More Potter mug rugs and some knitting

After finishing the four mug rugs I still felt like doing more, and chose the Quill that writes the invitation letters to Hogwarts school

and the Mirror of Erised.

The whole set once more.

Next week is the Night of the Homeless, and beanies, mittens and socks are collected to be donated. I knitted this set in an average men's size and will take them today to the Flying Mitten, one of the places where donations are collected.

This Aviatrix  hat is one of my favourite patterns and the striped beanies in my last post are made with the leftover pink from this project. I just forgot to take this picture for that post.

This pair of socks is once again inspired by some odd little rests from other projects, and the usual thing happened: there was not enough yarn in one colour, so I bought some more ...

This morning the rain water in our little pond was frozen. Mr K. had already taken the pump in for the winter and emptied the pond, but leaves are falling and rain water gathers there. It will be cleaned again in the Spring.

The rowan tree in our garden has the most beautiful colours this year.

Back at the sewing machine again

For the first time in ages I have started a new quilt. It looks like little huts at dawn, doesn't it?

But it isn't, it is paper dolls holding hands! I used some vintage children's fabric for this, some summer frocks and nighties saved because of their pretty fabrics. Some fabrics are new, I didn't want to use the same fabric more than twice and there were not too many old fabrics available. My favourite is the yellow Moomin fabric in the bottom right corner, it used to be my summer frock before I went to school.

The Paper Dolls pattern is by Stephanie from Loft Creations and available here. I just made it a bit bigger. Apple sauce cooking came in the way and the quilt is still waiting for the batting and backing to be cut and layered and the rest.

Someone I know is getting married and I just heard about it last week. I wanted to get her a little gift, and as she is a fan of Harry Potter and the Moomins, I decided to make her some mug rugs and get her some Moomin tea bags, as I'm sure she has several Moomin mugs already. I had seen some great paper pieced Harry Potter blocks on Terri's blog, and she always linked them to Fandom In Stitches.

There I picked the easiest patterns and managed to make a Hogwarts Robe, the Golden Snitch, Sorting Hat and the Cauldron. For the backing I used my yellow Moomin fabric so she can use that side with her Moomin mugs.

Stitched, appliquéd and pieced blocks, washcloths, mittens and some new socks

 A week ago I made a short visit to England, but after that I have been busy trying to catch up with the Splendid Sampler blocks. They publish two new blocks every week so it is easy to fall behind. Basic pieced blocks are a nice way to make the to do -list shorter:

The stitched blocks are a welcome change to my TV knitting, I can stitch while watching something not too demanding, like the Tour de France was.

Schools begin in a few weeks, and the shops are full of colourful bags, notebooks and my special love, pencils and crayons. This block is paper-pieced, without the nerve-wracking tiny bits that have three times as much seam allowance as there is visible fabric on the right side.

I mean this kind of paper-piecing, it is not for me:

We have some strawberries growing in the flowerbed, so small that they almost look and taste like the wild ones.

I try to keep my fabric selection limited, so my squirrel's tree has autumn colours already.

I have made some of the bonus blocks so I can skip the regular blocks I don't fancy doing. Here is a happy one with summer feeling:

This summer and especially during the three week Tour de France I faithfully watch with Mr K. (even when I have never ridden a bicycle myself in my whole long life), I have finished quite many yarn projects. First I refreshed my memory by crocheting a washcloth in Bavarian crochet, and then I thought I will learn something new, the Moss stitch. Well, it turned out to be something I had done before, just didn't know the name.

Bedsocks in olive  green merino wool, red socks with cables, and a small pair of basic socks using up a rest of self striping yarn, added with stripes in an off-white yarn of the same brand.

Then I knitted some mittens for a change, pink ones in a child size and yet another pair of Aino'S mittens in Finnish sheep wool in white, like Aino Sibelius would have knitted them.

At some point I wanted to try another new to me stitch and knitted these potholder/dishcloths in Cream 'n Sugar. The colour reminds me of milk chocolate with raspberry filling.

There it is, a post as long as the title.

Old embroidery, sampler update and flowers

Some time ago I mentioned a detergent test I made, and now you can see what the result was. I had this embroidered cushion cover from the beginning of last century, loved and used to shreds really, and still kept safe. I photocopied the embroidery to keep the lovely pattern safe. As you can see on the right side of this picture, the fabric was stained and yellow. I thought it can't get worse if I give it a try with some Vanish Oxy. Two hours soaking, a careful wash by hand, a thorough rinse and a flat dry, and you can see the difference.

Here it is after a light ironing. I can't imagine a better future to any of my handicrafts. Instead of being folded away from light and sight, they would be used, worn and washed. This cushion cover has been used for a long time after the first holes appeared, until it practically fell apart and could not cover a cushion any longer. I can imagine some female ancestor insisting on keeping it, maybe her own work or a gift from someone special. Maybe her husband used the cushion when taking a nap, the linen feels so cool and lovely. This piece is definitely beyond repair and must have been kept for sentimental reasons.

The colours have faded over the years

but on the reverse you can see how lovely it must have been when it was new.

I'm trying to find a spot with the fabric intact, large enough to use in the Splendid Sampler quilt instead of the embroidery suggested. I'm honoring the original creator by doing so, and I hope to copy the pattern some day for a new cushion cover.

