The eBook Winner is ...

... Tammy! Congratulations! I will share these flowers with you, and with all the nice people who made the blog book tour with ten stops and ten possibilities to win their own copy of Stephanie's new book Uncommonly Corduroy.

 

 

 

The flowers are from my sister. She came to get the pompom hats for her granddaughters and swapped my purples and yellows for the purple and yellow primroses.

 

 

You have heard my complaints of no real Winter this year, just the cold period in January. Last week (one of the last days of February) Mr K. noticed the first snowdrops in bloom in our garden, and I took the picture on March 1st, when we had a sunny moment:

 

Normally they make their way through snow in mid April, like this in 2012:

 

 

This makes the Spring about 6 weeks too early. It doesn't feel like Spring though, just feels like the Winter is having a hard time dying. We have had some snow a few times now, not enough to cover the grass on the lawn, puddles everywhere and dull skies. Luckily the amount of light is increasing rapidly and in about two weeks we all will have the full 12 hours of daylight. After the Spring Equinox we up here will keep getting more and more light and longer days until the Summer Solstice. That is a comforting thought.

The Giveaway Gift

The gift to celebrate my 600th blog post has been sent over the ocean. I tried to choose goods that travel well.

 

 

The Finnish tastes are rye crisps, gingerbread, cloudberry chocolates and Xylitol chewing gum. Xylitol's dental-friendly qualities are a Finnish discovery.
In the background is a ball of Finnish Novita Nalle wool, enough for a pair of socks or two tiny ones.
The birch leave felted on white Finnish sheep's wool hides a soap, so you can have a washcloth and soap in one. This one came from Villa Cooper. The tiny black tin in front of the soap is Vitalis cream for chapped lips and hands. In my childhood it was used to protect the skin from frostbites. Later this proved to be not true, but the cream's other uses are still popular. The bigger tin on the right shows Moomin characters, famous Finns. The last item is a CD with typical Finnish dance music from years back. We have our own interpretation of tango, less passionate and energetic and far more serious and sentimental than the Argentine tango. I hope this record reflects the Finnish life in a way Dolores will somehow recognize as familiar.

The Winner is...

... randomly generated number 36!

 

Counting from the newest comment back, number 36 is Dolores from True Blue Canadian with her comment on Colours are changing on October 17th. This is a funny coincidence: I promised to send something typically Finnish as today is our Independence Day, and Dolores has Finnish roots. Congratulations, Dolores! Rye bread will not be a mystery to you then.

 

Today we finally had some snow to lighten up the landscape.

 

 

 

I have been sewing a little, knitting a little and Tunisian crocheting too.

 

I wish you all lots of ideas and energy for your Christmas preparations.

 

 

Grey days

Fieldfares in our apple tree, eating the last few apples before flying further South.

This is my 600th blog post. To celebrate it I decided to have a giveaway. The winner will be drawn from among the 60 last comments on  my blog, any post, at noon tomorrow, which is our Independence Day. The gift will be something typically Finnish like dry rye bread or Fazer chocolate, but it may be something else if the winner lives in a country where the post regulations don't allow sending these items.

Announcing the Winners

The giveaway is closed and it is time to announce the winners. From December 1st to January 16th there were 193 comments with contact details to my posts, and all these names were printed on paper, cut, and folded. Mr. Kotkarankki then put his hand in this vase where I usually keep the selvedges and my quilting gloves:

He picked up four names, the last one just in case I would find the rose bag I promised to give away. The winners are:

This means that the apron will go to Melanie, one of my most faithful commentors (she happened to have 28 tickets in the draw).

The next two will get a little bag with Marimekko scraps, and the first one to contact me back will get to choose between the blue and green set. So Roslyn and Heckety, I will send you an email immediately after I publish the post to get your mailing addresses.

After the draw I just remembered where I had not yet looked for the rose bag and so I went to my paper and colour cupboard, where textiles have no business, and there it was:

Merete will get the bag, because her name was the last one picked.

