Happy Scrappy Spring finished

Last Spring I started the Happy Scrappy Spring quilt Kaaren of The Painted Quilt designed and offered as a free BOM. Actually it was the whole Row of the Month, with pieced blocks and some stitcheries. I made the stitcheries in red, and used, as usual, mostly recycled fabrics for the blocks.

For the wool appliqué I had to buy some wonderful wool felt, and that kept me from finishing this quilt right the way.

I really enjoyed the new(ish) for me experience of wool appliqué. It feels great when you notice you can easily make it look good!

 

The third row was the most work, five stitcheries including this big one for the centre.

 

Spring is also Easter, so the quilt has lots of bunnies, eggs and egg baskets.

 

 

Wool felt appliqué flowers, carrots and birds.

 

 

The little bunny with a kite is one of my favourites.

So is this little chick in her wellies and umbrella. Notice the tiny Easter eggs on the left.

I left out a dozen or so leaping bunnies on the checkerboard rows between the stitched blocks. In February I finally sandwiched the quilt, in March I machine quilted it and just this last week hand sewed the binding and a hanging sleeve.

 

Here the finished quilt is hanging in Villa Cooper, waiting for buyers. With Kaaren's  kind consent, my Happy Scrappy Spring quilt will be (hopefully) sold to raise money for the New Children's Hospital 2017 project.

 

 

It says so on the label here too:

 

 

In the Summer the Villa Cooper people will have an exhibition with the theme "Birds", also for the New Children's Hospital 2017 project. Our members are invited to make their own projects under the theme, using their favourite technique, and to donate the products to be sold at Villa Cooper. 100 % of the money raised will go to the hospital project.

 

A new project and some new houses

Mr. K has been building new houses again, for our little friends. If you click the picture, you can count four in the trees. One came to replace an old one the squirrels had used, and one of the old bird houses was damaged when we had to cut down some birches.

 

 

The morning after the six new houses were put in the trees and four other ones spring cleaned - did you know the birds make their own spring cleaning too? - I saw house hunters at four new houses. Here is a blue tit, he chased some great tits away as he was showing this place to his sweetheart.

 

This is a birch where we never had a birdhouse before, but it was obviously a good place, because there were many young couples interested to see the house. "A modern, compact house in a respected area", I think. An old birch would possibly have natural holes tits use for their nests. The titmouse went in and spent a long time checking the workmanship. I hope there will be happy families in all the birdhouses so we can enjoy watching birds during the non-feeding season too.

 

 

My new  project suitably begins with a birdhouse stitchery:

 

The first row for Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring ROM (Row of the Month) is almost done. Tonight I will stitch a juicy big carrot and add that block to the end of the row.

I'm using all kinds of scraps from my stash, recycling plaid shirts and whatever happens to please my eye. The light outdoors is strangely blue in the last picture, where my row is on the snow. Yes, still plenty of that on the ground, and we had some new snow on Sunday and Monday, to brighten up the world. - This quilt should be finished in the Autumn so I think I can find a suitable category for it in the Craft Olympics Sylvia is hosting this year.

VTT 2 - Lacy Thingies

Two weeks ago I posted about my Christmas presents, the tatting shuttle and other treasures from my big sis P. Well, my little sister T commented on that post and promised to send me another shuttle, so now I have two of them!  Here is the new one, again from the 1920's and from our dear Great Aunt Saima:

and a side view:

I studied the books I have and the comments received, and ended up buying a book + DVD together with some proper tatting thread. I intend to try my fingers on this, but I also want to save the original threads on the shuttles. I guess you are never too old to learn something new. (The book has not yet arrived, so I still feel confident!)

T also sent me some other family historical items. First there was this table topper or tray mat in redwork

It is like the one I have shown before, but with more embroidery. I have reason to believe that this one has belonged to our great-grandmother.

Our grandmother used to wear suit dresses, and she had blouse fronts to wear under them: blouses with no back and sleeves, just the front and collar, and an elastic band at the waist to keep it in place. Even before we were born she wore loose collars and ruffles attached to a simple blouse with a brooch. T sent me one of these ruffles:

                 

Fine ladies would never go out without gloves, not even in the summer, at least not in town:

        

This reminds me of my own lace gloves, I had a pair when I was about 10 years old. They were made of the new crepe nylon material, stretchy and soft compared to these. Nothing can beat the elegance of this pair! Thank you T, and P, I will start a tiny museum.

This last picture is not vintage at all, it is just to cheer you up. Yesterday I visited my mother, and on the way from the bus stop to her house I saw this jolly snowman. It reminded me of the wonderful childhood (= vintage) winters with lots of snow like this year, snow castles and caves, and snowmen guarding them.

     

Happy VTT, remember to go through the list of links on Coloradolady's blog. You never know what interesting treasures the others have to show and tell about today!