Orphanage Project Finished

This is a project I started last summer, and my faithful readers have been following the progres here. I made it my Brown Owls Community project, and it can be used for gaining the Sewing, Knitting and Crochet badges as well. The church will be sending quilts, blankets and sheets for orphanages in Tanzania, and asked members to donate them. I used my granny squares from Pip's challenge A Granny A Day in May to make two blankets of yarn rests. This is the girly one:


And this one in for a boy (or a girl who likes the same colours as I):

I used an Africa themed fabric to make this window quilt, and added green squares from an old pillow case. The border is my mother's old summer skirt, also used in some windows, and the brown jungle pattern was my summer skirt.

I used the giraffes and lions to make my first strip quilt.

Yesterday I finished the binding of this elephant quilt. The pattern is from Miri, and Eileen made a sweet baby quilt with it last summer. I copied her idea of making some of the elephants face each other and one elephant giving a flower to another. If you click the picture, you can see it is the dark grey elephant with the purple one.

My youngest sister gave me some of her sheets (wrong size for the blankets she has, I think), and I made 8 sheets of them for the project.

This was my pile before the last quilt and the blue sheets.

I also planned to knit one blanket, but I ran out of a) time and b) yarn in the right colour, so I just packed my 16 squares in a plastic bag (recycled, it was used for tomatoes first) with a note asking someone else to finish the blanket for me.

Then I packed the whole stack in a big plastic bag (used, of course, and because I had to leave it there) and asked Mr. K to take me to the parish office. This is me going there. Then I was just asked to leave my bag in someone's empty office, and that was it. I hope the little orphans like the quilts. They are all backed with soft flannel, so I think they will feel warm at night.

Catching up

Let's see if I still know how to do this. Feels like I had been away ages, and I missed reading blog posts. I was in Helsinki for 9 days, and coming home means a lot of laundry and cleaning before there is time for fun. It is only 50 km away, half an hour by train, but the sea makes the city warmer in the autum. They still had so many leaves in the trees!





At home it looked more like this in the swan pond. I think I saw "our" swan family in flight this week, at least it was 7 swans together.



The apple trees are all bare.

Earlier I was busy with secret projects, but now I can reveal at least some of them. Stephanie had her 50th birthday this week, and I made her some kitchen towels. For this one I copied the pattern from my vintage butter crock.

During the course in Helsinki I had time for hand sewing in the evenings, and I managed to finish this little candle mat. It is from a kit Candace sent me early this year, along with fly fishing magazines for Mr. Kontarankki. Don't look too closely, it was my first wool applique ever.

Sweet Melanie wanted to equip me for the visit in Helsinki, but her lavender smellies reached me right after I came back. How did she know I used my last firming cherry mask when I prepared for the hot date with Mr. K. on the Book Fair last Sunday? Well, the follow-up part of my course is in April, so I can use the lavender products then.

After I came home I have been busy working on the last orphanage baby quilt. Machine stitching is done, and I hurried to take the photo while the sun was still up. I haven't decided on the binding yet, but I will need this one finished for Monday. That is when I have a chance to deliver my things to the people who will take them to the Women's Day event on Nov. 14th to be taken to Tanzania soon after that.

That is all for today. For the final picture I want to share with you the clear autumn sky of today. I love autumn days like this.

Swans, Elephants and Grannies

Do you remember the swan family I told you about in June? The couple walked their babies to the big pond in the centre of our village, but after a week or so they noticed there were too many people around so they walked to a more quiet little pond to raise their family. Usually the Cygnus olor nests in the wilderness up North, and they are always very shy birds, unlike the mute swans.


The babies have grown and are learning to fly. They need a long runway to get air under their wings, so a bigger pond was needed again. This pond is between the fire station and the big school.


The young swans - all five of them survived - are about as big as the parents but still grey in colour. They are not headless, but hungry! One has his or her wings up, trying to reach something delicious in the bottom of the pond.

One more picture, you can see the colour difference.

I promised to show I have been crafting as well. This is what I have been doing in class on Thursday evenings. Elephant blocks for another orphanage quilt. Miri has designed this cute pattern, and you can download it from her blog.

In the evenings, with Emmerdale and Heartbeat and Desperate Housewives and CSI and Mentalist I have been crocheting more and more Granny squares. Two more, and I can start playing with them and arrange them for a second orphanage blanket. I'll combine the squares with a variegated red this time. I will join them as I make the last row, I think this way the seams will not be stiff. Actually there will be no seams.