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!)

VTT 9 - Silver Kalevala jewelry

This week my blog seems to celebrate the Finnish Kalevala Jewelry, as I'm showing you the rest of my old pieces. I saved the silver ones for this week, and don't worry, I don't have any golden Kalevala jewelry so there will be something else here next time!

Let's start with three thin bracelets:

I like the simple, geometric patterns and the patina they came with - it's not that I forgot to polish them!

This other bracelet I had as a gift after confirmation school at age 15. It suits a young girl as well as someone older, and the simple decoration feels timeless. The bracelet is no longer produced, but the ring with this pattern is still on the list. The prototype for this pattern has been found in archaeological digs in Western Finland.

The last piece is a brooch my mother gave me when I was already grown up, it was hers a long time before that:

Again, the brooch is no longer produced but a similar pattern is used for earrings. The manufacturer's website gives no information of the origin of the pattern, but it is obviously an old symbol.

This was my story for today's Vintage Thingies Thursday. Suzanne is hosting, and I hope her link list is getting longer!

Happy VTT!

String Quilt progress, and more Kalevala jewelry

I have been busy with my String Quilt, and all 88 blocks are now joined, the borders cut from dark blue but not yet from the foundation fabric. I'm going to make the borders double layer, like the blocks are, because my border fabric is very light. I bought the batting and found the backing in my stash. This quilt participates in Stephanie's challenge, but especially my own: Use your stash - sew more so you can soon buy new fabrics!

This week I have a meeting so I can't go to class, but I will work on this later at home. I have some secret projects to finish first. They are so much fun, too bad I can't show you anything (yet).

In my last post I showed some of my old Kalevala jewelry. I often wear a new one, too, and it comes with a story.

The name of this pendant is Talon sydän, the heart of the house. This is a modern design, in the spirit of the ancient brooches and pendants. The little heart hanging inside the big one represents at the people of the house/home. I won this silver pendant as a second prize for a tactile book in a challenge by a Finnish sewing magazine Suuri Käsityölehti, and the Celia library for the blind. Unfortunately I have no pictures of my book, because I have misplaced the CD they were on. The name of the book was given, A Book of Secrets, and I wrote my own story and made the pictures for it. The book was donated to the Celia library.

This made me think of another challenge by that magazine where I was also lucky. The challenge was to make your own family tree using any method of textile handicraft. I didn't win this time either, but was one of the 2nd to 6th, together with my daughter Kaija. We all had the same prize, garden tools by Fiskars. The first prize was a golden Kalevala jewelry necklace, but I already had it in bronze, so the secateurs were welcome too! Here is our tree, with the three-dimensional leaves by Kaija:

I have embellished the tree with all kinds of things representing us, like the scissors for Kaija (she was very keen on sewing her own clothes at that time), the fishing fly for Mr. K (tied by him, of course) and the bicycle for his father and grandfather. I guess the laundry on the line is for all the women, with home-sewn clothes. Of course, all materials were from stash even then.  I hope my handicraft skills have improved a little during the years.

The weather today is sunny, it is getting really warm in the sun even when the temperature is in the freezing figures all day. The nights are still cold so the snow will stay for weeks. New snow in the forecast for the weekend! I will not be needing my garden tools in months!

VTT 8 - Bronze Kalevala jewelry

Thursday again, and time to dig up the vintage treasures. Sometimes I think there can't be anything worth showing any more, because I'm not an active collector, I don't go to places and buy new to me vintage thingies. Then I look around and see that practically everything here is vintage, because I'm old enough. Even our wedding presents are very soon to be counted as vintage.

This week I'm showing you some of my oldest bronze Kalevala jewelry, just because we celebrated the 175 years of  Kalevala on the 28th of February. Kalevala jewelry was originally based on archeological finds from around the 11th century and newer also. They are not exact copies, but always true to the spirit of the old finds. Usually they are made in bronze, silver and gold, often the gold version being smaller. Here is a video about the production.

This heart pendant is still produced, but mine is from my school days in the 60's. 1960's I mean.

The little brooch represents the sun.

And finally a bracelet, really dark now but this one is also bronze:

I just now remembered I also have another bronze bracelet, you can see the picture and the story here. Bracelets are not so easy to wear when you are doing something with your hands, so I keep forgetting about them. The pendants and brooches look not too festive in everyday use because the material is bronze. It is my favourite material for this kind of jewelry.

I hope I didn't bore you to death with all this history info, I sometimes get a little carried away. More fun finds are listed at Suzanne's blog Coloradolady. Happy VTT!

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!

Felted mittens, and lovely mail on a bad day

The last few days I have been fighting against a flu. Yesterday I spent most of the day wrapped in a quilt and shivering, today is a little better. My personal mailman, Mr. K., had the nicest mail to make my day on Thursday:

Melanie sent me black and white wool for felting/sharing with Mr. K. for flytying, and a wide selection of Green&Black's delicious chocolate. Amazon sent me the next Arthur Ransome book, Coot Club, just when I had finished the last one I had for Christmas. And finally, for the hours of lower energy level, there was my new issue of Kodin Kuvalehti. Their chief editor commented on the big German women's magazine Brigitte's decision to start using real size , non-professional models: Kodin Kuvalehti has been using their readers as models for 16 years already! - The chocolate was a good medicine, I slept well last night and only started sneezing again after I stood up in the morning.

As I have mainly concentrated on tea, chocolate and reading in my spare time, I have not much to show. The washing machine must run every day, no matter what, and so my mittens are now ready for use. This is the before picture, the safety pin at the top is holding a plastic bag in place inside the mitten during the felting process.

 

and here are the mittens after their spin in the washing machine:

 

A closer view:

 

They remained fairly soft, but they are still a bit too large for me, just DH's size.  Mr. K. only needs warm mittens for the snow pushing, but the wool is not very durable in such use. (This is not something I would even dream of darning!) I think I will wash them once more and see if they can get a little smaller still. The thumbs are too wide and long. I don't think I will make another pair very soon; it was fun to give it a try but I prefer knowing beforehand what size I'm going to get.

VTT 7 - Darning

Yesterday I needed to darn a pair of technical sports socks for my Dear Mr. K. who has been so busy with pushing snow that there was a new hole in his sock. So of course I took my big box of darning things and tried to find a matching thread. This is what I saw:

My mother gave me the box when she found out that I actually darned socks, not just the hand knitted ones with the leftover yarn, but also other socks. The collection is from my grandmother, from the time when stockings were darned and nobody could even dream about nylons and panty hoses. Therefore I own lots of brown shades:

From the time of silk stockings!

Anyone remember these?

There were several manufacturers in town - Tampere, my home town, was for a long time the textile industry capital of Finland. Suomen Trikoo and Nanso were big names.

OK, Nanso was not in Tampere but in the neighbour, Nokia. And it still is a big name, for T-shirts and nightgowns and children's wear.

There were some smaller manufacturers as well, they all knitted the socks and provided the mending thread. Kesto means durability, and Amor is such a lovable name for grey stockings!

After the silk, wool and cotton came a new material for light summer socks and stockings, Crepe Nylon, the lovely, elastic synthetic material. One brand name was Helanca:

With time those socks turned hard and lost the elasticity. - Did I find what I was looking for? Yes, the last bit of some black thin wool yarn, and now DH can use his favourite socks again. He may well have ten pairs of all kinds of heavy use socks to use in boots, with high-tech qualities of moisture transportation, left and right foot design, snug fit and felt soles, but one pair is always the best, softest, warmest and coolest, so I better get some more darning thread for that pair!

This was my story for Vintage Thingies Thursday with the Coloradolady. Enjoy your tour through her list of links!