What have I done while I missed class

On Thursday night I didn't go to my sewing class, and my teacher Anne said she will keep an eye on my doings here on my blog, as next week is the school's winter holiday and we can't have our class. I bet she doesn't control everyone's absences like this, but I have been in her class for several years already, and hardly ever absent. And I have reason to believe she was joking, but here it comes. First the 5 socks I have knitted, the tiny one is for a Unicef doll. I have started knitting a third pair of normal size socks and will use the rest of the yarn for the dolls' socks.

Then some strip cutting on Thursday ...

... to make a new lot of QAYG blocks for Oz Comfort Quilts.

I have bought 1.5 yards of lovely  fabrics from Sew Fabulous, it arrived on Thursday:

I think I have made space for some new fabrics in my stash, so this is to fill the gap (gap?) and "just because it was lovely".

I have also worked on the everlasting wall hanging project, adding some shoes in the lowest part, and batting and backing for the first panel:

and the two first shoes for the second panel. There will be five panels in all, so I know I'm far behind my schedule. My original plan was to finish the whole thing by the end on 2010, but sometimes projects just don't happen as planned. These shoes still need the satin stitch which I will add as soon as the other shoes are ironed on.

I have also received some lovely mail this week. First from Candace a handmade fabric Valentine's Day card with some chocolates for Mr. K and me (we had some for dessert before I took the picture!).

Sweet Houseelf sent a cupcake mug mat  (free pattern by Stephanie can be found here) for her housewarming guests, and for me she added some plant dyed embroidery threads and what looks like handmade buttons. We have a Bag Club with her and Suzie and Simone, and I think the buttons will be used in one of the bag I'm going to sew with them later this year.

The weather keeps staying on the very cold side of the thermometer, and on the coldest days the little birds may save their energy and not fly to our restaurant. This was the newest cold record at our place -29.5 C or -21.1 F on Friday morning. We now light the fire also in the morning to keep the house comfortable. The sun works wonders: during the day the temperature can be nearly 20 C higher, around the very comfortable -10 C to - 15 C. That feels very OK after a long period of colder days. 

From other blogs I have read about signs of spring, and it sounds a little comforting. The only sign of spring here is the increasing amount of light, and I think without it the winter would seem too long.

Enjoy your weekend!

Hesitating spring

This time of the year seems to be a fight between winter and spring. The nights can be very cold, but during the day - longer every day -the sun sometimes wins and starts melting the snow. Cloudy days bring new snow, and again it evaporates in the air. Let me show you:

March 2nd, new snow

The squirrel, jay and titmouse share a breakfast.

Then came sunny days, all snow was gone from the trees. You can see the paths of hares on our front lawn on March 11th:

In the early hours of March 12th there was again new snow, a squirrel run by the front steps:

The apple tree was like lace:

That morning I heard the first shy song of the blackbird. No matter how cold the weather is or how much snow, when there is more light, the spring is coming and they must start thinking about nesting things.

I had a late Christmas present, and look how organized by sewing threads are now:

Of course I had to move them to the right of the sewing machine, so they are not in the way of my sewings. After my secret projects were sent away I could concentrate of the big wall hanging project again. Nothing much compared to what I have shown earlier, but I unpicked the row of houses, used Heat and bond for a nicer result, and now I have stitched the shadow wall of each house to make it look more real. I'm working on stitching the front area to make it look like a pavement, and then I need to think about windows and doors to make the coloured areas look like houses.

I have downloaded some basics of perspective drawing to help me with the windows and pavement stitching. (Would have been useful already with the houses!)

Stash use report of February

The short month of February is over and it is time to look back and see what happened with my stash. First of course I confess my sins: I bought 8.1 m new fabrics. Stash was also added by donated fabrics, but they don't count. Only when they are used! This is my challenge and I get to make the rules!

How much stash did I use during February? First, two more pillowcases for Jackie's challenge, 2.8 m, and 4 little ninepatch blocks for Illene's quilt. So little fabric that I can't add it.

One bedsheet for DS2, 2 m.

For Stephanie's No Strings Attached challenge, the remaining 60 string blocks, using 3 m for the foundation fabrics and when you think of the amount of seam allowances, at least 4 m for the strings. At least. Now I have 88 blocks, and I can start sewing the top together.

