Granny Square Quilt and another thimble or two

This Autumn I have been working secretly on this project:

 

 

I saw Granny Square blocks at the Blue Elephant Stitches blog and knew it was my thing. I had looked at the grey and pink floral summer dress of my own Granny so many times, trying to figure out the best pattern for the fabric. I had almost all of the dress left, so I knew I could make it the main colour in this quilt.

 

Other florals and solids to match were easily found in my stash. I had been cutting 2½" squares of white leftovers for a long time every time I made a Unicef doll. Well, I needed to cut quite many more to get the 360 white ones to make 30 blocks, but I enjoyed it. Putting the blocks together was, as usual, almost addicting. I made a rule: every time I pressed the seams open for 5 blocks I was making at one time, I also ironed five pieces of laundry.

 

I wanted to stitch the quilt in a grid so I figured the width of my sashings accordingly. Then I added wide borders. All the white is recycled bedsheets, the good parts around the edges.

 

The stitching took a while but was not too difficult. Finishing this quilt also gives me my third thimble in the Craft Olympics organised by Melanie. Only two more crafts to go, and there is time until the end of the year.

 

Over 8 metres of binding (light grey and white stripes) meant two evenings in front of the TV. This is taken after I washed and before I ironed the quilt. Every bit of fabric was from my stash, most of them recycled.

 

 

It was a birthday gift for my sister P. Her husband's starry birthday quilt is on my header at the moment. I hope it will keep her warm at their new summer cottage.

 

This morning I took a picture of the sunrise just before 8.  We had a sunny day, but windy and cold. The snow is gone so we spent almost two hours raking the leaves in the back yard. I'm still feeling a bit chilly, after two cups of tea and all. It takes time to get used to the colder temperatures again.

I decided to frame the little stitchery for now to finally earn my second (because I finished the framing before the quilt) thimble in Melanie's Craft Olympics. I can unframe it and use it for something else later, if I find the perfect use for the fantasy bird.

The first snow is here

This morning we woke up to a sstarry clear sky and the second cold temperature of the Autumn, -5C or 23F. By the time we had read the newpapers and finished our morning tea there was snow on the ground.

                           


I had to wait until the sun was up behind the clouds before I could take the photos.

                    


The snowing had stopped but the temperature has stayed the same.

The leaves are waiting under the snow.

Stitching and knitting

 

This little stitchery is something DD gave me for last Christmas as a kit. It required some new to me stitches such as long and short stitch and satin stitch over large areas, and stem stitch. This will be one of my Craft Olympics projects once it is all finished. I don't know what I will use it for. Any suggestions? The kit included framing instructions, but maybe it could be something more fun. The circle is about 6" in diameter.

 

We are enjoying the last splashes of colour. Rose bushes by the road

 

 

and maples in the village. 

 

 

  

My begonias are learning to swim. It has rained lots and lots lately.

 

 

 

Our aspen about a week ago - today half of the leaves are gone already.

 

 

 

 The rowan tree has only its berries left. They can be gone in one day when a flock of waxwings finds them in the winter.

 

This weekend I knitted one more blue and one more grey sock from toe to top. I knitted the first blue and grey sock a year ago when I tried to learn this new method. Now I have two pairs of nice socks for some child with feet this size. I have knitted a few pairs of socks this way, and some the usual way but two at a time on a long circular needle, and I like it. It helps me get the heels the same. And I just noticed this will be another project on my PIPS 2012 list!

Busy weeks

September is such a short month. I have been busy making apple sauce, 91 jars in all. That ought to be enough for the year, anyway I can't squeeze any more jars on the cellar shelves.

 

 

In the evenings - the days are getting shorter every week - I have knitted the last squares for this little blanket and crocheted them together.

Then I have knitted a secret gift which is also my first Craft Olympics project. I'm sorry I can't show more!

I made new curtains for one of the new windows we had installed this Summer.

The trees have started to change their colour, some birches have even dropped their leaves already.

 

Our garden must look a bit like a witch's garden with so many poisonous toadstools

 

 

and berries. Lily of the valley - Convállaria majális - is also poisonous.

 

 

The open college sewing group I have attended for many years already was too small to start this Autumn, only three of us wanted to join. We decided to have our own group without any fee, and tomorrow will be our second meeting at Mr. K's conference room. It is a "bring your own sewing machine" night, but I think I will bring my own light box and start preparing for my next Craft Olympics thimble.

