Friends, Gifts and Dolls

Some time ago I received a gift from my dear friend Melanie. She was in Egypt earlier this year on holiday, and bought some beautiful handwoven cotton scarves there. After she made her lovely Helping Hands quilt, she sent pieces from all those scarves to each of us whose hands are shown on her quilt. As soon as I saw my new fabrics, I knew where to look for a pattern to use them and make something nice.

I have had this Kaffe Fasset book for a long time, and the handkerchief corner quilt on the cover has always pleased me. I'll show you the results later, the idea is just maturing now. Thank you, Melanie!

This week another dear friend sent me unexpected mail. This came from Simone:

Bicycles on the wrapping paper and the stamps (for Mr. K!) and the owl must be for me.

 

Inside was this cute little wallhanging for Halloween. Luckily I'm not afraid of spiders or ghosts. Thank you Simone! (Without my photo editing programme I can't turn the picture, so you'll have to tilt your head.) Simone is also one of the Helping Hands friends, and you can see what she did with her scarf  fabrics from Melanie if you scroll down her post in my link.

Finally a sneak peek at my dolls I'm making as Santa's little helper. They are my newest lot of "Anna ja Toivo" -dolls for Unicef. The names Anna and Toivo are also Finnish words and mean "give" and "hope". Very appropriate for dolls used to raise money for saving children's lives by giving them inoculations. Four pretty ones are at my sister's as I have outsourced the beautician's and hairdresser's services to her for the dolls going to her granddaughters.

Only one doll has a dress by now, but two dresses are in process and ideas for the other clothing are on paper. Everyone has at least undies, and they are sitting on the sofa near the fireplace so they are not cold. I think I'll knit some socks for them tonight.

Still Crumbling Along

This Autumn I have been playing with a bag of "useless" scraps. Jo is hosting a Crumb Along to make a unique quilt in an unconventional way. First she showed how to make Flying Geese, without a ruler:

The next week's lesson was a star block. I have made Maverick Stars before, so this was easier for me. I also happened to have tiny white squares just waiting to be used.

It was the third week, I think, when we were to see the Nine Patch and Four Patch in a new way:

After that it was tricks with triangles. I used some already in the above top right corner block, they were leftovers from a quilt I made for my niece last year. I happened to cut very many triangles the wrong way and unpicked them. Luckily I had almost the required amount of fabric to cut them the right way and only one has the stripes going horizontally in the finished quilt. Now I made a bow, a Shoo-Fly, and two HST blocks in a square.

Last week's block was the Log Cabin. I need to make more blocks of all these and some crumble blocks as well, because I need 42 blocks for the centre of the quilt, plus a huge amount for the outer border.

Jo is making the outer border with Alphabet blocks, and I'm planning to make some words and maybe stars for it. I'm waiting for my book to arrive any day now. This will certainly be the scrappiest quilt I have ever made!

I'm linking in on Jo's blog. There you can find links to many other quilters who are doing their own unique versions of this fun quilt. Go and see them all!

PIF sent, and other news

Finally I have a working system on this borrowed laptop and can show you some of my recent doings. Some time ago I sent all my PIF gifts on their way, and they have now arrived at their destinations in Australia, Switzerland and Ireland. I made them all a little tote bag using Marimekko fabric, and a smaller bag for small things.

 Barbara and Heather both received the sets shown above, and Kaite, who signed in later, got a more colourful tote (because I had used my beige for the two others):

 

and a knitting needle holder as I happen to know she is a knitter.

 

The baby sweaters went to the Black Lion Hospital in Ethiopia, to fulfill my earlier promise from 2008 to send three handmade gifts. At that time I only had two ladies to sign in for the first PIF I signed in.The Finnish Nuttu project has received nearly 50,000 baby sweaters for them in a few years, and it has spread to Switzerland as well, where the sweaters are sent to another place. I'm so happy Barbara decided to knit some sweaters too, and luckily we found a way she can join the project in her own country.

You can see here what Melanie sent me and her other PIF ladies. The pictures are at the end of the holiday post.

I had to use my photos as they came from the camera, I hope they don't take ages to upload when you read this.
I have been working on some Unicef dolls again, and on my crumble blocks, enjoying some lovely autumn days but also had rain and wind, even the first night frosts. A new post will follow soon! I hope to be able to visit you all now that the internet seems to allow me opening more than a few of them.

Autumn bag and Stash use report for September

This week I have been suffering from a crushed down computer syndrome and the situation is still going on. Mr. K offered me his laptop so I have been able to read and send emails, but this poor thing is slow and constantly having internet troubles. Therefore I have not been able to visit your blogs. On the other hand, I have had more time with my sewing machine.

The Bag Club, Melanie, Simone and I, have been working on an Autumn bag. Melanie and I kept to the original plan of making a more complicated pattern from our book The Bag Making Bible, and Simone wanted to finish a big bag she had been working on. The Organiser Bag inludes details like a gusset, several interior pockets, a harness for a laptop, and an adjustable strap. These were all very clearly explained in the book and not too difficult to sew. The final touch was my big headache: the flap is closed by two twist-locks. Cutting the holes for the buttonhole metal parts was SCARY! The bag flap had many layers like exterior fabric, interfacing and lining and heavy interlining , and I had to be so careful not to cut the hole too big. Next time will be easier. Melanie can tell, as she has already made two of these bags. You can get to her blog from the link Houseelf Doings in my sidebar, she has great pictures of her bags there, and more.

