Napkin Challenge, Fair and Stash use reports for November

Some time ago I took the challenge from Mrs. Moen to create something inspired by a napkin, and the deadline was Dcember 1st. I chose these two paper napkins I had at home.

And this is what I ended up with:

It is a little table runner made from materials I had in stash, like a red plaid shirt from a charity shop, and the golden yellow binding of the fabric I used for the Mystery Quilt a few weeks ago. I used my gingerbread cutters to draw the gingerbread appliquéd on the top, and some white rick-rack for icing. The light is bad at this time of the year so I have no better pictures. I have machine quilted the runner in a grid along some of the lines in the plaid. Mrs. Moen's blog has a list of links to all blogs who joined this challenge, and the list may be growing in the next few days.

I used only fabrics from my stash to make this table topper, about 40 cm in all. I counted my secret projects and a curtain and the little things for the Christmas shop and ended up with the huge 9.25 m of fabrics used in November. I also have bought some, like two baby prints on sale, and two fat quarters I bought at the Elma fair last weekend, and a baby flannel (I'm planning to make a baby quilt for the shop now that someone finally bought the red and white polka dot quilt I made last summer). That all adds up to 3.7 m of bought fabrics. I still used 5.55 m more than I bought!

The fair was as nice as every year. The countryside part of the fair had a lama show.

We skipped the Forest part this year, and the DIY part as Mr. Kotkarankki was busy with meetings all day, and the Pet part just because we don't have pets, but we spent quite a lot of time at the Arts and Crafts part.

The granny square blanket is hanging sideways, but you get the idea. Here is all I bought at the fair:

A wonderful book about Cloth Dolls by Jan Horrox (thank you for telling about this, Heather), a pair of scissors to make round corners (not as good as I thought), some postcards, a little basket and the dotty fat quarters. Plus a box of chocolate kisses.

It's cold out there:

Today on my way to the train I saw this halo on both sides of the sun:

It looks like a section of a rainbow. I think there are ice crystals in the air and they make the halo visible.

By the way this is as high as the sun gets at this time of the year, the pictures were taken at 12:30 today!

My new book and new plans

This is the new book Kaija brought me for by coming birthday:




There is only very little English text in the book, but the pictures are inspiring and beautiful, and there are drawn instructions in the "How to make" part of the book. I already started making one bag, or my version of it. I just had to start, because I bought this at the fair:

"This" means now the floral print at the bottom. I got the book before we went to the fair, and when I saw the print I knew I could use it with some natural coloured linen for my favourite bag from the book.

I know I have not finished the second tactile book I have been working on, and of course there is the hand quilting to do. (Household chores don't count, because I keep doing most of them, and the rest can wait.) Sometimes a girl just needs to do something else instead of the things she should be doing. And so do I, in case I don't count as a girl any more, being a mother of three grown up children. If there is a sewing/crafting person out there who always finishes one project before starting any new ones, please come forward. You must be a very special person!

And, by the way, my pinwheel block was on the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog today, in the bottom row of a group of nine blocks.

Report from the Handicraft Fair

Last Saturday I went to this handicraft fair with my daughter Kaija (in the pictures are not any people we know). It wasn't a very big fair, nothing to go crazy about, but we saw many 'quite nice' things there.

There were knitted scarves.

And lovely pieces of quilting fabrics. I kind of wanted to buy the teal bunch, but I didn't.

But from this wall I picked 10 pieces (50 cm x 110 cm), including the light blue for the binding of Kaija's quilt I'm quilting this winter and spring.

Felted clothes and felted almost anything are very popular at the moment. There was also fine merino wool for sale. I only bought a little bag of curly wool in mixed colours for my husband. He said it was OK for his fly-tying. I have learned to choose mainly good colours for him. We share a hobby room, and if I'm not sewing at full speed with my machine, we can listen to music or just enjoy the peace. When he shows me his flies, I often ask and learn something about them as well. This helps me when I choose treasures for him when shopping for yarns or trimmings for my own needs.

And then there was one good and one 'usual' book seller. From the good one I bought a book-binding book for Kaija's birthday, and gave it to her in advance. (She brought me a book for my birthday in advance!) I'll show my book tomorrow.