Autumn is a new beginning

September means the beginning of Autumn and (old) school year, new hobbies and courses. This is how high the temperature climbed on Sunday at noon, and it was a sunny day:

 

 

 

9 C, or 48 F if you prefer. It is not warm any longer, and I have worn gloves already. It is time to put away the summer clothes and start wearing comfortable sweaters that mercifully cover most of me. Yesterday I noticed the first maples that had changed colour from green to red and yellow and orange. Autumn leaves are also in these fabrics Stephanie sent me some time ago:

These fabrics I bought in the Spring for  some future project.:

 

And here are my newest fabrics from a trip to Helsinki a few weeks ago:

 

 

 

Looks like I'm well prepared for different kinds of Autumn projects. Melanie is organising Craft Olympics for anyone interested, and for the first time in my life I'm being called an athlete:

 

The simple rules of the game are at the end of Melanie's post here. My plans are not all set yet, but I think my five crafts will be

1. Wool appliqué (my almost new craft)

2. Something knitted

3. A quilt

4. Some stitchery

5. Needle-turn appliqué as my new craft

 

The deadline for all projects is the end of this year, and the projects are as small or big as you like. Sneak peeks are allowed, so you can very well include secret Christmas projects in your list. Melanie has a list of all athletes on her blog. When you have completed a craft just let her know, with a link to your blog post showing the finished project, and get a thimble for your own sidebar. Once you have finished all five crafts, you can show five thimbles like  the Olympic rings. Melanie tells more about the Craft Olympics in this post.

 

Guess how many jars of apple sauce I cooked this morning? 22. You can't even notice I have picked two buckets full of apples from the lawn. This was the beginning of apple cooking season.

Farmers' and Crafters' Market, and finally a quilt top

Last Saturday was the first weekend of September, and time for the 20th annual Maa Elää event in Järvenpää. It is a bigger than usual Farmers' and Crafters' market and harvest fair with nearly 200 stalls instead of the under 10 on a normal Saturday. There is often also an exhibition of old tractors or lorries. The first one is a grey Fordson from the very early '50s. See how small it is!

 

 

 

This red beauty is a Valmet, made in Finland.

 

 

The green one is Zetor from Czechoslovakia. The blue one in the background is another Fordson, in case you are interested.

 

 

The scent of the apples was delicious. I must start cooking my apples now too, but our eating apples are almost no longer good. They can't be stored, cooked or baked, just eaten fresh. These stalls were on the market place.

 

 

The rows of stalls reached all the way to the end of the pedestrian area. New harvest: honey and garlic, separately and together.

Autumn's flowers

more of them

Autumn wreaths made of birch twigs or willow, and hand made jewelry.

Hand knitted wool socks in every size and colour. There were stalls with beautiful handicrafts, but the best ones were hidden behind buyers' backs so no pictures of linen dresses, more hand made jewelry or gorgeous knitted scarves and hats.

 The day was chilly but luckily there was no rain.

My craft room has finally something to show. I have added a white border and a multicolour piano key border to my Helping Hands quilt top. Choosing a backing is the next step.

 

 

First Swan report of the year, and some knitting

My regular readers may remember my pictures of whooper swans nesting in our village. For several years already, a whooper swan couple has built their nest by one of the little ponds around the village and brought their young to the village centre for flying lessons. This year made no exception, the couple - together for life - arrived in the spring and walked their babies to the bigger ponds for a first visit in June already. Local bird friends were worried about them and put up a self-made traffic sign:

 

There are two bigger ponds on different sides of the road through the village, and the birds would need to cross it if they wanted to change scenery. The bird looks more like a mute swan with the curved neck, but everyone will understand to look out for swans. After WWII the whooper swan was almost extinct in Finland, but the books by a beloved author, Yrjö Kokko, changed the situation and the estimated number of nesting couples for last year in Finland was already 5,000 to 7,000.

 

In August the school begins, for little swans as well. They have now moved to the big ponds in the village and learn to find their food in deeper water. This year there are seven (7!) babies in the family.

Later when the parents have grown new feathers, flight lessons will begin. They need a long runway to get in the air. There is often already ice on the ponds before the swans are ready to leave for the winter.

Mother or father is keeping watch while the cygnets eat with their heads under water.

On the crafty front I have been very passive lately, just knitted some squares for a new blanket in the evenings while watching TV.

There is a touch of Autumn in the air already, today is the last day of Summer. Enjoy your weekend!