Congratulations to the winners! This giveaway has helped me to reduce my stash and finish a project marinated at my mother's attic for decades and then some months in my sewing room. I have put together a new button for my sidebar, to remind me of all the fabric I have in the house waiting for a new life. There will be no challenge, no list, it is just for fun. If you want to, you can copy and paste it to your blog or make your own button with your own fabrics. It feels very rewarding to finish a project with no money spent on the materials. It makes me feel less guilty when I go fabric shopping the next time.

2nd Anniversary Giveaway

Today is the day. Two years ago I wrote my first blog post, and soon I noticed that I had entered a whole new world full of nice people, brilliant ideas, beautiful pictures, inspiration, challenges, treasures and great friends. (If you are curious to know about the name of my blog, it is explained in the second half of that first post.) To celebrate the two first years I'm having a giveaway. Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I wanted the giveaway be like me and my blog. Therefore I'm giving away an apron,
A) because I wear aprons every day,
B) because it is vintage from the 60's
C) because it was an UFO I inherited from my mother
D) because it is recycled: my mother started making it from a summer dress she had sewn for my grandmother

I finished it last night, and here it is:

What is even more typical of me is that I misplaced the second item I was going to give away, the Stitchers' Angels rose string bag. If I find it during the weekend, it will go to someone as well.

To replace the missing gift I pulled some Marimekko scraps from my endless stash. I will give two sets, and the first winner to answer my e-mail gets to choose. The one set is blue:

The other set is green:

I will be away in a meeting almost all day, so you have all day to participate. I will draw the winners tomorrow  and contact them by e-mail for the mailing address. You have one ticket for every post you have commented on since the beginning of my Advent Calender. No-reply comments don't count.

Thank you for being there.

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.

Winter Views and Giveaway Plans

Yesterday we had an amazing day. The temperature climbed up some 15 degrees to -7 C (20 F), which is most pleasant. It was not snowing, but the humidity in the air formed ice crystals everywhere.

Thick frost covered every tree. The wind had blown snow away from the oaks and birches at the station, but now they were dressed in white again.

A closeup of their lace pattern:

And finally a look across the tracks to the other side.

You may remember that in December I promised a giveaway for my blog's second anniversary. That will be on Saturday the 16th. I will be giving away a string bag with rose embroidery, and after some hard thinking I found another gift which very much represents me and my blog. It is a vintage, recycled apron which is still in UFO state! Like this one I made for myself:

The one to be given away will have a different bib and pockets, but the fabric is the same, recycled from my Grandmother's summer dress. I'd better get started with the sewing! I mean to give it away completed and ready to use.

The winners will be drawn from the comments from the beginning of my Advent Calendar posts up to Saturday 16th of January at 18.00 my time. Each comment counts as long as it is not a no-reply one.

I could kiss the mailman...

..and so I did. Mr. Kotkarankki is my mailman, he brings our home mail from his office on the lunch break. Most days it is just invoices or his professional magazines, but look what he brought me today:

Recently I won Paulette's Give Away, and because I was the first one to contact her back, I got to choose any one I wanted from her gifts. I picked the Primitive Gatherings penny rug table mat pattern, with wool fabrics for the appliqué. I have just made my first wool felt appliqué candle mat, and sewing it was such fun that I wanted to try another pattern. There are sweet lambs in this one, so I think I will try to make it for Easter.

Sweet P Paulette included two cute snowman labels. Thank you, dear blogging friend!

The weather has been cloudy but without rain in any form, and the temperature keeps above the freezing point. I was a spry girl and spent an hour and a half raking on the lawn and taking the heaps of leaves to the compost. That means three points for my activity card!

I took this picture a couple of weeks ao, when the ponds were frozen. There is still some thin ice, but it is covered with water and may melt away if the weather doesn't get colder.

Happy Mail

Just a while ago something very nice happened: I won a giveaway I didn't even know about. Stephanie from Loft Creations had this unannounced giveaway, and because I follow her blog and very often comment, I was in. Today the mail brought me the gift, Stephanie's newest pattern for two matching bags, Ladyfingers and Sugar Baby.





I had thought about buying the pattern, but it was not yet in her Etsy shop. This is what I had in mind for using for the Dresden plates:


Or this:

Or a mixture of both. They are my father's old ties, the leftovers after my brothers and sisters had their pick for some ties they wanted to wear. I have been keeping these in my storage and thinking about how to use them in a quilt. They are a difficult material, so I think I will come back to this bag idea later. Don't worry, I will show you if I ever get anything done either with the pattern or the ties or both together.

