bad I feared. I'm already working on June, it is an easy one. You can see how the Finnish language makes me work harder: in other languages you can just stitch May or Mai or Maj, but I had 5 more letters in Toukokuu.