Folded stars

Yesterday I was crafting something my DD showed me on line. Here is the link to a mother and daughter (both very young ones!) crafting together: Pysselbolaget. Scroll further down and you will find the instructions in English as well. I folded a Post-it note while going through the pictures and instructions and it was easy to learn all the folds at once. The most difficult part was to get the hole in the middle as round as possible. Finding the glue was not easy either.
I used gift wrapping paper and my quilting tools (the old rotary cutter!), and I cut my squares 7 cm or 2 3/4" . Tiny squares are more difficult to fold. This is a traditional origami and you can find the instructions on many sites.

Have fun crafting, with or without daughter. My daughter's beautiful stars are here.

Craft Olympics - all my thimbles

Finally the secrets are revealed, Christmas gifts opened and I can show what I have been doing to get all those thimbles from Melanie's Craft Olympics. My first thimble was for a secret knitting project, toe to top two at a time socks for my daughter Kaija, and the rest of the yarn was enough to make wrist warmers for her busy hands. The yarn is hand dyed Araucania yarn from Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten knitting cafe, very lovely to knit. I'm also beginning to learn the idea of the toe to top heel!

 

 

 

The yarn was so lovely I bought another skein and knitted socks and wrist warmers for my daughter-in-law-to-be as well.

Second thimble is for this stitchery, where I learnt some new stitches.

 

My third thimble came with this Granny Square quilt I made for my sister, who is a granny. The grey and pink outer rounds of the blocks are from our Granny's old summer dress.

 

All the fabrics came from my stash as usual, and 90 % of them are recycled garments or bed linen.

My fourth thimble was a change of plans: I had no time to make the wool applique I had planned. Wreath making is crafty too, so this will be within the rules.

 

The fifth and last thimble was for a new skill, needle-turn applique. The pattern is one of Kaaren's freebies on her blog The Painted Quilt. My work is nowhere near perfection but I could give it another try, hoping for better results and rounder circles. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, the days are really very short and dark at this time of the year here.

The applique is on the front of this bag I made for Melanie as a Christmas gift for her knitting projects.

The Craft Olympics has been a fun challenge at the end of the year, not too demanding as we could choose our crafts and change our plans during the Olympics. Go to Melanie - she always puts the kettle on when visitors arrive! - and see who else has been a crafts athlete. Melanie has links to all the finished projects on her sidebar.

Christmas Cards

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon at the kitchen table crafting. I used three kinds of scissors, lots of glue, rubber stamps and many different papers.

Finally I had the Christmas cards we need. Today I will sign them and take them to the post office. Usually we send self-made cards, but sometimes we buy them from Unicef or the Red Cross, or the children's school fund raising. I think people like home-made cards, and they like making them. In November I was even asked to show a group of young mothers how to make nice cards. It was a fun afternoon, but I didn't get any cards made for myself then as I was busily helping the ladies.

Have you ever made your Christmas cards?

Christmas Parade

Yesterday I went to see the Christmas parade in town, as I had never been there before. There were elves, naturally, in their red suits.

There was an angel, or Lucia, or a snow queen, I couldn't tell which, but she was wearing white.

Animals were invited to march too, and so there was an alpaca, favourite of many children.

Next came many dogs walking with their owners, some very small ones came first

and some really big ones followed:

More tonttu elves, and a pig looking very satisfied as she was not going to end up on a Christmas dinner table. We traditionally eat ham at Christmas.

And finally there was the clipiti clop of horse shoes and ringing of bells as the most important person, Joulupukki, arrived

sitting in his sleigh with his Mrs Santa. They had put wheels under the sleigh as we still have no snow here in the Southern Finland. Santa was waving to children on the other side, so I didn't get his face on the picture. Anyway, he is the original Father Christmas, living at Korvatunturi near the Arctic Circle.

I had to take this picture of Santa's sleigh when he went to talk with the children. This is a very old Finnish ryijy rug, all worn out (the blue spots) by hard use. Rugs like this were originally used for warmth in sleighs and as bed covers with the furry side facing the sleeper. The wool yarn has been dyed with plants, and some colours have been harder on the wool than the brown and the pink. In this link you can read more about this traditional textile.

They lit the lights in the big Christmas tree at the square, but I will show it later when I can take a picture when it is dark.

Today I thought I should start my Christmas crafting, so I made this wreath for our door. By the time I was making the last quarter, I was getting the idea how it should be done. Next time I'll try to make a round base ring.

All sewing has bee so secret that I don't have anything to show you this time. Enjoy the Advent time and remember to take time to notice the nice smells of baking, the favourite songs you hear and the beautiful flowers and decorations starting to show up everywhere.

Matchbox Crafting

Yesterday was a reversed childhood day. I was crafting with my daughter, but it was she who showed me how to do it! She is staying with us for a couple of days because of her house renovation, and she had to make her matchbox for the day here. Luckily she had a spare one for me (because I still have not found the ones I bought for crafting in 2008).

Kaija made her box, and I tried to make mine as nice as I could. I watched her closely, and she explained what she was doing and why. She is a good teacher. She teaches me new things like computer and digital camera, too.

    

I only had glue sticks, but she managed to make a lovely work without her good materials.

 

She glued little torn bits of paper for the box bottom. I kept everything very simple. You can see Kaija's box here. She has made one for every day since the first advent. This is my first box:

I have collected little things I have picked up from the ground between the house and the washline, and always intended to make a project with them. Unfortunately the little bird egg shell broke into too small pieces before I used it. These items are not so fragile, and they go together because both are used for building.

The metal thing is something used as a nail to build our house in 1947, when there was a true shortage of everything, including all building materials. The yellow one is a Lego brick of my children, maybe fallen from a pocket on the washline, or they have played with their Legos outdoors, which was kind of not allowed. When you step on a Lego brick on the lawn, it disappears in the ground, but when you step on one in their room, it hurts like **** and you immediately notice it so you can save the poor brick from getting lost.

The nail is in fact a waste bit of metal cut away when making forks. Our floorboards and interior walls were nailed with these, and I found one in the ground.

It was much fun to sit together and talk about things we remember, learn something new and just be together. When I someday find my boxes I will continue crafting with them and make boxes for the other items I have found.

My daily posting has taken me by surprise: this is post number 300! I will celebrate later, as I'm too busy posting every day for two more weeks and trying to make Christmas happen in the family as well. In January will be my blog's 2nd Anniversary, that will be the time to celebrate.