Here is my bag:

There should be a picture but I'm not sure whether you can see it. I'll download it again later when/if the good computer will be good again. Anyway, the exterior fabric is from linen curtains from my childhood, and the bag front is an upholstery fabric. The lining is a brown fabric handed down to me from someone in the family. This makes the bag made completely from stash. For my statistics I estimate I have used about 1.3 m fabrics in all for this (exterior and lining). Other September sewings took 0.8 m for the last PIF gifts I made for Kaite, who signed in later, and some other minor projects.The gifts are now on their way to Heather, Barbara and Kaite. Pictures will follow when the ladies have received their mail. This all adds up to 2.1 m fabrics used, and nothing bought!

This time I can't put in any links or photos in the normal way, but I hope to have the computer problems solved as soon as possible and visit your blogs again.

Crumbs, limping geese, and swans learning to fly

Recently I came across a tempting challenge: Crumb Along! at Jo's Country Junction. I made my first crumb quilt last Spring and it was fun and addicting. Before I noticed I had started yet another block, and when I trimmed a finished block I was left with a new beginning. Therefore I didn't hesitate but started playing with another bag of crumbs. For the first block Jo showed us how to make Flying Geese in a liberated way, scissor cut and with no strict rules.

My geese look like they had a limp!

Jo is giving a new block every Tuesday, and yesterday she showed how to make a star and a heart. These are my first blocks for this week. If you want to play along, you can still catch up and start playing with your tiny bits of fabric.

On every Tuesday Jo also has a list of links to the blogs Crumbing Along, so you can visit the blogs and get new ideas. The button on my sidebar will also take you to Jo's blog.

Limping geese takes me to the beautiful whooper swans practicing their flight. The birds are big, from bill to tail 130 to 152 cm long, and quite heavy too. Getting up in the air is not so easy:

This is as high as this young bird got on any of its attempts I saw.

There was lot of running just under the water surface.

Yesterday Melanie gave us two challenges, one of them concerned decluttering the house and getting rid of five things that are useless, outgrown etc. I found all these blouses,shirts etc. in my closet, in good condition but made for a person smaller than I'm now, so they will go to the charity shop.

This is more than five already, but I also found a winter sweater of Mr. K and a small T-shirt of Son K to go with them. Then there was this pair of summer shoes. They were not my size either, but tended to be left behind like Cinderella's glass slipper when I tried to walk in them.

And finally something useless: two broken toys I had been thinking of repairing but I know I'm never going to do it. Binned!

The fun part of Melanie's challenge is left: an hour of time for myself, and as a reward for losing the useless items, to find something to the house that is really me. I'll need to think about that before I make the decision.

Autumn feelings

The weather has changed to colder nights, misty mornings and shorter days. Two weeks ago we had our first New Jersey Moreton tomatoes finally ready to eat. Delicious! The seeds came as Christmas present from Candace and Mr. Squash.

Yesterday I had to pick the whole harvest as there is a chance of night frost any night soon. On the left are the Ramapo mid season tomatoes, and on the right the early season variety Moreton. Obviously our season is too short! And "everything's big in America", some of these are as big as my fist.

Here are the almost done ones. The small ones are our last domestic plum tomatoes.

These we had this morning at breakfast.

We also have some cherry tomatoes. Almost lingonberry tomatoes!

I have been knitting again. When I was digging through some boxes I found lots of yarn I didn't remember I had, and so I knitted the pink sweater using some of the darker red for stripes. All three sweaters have the same amount of stitches, and the same 3.5 mm needles, and the yellow and dark red even have the same yarn, but all three are different sizes. Luckily, so are babies! These are going to be my PIF gift for a charity. My PIF ladies, be patient, I will send your gifts soon too!

Yesterday I was picking our last apples for apple sauce and found a tired little hedgehog asleep under the apple tree. I didn't make a picture because I didn't want to wake him or her up. The hedgehog looked almost like dead but it was breathing steadily so I think it was fine, just enjoying the sun's warmth. There were many of these toadstools on our lawn , maybe here is a guest room for the Houseelf?

When I was hanging up my washing on the line, I heard the cranes. They are a sign of Autumn coming too, gathering together for their migration to North Africa and the Nile. There is a video on this link showing the cranes in the spring when they return here for nesting.

As the birds leave us, the nature gets more quiet. The cheerful singing belongs to spring when the males try to impress their mates. Come Autumn, the birds only chirp quietly and they will share in a peaceful manner the seeds we offer. In a few weeks the last little migrating birds are getting on their way and we will start feeding the ones which are meant to stay here for the winter: tits, bullfinches, greenfinches, yellow-breasted buntings, siskins, woodpeckers, blackbirds. I miss seeing them already, as they have disappeared in the forest for all summer. After the first hard night frost they will return and see if the sunflower seeds are in the usual place again. They will be!

Farmers' Market and Harvest Fair

Last weekend we visited the annual farmers' market and harvest fair in Järvenpää again. We left home in rain, but were lucky to have sunshine for the time we walked through this marketplace and pedestrian area. You can see how dark the clouds were.

Farmers brought their harvest: chanterelles, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and cabbages here, and leeks

Home made jams, juices and pickled vegetables

Flowers

and flowers

Dried flowers and straw ornaments, including straw goats for Christmas

The yarns in soft colours here in the front are dyed with plants and mushrooms (not the pink, I think!). They had yarns for knitters and woven and knitted shawls.

The weather is getting colder, and wearing these fingerless gloves would be a good idea soon.

Hand-made ceramics

Some of the Villa Cooper ladies with their wool socks, leather slippers and ceramics


Guess how many new ladies wanted to join the open college quilting class this autumn after seeing my pretty display? 0!
Really, on Thursday only one of last year's ladies joined me and the teacher in class. After the rain stopped, one more lady came and asked if she could join and not quilt but make herself a jacket, and we all welcomed her with open heart. Three is not a crowd here, so we need at least two more to be allowed to start the class for real. We just hope some of our regulars have been busy with work, grandchildren, harvest or summer cabin, and will be there next week full of energy and new ideas.