Remember this Quilt?

I finished this quilt back in September 2006, just after I started blogging. I started piecing it by hand on trains in Romania and finished by machine in Finland. Well, The Color Purple has a new home! I started it with a friend in mind, but then she had a boy. (He received this for his first birthday and this on my last visit to England.) Now that little boy has a new sister, Maria Sandra. They will be amazed how quickly this quilt arrives - all I have left to do is the label!

Strawberries, Jordgubbar, Mansikoita

Please send help.

I am obsessed. And bleeding. Well, almost bleeding.

What started out as one of my three mini give-away quilts has turned into a red and green monster. (Speaking of green monsters, a week from Tuesday, I'll be here!) I bought some Marimekko Pieni Mansikka fabric on sale a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd use it to try a little handquilting with perle cotton. I've finished three small quilts (from 9"to 16") and don't feel finished with the series. I think I'm going to send one for the Miniature Booty Swap II. My fingers are raw, but I just can't stop. I'm trying to use the rubber finger tips you can buy at an office supply store. They are the only 'thimbles' I've been able to deal with. Hopefully, if I keep going, I'll build up some callouses! While surfing around yesterday, I noticed I'm not the only one with strawberries on the brain! Now I'm just hoping there'll be some in the market square to make some jam before I head to the US!

Tree Quilt and Some Winners!!

This is what I made for the June round of the 6-12" mini quilt trading swap. I think it's arrived safely in Massachusetts, so I can post the whole photo now. The tree trunk is needle-turned (I need more practice with the corners) and the non-button flowers are machine quilted. I had fun working with the buttons - just bought a whole bunch of pink and purple ones for an upcoming project. That little button at the bottom is indeed a hedgehog. It was fun to see some of the guesses!

Drumroll please.............

Sorry it's taken me so long to draw the winners of my 200th post give-away! The Midsommar celebrations went on for several days... I decided to draw three names and the winners are Jmbmommy, Chookyblue, and Nettie. Congratulations! If you send me your addresses, I hope to have the minis finished by tomorrow (assuming I can finish them during the football tonight). Here's a little peek at one of them (entirely handquilted with perle cotton and big uneven stitches - my first try and I think I'm hooked!).

Back in a Bit

I'll announce the winner of my 200th post give-away after the holiday weekend here. Until then, hope the sun is shining where you are!

Color

I've been busy in the kitchen this week, but have some very colorful shopping that I thought might be worth posting. Marimekko has been having a big sale here and these found their way home with me yesterday. (Some were only 6€ a meter!)

I also found myself in Vörå with a friend in need of a coffee. There must have been 200 handicraft shops in this little village (ok, we saw 5, but 200 is a good number - have you entered my 200th post give-away?) and we decided to check out one. I came away this Norwegian yarn (mostly a gift for my mom, but I'll probably save a couple skeins for myself) - also on sale!

Glad Midsommar!

June Mini Quilt Sneak Peeks and Celebrating 200 Posts!

Here are two sneak peeks at the mini quilt I made for this swap. I'm having fun working with buttons! It was very loosely inspired by a greeting card I bought at Svensk Form in Stockholm a few weeks ago.

This is my 200th blog post! I had no idea what would come of this blog when I started it nearly two years ago, but it's been a lot of fun so far! I love being part of such a diverse, global group of quilters. I didn't mark my 100th post or the one year mark because I was away from home when those happened last summer, but I would like to make up for it by having a give-away now. So, anyone who comments on this post by Friday morning (Finnish time) will be entered to win a mini-quilt made by me. (Any lurkers and non-quilting friends are welcome to comment, too!)

Mini Quilts

Here are some little mini quilts I've been working on while watching the football/soccer this week. They're on their way to Missouri, Washington, DC, and France, respectively (so if you live in one of those places, you might not want to scroll down through this post!). The first is an apron (just in case that's not obvious). The other two are inspired by other items in my kitchen at all times: olives and licorice. (I don't eat them together, don't worry!) If you click on the second two photos, you can see that I'm playing around a little with pearl cotton.



If you've been hunting for a copy of Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking, you might want to head over to Tonya's blog for information about a possible reprint. (Here she compares Liberated Quiltmaking to Collaborative Quilting.) She's gotten a tremendous response so far!

Mail Call!

First of all, I've been remiss in thanking Dot for the fabric she sent me in exchange for some Finnish fabric. I'm excited to make some more of my butterflies and have seen some real ones in the yard recently. Thanks again, Dot!

The fabric is keeping my Tikka warm at the moment. On that front, I've found a bobbin - just a few more parts to hunt down!

The second treasure that's recently arrived in the mail is my summer apron swap apron! Ritva doesn't have a blog, but her work is gorgeous. She's used vintage linens and new fabrics and the embroidered flowers are just beautiful. The swap requirements this time were to include a dishtowel and she made hers from a vintage pillow case with three strips of the fabrics used in the apron. It's extra long so I can tuck it through the ties of the apron. I'm not sure my photos do it justice and I'm really not sure I can use it for actual cooking!

Here's the apron I sent to my partner in Estonia (still waiting to hear that it's arrived). I hope she likes it! The lavender is a shirting stripe I found as a remnant, the green blobs are frogs, it's reversible, and that's a double pocket at the bottom. I'm afraid it looks a little blah in comparison to the one I received, but hopefully she won't be afraid to wipe chocolatey hands on it!

And finally, here's the apron I sent to Lucy, who organized the swap, as a donation. It's made from an orphan block (I definitely want to make more of these wonky blocks, but in a different color scheme) and leftover curtain fabric, with some olives to tie it all together (and to keep it from looking too Christmassy).

Group Effort

For Kate's Another Little Quilt Swap, I decided to use some blocks I won in one of her great raffles last fall. As I recall, she made them for Quilt Univerity's Ozark Garden course. I checked with Kate to be sure it wouldn't be cheating and have put both of our names on the label. The quilt will be on its way tomorrow morning, so I hope the recipient doesn't mind if she sees it here first - of course, she still doesn't know who she is! The quilt was a great piece for practicing my free-motion quilting - I think I've nearly quilted it to death. Here's a close-up:

My Four Seasons Summer quilt was near completion, but it seems to want an added touch before heading out the door and across the water, but I'm not saying which body of water! This photo inspired the addition:

Speaking of bodies of water, I headed over the Gulf of Bothnia last week (there by plane, back by boat) and spent a long weekend in gorgeous Stockholm. I hadn't been there in twelve years and am asking all my friends to stage an intervention if I ever wait that long again. One highlight was meeting Barbara in person! We had a wonderful afternoon (and a delicious meal) at her home about 100 km west of Stockholm. I'll leave you with a few more photos of the weekend (unfortunately, Barbara and I didn't think to take any photos of our visit).

Mosaic

1. Happy Birthday, Jennie!, 2. beets and brussels, 3. Meditate, 4. Green Tea Sunset, 5. sballs1, 6. Toledo, gin-tonic, 7. Hairy marie the highland cow, 8. Princess Cake, 9. Still Life For Teacher, 10. Beautiful old lady from Darap(Sikkim) village, 11. Strömmen, 12. Fabric mosaic - 8

I have seen this floating around during the past couple of days and until my apron-swap apron arrives at its destination (not too far from here) and I can post a photo, I thought I'd play along.

If you're interested:

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.