I started this table runner for a friend after we visited the Estonian island of Kihnu last August and finally sent it to her as a very belated Christmas/Birthday gift recently. The red fabrics are very similar to the fabrics the women of Kihnu traditionally wear. In fact, some of the fabric for sale at the tiny museum shop there was already in my stash at home in Finland! I tried out a lot of the special stitches on my Bernina for quilting it. It seems like a shame not to use them!
It's snowing as I write this... As much as I'm a winter person, I'm ready for a little green. In the meantime, I've started the next phase of my place names quilt - sewing the top together!!
I took a quick trip to Helsinki recently for a meeting and stayed a little longer to do a few "big city" things on my own. I went to two films that are unlikely to make it to Vaasa, did a little bit of shopping, and checked out the new Marimekko exhibit at the Helsinki Design Museum. The exhibit was good - especially for those interested in fashion. You really can't go wrong by hanging huge pieces of gorgeous fabric on the second floor of this 1894 school building!
I bought this piece of "Napakettu" designed by Aino-Maija Metsola at the Marimekko factory store. Right now it's pinned to the quilt hanging above my couch. I'm thinking of quilting it and giving it a permanent home there...
There was also Marimekko to be found in my hotel (as hallway art and breakfast dishes). You can see that it was snowing all day on Saturday from this photo of the Hakaniemi market hall. There was a trumpeter outside who broke into a Christmas carol every once in a while! I enjoyed his sense of humor, but I'm not sure everyone did!
I also bought a little yarn - I was very restrained, just three skeins. One has already become a scarf!
I finished up Falls Church tonight, and I'm pretty sure it's the last place that will go into the quilt!! Yippee! I did get a few ideas about the back today, though... 
These letters are pretty small (the skinny bits are 1/4" finished), and I'm not quite sure what happened with the G, but hopefully it adds character. I hope having a variety of sizes will help when I cobble all the places together. I've been saving the extra bits of fabric to help make everything fit. Maybe I'll be doing that this weekend?!
This is one of my favorite fabric combinations - I especially like the background fabric!
I had trouble deciding if I should include Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church, VA, or if Washington, DC covered the bunch, but after laying out the names last week, I decided to go ahead and include them. I've lived in the DC area for a total of almost four years - about one year in each of these VA cities, plus the District itself. One year as a child, the other three soon after college. I'm getting low on large enough pieces of tone-on-tone prints and/or polka dots, but the end is in sight - just three more places!