In the meantime I have been busy with two projects. One is the orphanage quilts, blankets and sheets. Last time I was in Tampere I picked up a giant plastic bag my youngest sister T had left for me at our mother's. It was full of her old sheet, in perfect condition. The pale crepe ones seemed not suitable for quilts, so I already cut one up and sewed three children's sheet of it. The blue with daisies will make two, but there is another one so it will make four, and another pale crepe sheet, totals 10 sheet. The one very soft white sheet I will keep to be used for backings, I might also dye it. Thank you, T!

Here is my Tanzania orphanage project results so far, three sheet, two quilts and a crocheted blanket. One elephant quilt is slowly in progress, and the granny squares for the second blanket still need to be joined together. I'm also knitting one blanket, I started it on my holiday in August but it seems to take a long time.

The other project is only in my head at the moment, but I need to start writing my ideas down. It is a very big custom order, a wall hanging about 120 x 600 cm, but it can be made of several pieces. It will be for the same lady, PN, who received my Stranger Quilt last year. She brought me a huge pile of fabrics for the wall hanging, and I will go through my stash and seek for suitable fabrics as well. She brought me a small sketch so I can get some idea of what she is after. Houses are included, sky and sea, and shoes. This may take really long time!

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!

My new bag

This is my new shoulderbag. I prefer handsfree handbags, and for many years now I have mainly used roomy bags like this:



It is made of natural linen, and the lining is the same brown checkered cotton as my Brownie apron. (I'll look stylish anyway, even if I forget to take the apron off when I go shopping!) The only thing wrong with linen is that it is not very durable. I only had my olg bag for three or four years, and a few weeks ago I noticed that there was a hole on the side that touches my hip. There had been something hard like a notebook in the corner of the inside pocket and this had caused the hole in the linen. This time I stamped me a little logo:

I also added a snap hook for my keys, and a little pen pocket. The mobile phone pocket has been in every bag, with the phones getting smaller the pocket is also smaller now. It closes with a loop and a button.

The shoulder strap length is adjusted by a knot. Sometimes I want it long, going across my chest and back, and sometimes shorter, to be worn on the side. There is also a big zippered pocket. This is a very good bag, and I made it for myself!

This is also a partial explanation why I still have no progress to show on my challenge quilt; I have other things to do as well. But I have been quilting too, and I'm sure the quilt will be finished by the end of August, like originally planned.

Yesterday when I announced the giveaway winner, I was tired after a very bad night and I totally forgot to tell you the results of the query. There were 27 comments but five people didn't answer the question, so 22 votes were given. Tigger was the winner here, 10 people thought he was the best. Eeyore gained much sympathy, 8 people liked him most. Then came Winnie the Pooh himself with 2 fans. Kanga and Roo together had one vote and so did Piglet. I was the only one whose favourite character was Christopher Robin.

100th post and Giveaway

My few faithful readers will have noticed by now that recycling is important for me. And not throwing anything away because it can maybe used later for something. I have learned this from my mother and developed it further. Here is an example of her recycling. (You also know that I always wear aprons, so I naturally need many of them.) This much-used apron she made me used to be a fabric stretched to the wall by my and my baby sister's bed and cot so the wallpaper would keep clean and we would have nice pictures to watch. I have used the apron so much that the colours have faded and the yellow stains will not go away. The print is by Maija Isola and its name is Nalle Puh (Winnie the Pooh). The manufacturer's name was Printex, which later became Marimekko. Maija Isola continued working for Marimekko many years.







As this is my 100th post, I thought Marimekko's retro print Nalle by Maija Isola's daughter Kristiina would make a nice present. I sewed an eco bag using this fabric, and made it with just two seams and without cutting the bottom corners. This way you can rip the seams and use it for something else if you already have enough eco bags and never use plastic bags!






The bag can be folded into its own inside pocket so it will only take little space in the handbag:





Then I collected a little goodie bag from my stash: some lace, hand crocheted lace and ribbon, some embroidery threads, and some vintage darning threads (unfortunately not in this year's eurocolor for stockings), and some buttons in a Marimekko's Pirput parput tin box.



