Finn Quilt in Vaasa

March 23-25, Finn Quilt held its annual event in Vaasa with the theme Energy! (It's taken me too long to post these photos!) Three local groups acted as hosts, making for lots of work hanging quilts up, taking them down, and doing lots of other behind-the-scenes work. It was all worth it, though, and people from all over Finland (about 300 participants, plus the public who were able to come to see the quilts on Sunday afternoon) seemed pleased with the event.

There several exhibits, including one inspired by the Sea and another by the word Energy. First, my favorites, then, my quilts for each, then slideshows of each group of quilts.

Havet vilar by Gunhild Mäkinen

Regatta by Sisko Panu

Auringonkukka by Mari Kuhna

Fish, Fisk, Kala

Nej, Tack.

Signs of Spring

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to enjoy a bit of spring in England.

Here in Vaasa, we are still waiting for the snow to melt, but we are having plenty of sunshine, and the birds are returning. Indoors, there has been lots of color to tide me over until the colors appear outdoors, too! We've finished the second set of squares for our collaborative afghans as part of the 12 in 2o12 project.

There's also been a lot of weaving going on:

A New Life for Old Chairs

I bought some fabric last week for a quilting project, but have still been busy with non-quilty, but fabric-involved projects. In December and again last week, I helped friends to recover old chairs with new fabric. What a quick, satisfying project! I still remember the first time I recovered chairs; I was 13, home sick from school, and recovered the kitchen chairs with my mom. Those chairs have probably had half a dozen new fabrics on them since then, but are still in everyday use at her house in Maine! The chairs above live in Germany and across the street from me in Vaasa.

Weaving

It was a gorgeous sunny day here in Vaasa today, so I really enjoyed the walk to and from the weaving studio, despite the treacherous icy sidewalks. Here are the two churches I passed on the way...

Arriving at my destination...

The fabrics I showed here a few weeks ago are slowly turning into a new rug. The colors matched the promise of spring the weather brought!

New Pillows

I haven't been doing much quilting lately, but my sewing machine has gotten some attention. In addition to sewing together sheets, curtains, and coffee bags (to make rugs and baskets), I sewed these three pillows for the living room with Kaffe Fassett fabric I bought in Portsmouth, NH over the holidays. They are simple 50cm squares, but do have French seams and zippers. Now I just need to get around to recovering the couch...

A Colorful Weekend

Despite some very grey and windy weather (and a little snow), I had a colorful weekend! I met with two friends to have an indoor knitnic (we started the tradition last summer). The 48 squares for the first of our three collaborative afghans are finished and ready to be crocheted together! You can read more about our projects here.

I also spent some time on two weaving projects, cutting up these old sheets and curtains to become a rug and tying the fringe on an earlier project. I'm trying to keep busy while waiting for my next turn on a loom.

I'm also taking a class to learn to weave baskets out of recycled materials. We've used newspaper, wallpaper, magazines, and fabric so far. A couple years ago, reusing coffee bags was very trendy here, and I've finally pulled mine out to wash, cut, and sew, in hopes of weaving a couple of baskets out of them. The prep work is taking much longer than expected, though! (My feline visitor is also back - and caught the mouse that had been plaguing my apartment. Good boy!)

Finnish Summer

I made this quilt last summer, but just gave it away as a birthday gift last month, so I wasn't able to post a photo here until now! I did post a photo of the back at one point, though. It's 72"x84" (intended to be a wide twin), made up of 2" squares. I used Bonnie's instructions for a Scrappy Trips Around the World, and the colors were inspired by the colors of a Finnish summer: blue water and sky, green grass and trees, yellow and orange sunshine and grains in the fields.

A Little Sewing

I'm sad to see that blogging has not only moved to the back burner, but seems not to be anywhere near the stove in my life at the moment. I haven't been quilting too much, but did a lot of sewing (aprons, boxers, etc.) for the holidays, and have been concentrating on other hobbies of late. I am still totally smitten with the weaving course I started in September, as well as keeping up with knitting/crocheting projects (including this updated challenge with friends). I'm also taking a course about weaving baskets from recycled materials. I will try to post about some of these pursuits in the near future, but in the meantime, here are a few quilting photos!

The photo above is for my quilting group here in Vaasa. We are called Lappvärk, and we were founded in 2006. For the upcoming annual Finn Quilt Days here in Vaasa in late March, we worked together to create a quilt comprised of this "header" (made by yours truly using Tonya's letters) and 15 20cmx20cm squares that will hang underneath. It was designed with the hopes that we can add future members' squares over time. I also contributed the squares below, a birch tree for Finland (inspired by Syko) and a pine tree for Maine. Maybe you can see the little hedgehog button!