Here are the new blocks I have finished since my last update. Mr Bunny, almost like Peter Rabbit. Not trimmed to size yet, I notice.

This one was fun and easier than it looks.

Appliqué

and paper piecing, with the tiniest pieces I have ever tried.

Dresden plate with wonky appliqued parts.

Paper-pieced heart

And yesterday's block, fast and easy piecing for a change.

A group photo of all my blocks, missing block 20 but including two bonus blocks. 69 more blocks to sew!

We have finally had some warm days again and the flowers in the garden are doing well.

The apple trees were in bloom a week or two earlier than usual, but luckily the weather remained warm and the bees were busy. The tree in the back was already full of blossoms when the on in the front was just beginning. This is my apple sauce tree, the bigger one is just for eating apples.

From Head to Toe - a gift to a fellow knitter

In February 2014 Dolores  mentioned a new BOM From Head to Toe - A Knitter's Gifts by Denise Russart, and it sounded interesting. Each block was only available until the next one was published, so I collected the patterns just in case. At the end of January I decided to start sewing the quilt. Only two sock blocks were pieced, all the ones with round shapes were appliqued, and the long scarf and six mittens were paper pieced.

I used my bright fabrics for a change to cheer up the dark Winter days, and because this was going to be a gift for a rainbow colour loving girl. Most of the blocks don't look like knitted items but I didn't have very many striped fabrics. I used mostly small print florals and solids.

At this stage I decided the quilt was large enough so I left out the final, wider border. I was happy to use Mr K.'s knee pads again, and about 200 safety pins.

I used two pink bed sheets for the backing and the lavender fabric from the scarf for the binding. The fringes and the mitten strings I made with a  1/4" bias maker. For the applique I used a heat and bond material and my machine's blanket stitch, so it went pretty quickly.

I managed to quilt along the sashings and around some of the shapes in the biggest blocks, but this huge quilt and my not very long arm machine didn't work together too well. The batting is polyester so it will stay in place with less quilting.

I had some very exciting days when I waited for the parcel to arrive at its destination, because a smaller package mailed at the same time reached England several days earlier. Luckily it finally arrived, and still on time for Melanie's birthday. The quilt will keep her warm when she sits knitting next winter.

More awards and lovely gifts

Here are three new awards I received yesterday from my blogging friend Suzie, the Little Busy Bee:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers. When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. You are to choose eight friends to share this with.

It makes me feel warm inside to see that two of my friends in the virtual world have given me these awards within a few days. Thank you Suzie! Because I already gave further the Christmas Spirit award from Melanie in my previous post, I will not name any recipients this time. If your blog is in my right sidebar (it is a long one!) and you consider yourself a Christmas enthusiast, you can grab the awards and spread them to your friends in the blog world. The rules of the Christmas Spirit Award are here.

Suzie did not only give me the awards. Today I received a box full of gifts from her:

Chocolates, wine gum, and a star decoration with a touching poem in German. A sweet little teddybear softie came to sight. Opening the wrappings showed Lebkuchen gingerbread and other biscuits. Goodbye waistline! I was reading an Elle magazine in a waiting room on Monday, and they had good advice how to hide any problems with your figure, and what to do to make the problems disappear. Non-existing waistline was one of the problems one might have. I had to laugh, because I had every single one of the problems, and I could give up sewing, blogging, cleaning and cooking in order to have time for the suggested programs. The magazine was clearly not for my age group!!! I can solve the figure problems in no time by choosing long trousers with elastic waistband and a loose sweater. And I can have the chocolates! (And keep on sewing, blogging, cleaning and cooking.)

There was also this perfectly sewn, beautiful star. It is now hanging above a door where everybody can see it.

Suzie had also sewn me this lovely notebook cover, with a to do-list printed on the fabric! There is a standard size notebook inside, and when I have filled it with my notes I can buy a new one and use the cover again. Thank you dear Suzie for these inspiring gifts!

Finally I want to show you that I have not started a figure improvement program but spent my time in a useful way. Remember the little paper-pieced quilts from the other day? They ended up looking like this:

I'm so proud of my bindings nowadays! I found this tutorial by Stephanie through Eileen's blog, and ever since I have been sewing bindings easily without a problem, with nice corners and no bulk where the ends meet. It's worth trying!

Charlie is back!

Remember the story of our three orphan squirrels? Finally, a couple of days ago I succeeded taking a (blurry) picture of Charlie the Survivor. This is taken through my kitchen window, the only way not to frighten him off. He is sitting under the bird feed box eating the seeds I dropped on the ground when I filled the box. The birds have not yet found the seeds, maybe because it is not very cold yet and they can find their food in the nature as long as there is no snow.





I have been a good girl these days, sewing all kinds of Christmas things, some for the shop in Villa Cooper and some for gifts. Little trees with cinnamon stick trunks and some spice for a good smell:



Today's sewings, paper-piecing patterns I drew this morning, waiting to be sandwiched, quilted and bound. Santa needs some makeup!


A new set of magic cubes. This time I made a mistake and had to rip off two long pieces before it was OK. I used to sew these by machine but it was difficult with all the turning in small scale.

I don't like cats but the cat fabric goes well with the little girl's cat.

Today it snowed a little, making the world a lighter place to live in. Our day is about six hours long now from sunrise to sunset, and still getting shorter. No wonder candles belong to this season, bringing light and warmth to our life.