This gift will be sent anywhere in the world with nice stamps. All you have to do is comment to this post by Monday the 18th of August. To make it more fun, I would like you to tell me your favourite character in the Winnie the Pooh books, and any memories connected to this book, if you will.

If you are interested in quilting and giveaways, Jen of Crafty Giveaways is having a lovely giveaway until Wednesday the 13th of August. She is giving away ready sewn blocks for an Irish Chain quilt!

I have finally been working on my summer stash challenge quilt again. I started stitching in the ditch and am now about 1/3 done. There is so much space between the needle and the machine on the right that it is a pleasure to work:



The two lamps also make it easier, and the spotty gloves. I will not finish the quilt before my holiday next week, because I need to wash and iron and pack, and clean the house; and the quilt would anyway be too big to take along to sew the binding during the holiday. We are going to a cottage with no access by car, and make the last bit by boat. I better take a small hand sewing project along, and a good book. I'll be back on Thursday night and need a day for unpacking and washing and ... and reading all your blogs. On Monday the 18th I will pick a name and find out who will get the giveaway gift. Take care!

The Winner is ...

Ewa-Christine! Please e-mail me your post address so I can send the potholders to you on Monday.

My little bearded helper picked this name from a basket. With a little patience we managed to get a picture to witness the process.

Congratulations to the winner, and to the rest of you: better luck next time.

Tidying up my stash

This is what I have been doing this morning. I'm arranging and organizing my chaos with a new set of plastic boxes. Optimistically I chose five of these 30 l boxes and three 16 l boxes for small pieces. They are all rather tightly packed now, and I only emptied one big cardboard box and some plastic bags. Then I emptied one huge black carbage bin liner and filled the big box I just emptied.

I could only take detail photos like these, because this is the only visible change in the room. Even I could not tell that the fabric mountains are a little smaller. The rest of my side of the room is still a mess. Imagine a teenager sharing a room with a toddler, and a mother who couldn't care less, and you get the general idea of my sewing room. At the other end lives the tidy nerd big brother who minds his own business and keeps his desk tidy. That is my husband's side. I love him very much and he must love me at least as much, because we can work there very peacefully.

I made some interesting finds digging through the archaeological layers of plastic bags. There were leftover blocks from old quilting projects and interesting, big pieces of fabric. This will make it a lot easier for me to keep my fabric diet.

I have spent too many hours reading interesting
blogs with the words "stash" and "scraps" and many new ideas are bouncing in my head. I feel like quilting something small that will be rady in no time, but I also would like to try out more ideas from my Japanese Patchwork book, and there are so many bags just waiting to be made. The first thing I ought to do is a lightweight bag for groceries. I always carry a used plastic bag in my shoulder bag (for international readers: Finnish groceries use thicker, big plastic bags which can be used for heavy shopping many, many times if you want to), but a fabric bag would be a better message against global warming. I found many interesting fabrics suitable for this purpose. Some of them were in the depths of the bin liner, a cupboard cleaning project of my sister who moved to a new house a couple of years ago and shifted her stash to my cellar.



Today at six o'clock my time I will write down the names for the giveaway and my son will pick up one. Chances to win the potholders are very good at the moment ;) so if you are interested there is still some time to participate by commenting on the post titled Giveaway!.

Giveaway!

Today my little blog has reached its first milestone, 1,000 visitors. To celebrate this I have decided to have a giveaway. On Saturday, 29th of March I will write down all the names who have commented on today's post, and my son will pick up one name. The winner will be given this set of two chenille potholders:

True to my principles the material is recycled, only the bias binding is new. Chenille, because it was fun to make. Potholders, because they are practical and necessary, and I'm a prosaic person.

You may have noticed the new badge on the right. I have found the perfect support group for me in Hanne's Quilt Corner . A fabric diet means to use more fabric than you buy. A perfect way to use the stash which threatens to cover my working area. Announcing the diet in public makes me at least consider every purchase even more closely. If I succeed, there will be many new quilts and children's books and toys, and the stash will not grow too much. I hope to emphasize the using, because it will result in finished projects. No fun in stopping to buy fabric and stopping to sew anything.