For the wallhanging project - too much unpicking to show any progress - I used 1 m from my stash for the foundation under the houses. The main project fabrics are not my stash.

For a secret project I have used another 1 m.

That makes a total of  13.8 m fabrics used from the stash, and even with the big 8.1 m shopping, the stash is 5.7 m smaller than last month. (I'm still not counting the donated fabrics, because I didn't buy them!) I think it is a good result, considering that all I could finish was two more pillowcases and a sheet.

My tatting excercises are waiting for a clearer head - I still feel dizzy after last week's flu. I have been knitting, too, on smaller needles after the felted mittens.

With March we start waiting for the spring. During the weekend we finally had above zero temperatures, and the snow started to slide from the roofs. This was our garage early this morning:

 

On the left you can see where Mr. K. has showeled snow away, from the higher roof it came down last night except for the corner bit trying to look like a curtain.

To celebrate the first month of Spring I changed the snowman panel for the bird panel on this cushion sweet Melanie sent me for Christmas. It has a new panel for every season of the year.

 

It will be quite a while before the apple trees bear blossoms, or even the bird cherries. In fact, this weekend was the first snowman weather since December! But the light is here already, a promise of spring and summer.

EDIT: I forgot the draught stopper, 1.5 m fabric from stash, making total February stash fabric use 15.3 m!

Getting finally started...

... with the custom order giant wall hanging for my friend. I have been suffering from the same block syndrome as writers sometimes have with empty sheets of paper, although it nowadays may be an empty screen as well. I have been collecting ideas, making plans, writing notes, looking at fabrics - and having cold feet. Some weeks ago I made the first move and painted two sky panels, but then I ran out of time and emulsion, so the rest of the skies have to wait.

On Sunday I took some newspapers and started cutting houses to the size I imagined they would be in a landscape 6 meters long and 1.15 meters high. This was my sketch:

I'm starting with the first panel on the left, morning sky and reddish houses. Now I have 4 houses cut, and I'm thinking how to place them. I have ironed the "ground" fabric but I will cut it later, when I know how high it will come.

Windows and doors and other details will come later. I think the first brown house will come a little higher. There will not be any real prespective, not every detail. The room this will be made for is not a very big one, and the viewer will always be close. I hope I don't need to start over many times! Luckily, my friend left me with a big plastic bag full of her fabrics for the project, and I know I have enough. (And in case I ruined all her fabrics, I think I have some to spare in my own stash!)

While waiting for courage to start cutting the houses, I made some nine patch blocks for  The Quilt for Illene Lyn from Bluebird Quilts is making for her friend. These will be on their way to Australia today:

 

Naturally, the fabrics are from my stash!

Quilt Patterns Everywhere

On Wednesday I was in Helsinki on my day off. There was a big construction site just next to Stockmann's Christmas window, and I had to take some photos of the wonderful pavement they were laying there. It is a pedestrian zone, and the tiling will cover a 250 m long area. This first part is 50 m long.

Isn't this a perfect (and difficult) quilt pattern?

One more view. The yellow shade is only a reflection on the water, the slabs are in grey and red granite.

 You can read more about the British mathematician Roger Penrose and Penrose tiling here. A less scientific and more fun approach to the subject is here. Helsinki has just been nominated  design capital of the world 2012.

The window reflected everything so badly that my pictures are of no use. Here is a tonttu girl, especially for you, Melanie!

The clock tower of the main railway station is under renovation, but look how nice tarps they use to protect the work:

The sky behind the tower in the tarp picture is blue, even when the weather is all grey.

In Helsinki I went shopping for some fabrics and things I needed, but mainly to have a pedicure. You may remember the custom order by my friend PN, a 6 m long wall hanging for her in exchange for free pedicure. I have almost all the fabrics for it from her, all I need is nice blue fabrics for the sky. I used my big box of coloured pencils for the first time to make a sketch of my ideas.

The drawing is 1 : 10, and I think I will need to make a big sketch on paper before cutting any fabrics. Luckily ther is no rush so I can postpone this project to January.

Finally I read about the results of the Tanzanian orphanage project in the newspaper. They received 177 quilts and blankets, 441 sheets and 24 pillow cases. Most of them have already been delivered to orphanages and hospitals in Tanzania.

This is a busy time, with secret projects, so there are no pictures of my doings in the sewing room. Have a wonderful weekend. It is time to light the first Advent candle on Sunday.

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!