On cushions and sights

My mother once told me she couldn’t get why I was so fascinated with cushions. I was living in a much smaller place then with a fraction of the cushions I now have and I couldn’t get what on earth she was talking about.

Then again she was a lady with such perceptive insight there was little that escaped her attention. With her amazing foresight I guess she saw it coming. Yet she would be shocked to witness the present state of affairs in my home.

Nevertheless, she is to blame, at least partly. Thanks to her I am completely smitten with handcrafted items. It’s becoming exceedingly hard for me to walk away from a needlework cushion with a floral or ornamental pattern if I notice one at a flea market or thrift shop, I’m afraid.

Two weeks to go and we’ll be handing over the keys of this house to the new owners. We are busier than ever. In hindsight, you should never get a place with excessive storage and never stay put for too long. Keeping those two simple rules in mind will save you a lot of headache in the end.

Bye for now and until next time from Turku. I am planning to revive my Handmade treasures series as soon as we are settled down in the new apartment. Meanwhile, have a happy International Women’s Day and enjoy the spring season! Ours is very much ahead, not only in our minds but out-of-doors, too.

PS. Two of the elaborate cross stitch cushions are by my ex-mother-in-law.

The sewing one

I have been busy with a thing or two, most recently with a project for a friend. You see, among my friends I am known as the one who sews although I haven’t been sewing much in at least a decade or so. Nevertheless, five years ago when I popped in at a friend to congratulate her on her birthday I left her place with two bags full of fabrics she thought she would no longer have any use for. Now that she had an even more important anniversary I made her a simple quilt using some of those fabrics.

She is the brown-and-orange sort of a person so I chose her four browns and a yellow as the main colours for the quilt. Her colours are very far from those of mine. I had to consult the colour palette of her Autumn personality to check whether it would include any tones I might find in my huge fabric stash. I did have a rather nice vintage fabric by Sanderson with a floral stripe I felt would match very well with the browns and the yellow. The piece called ‘Pheasant moon’ from the 1970s is a flea market find that once served someone as a curtain.

I also recovered some leftovers of a Marimekko fabric called ‘Rekiretki’ (which translates Sleigh ride) designed in 1957. So I decided to accent the turquoise and purple-shifting hues of the Sanderson piece with some sea blue and violet from that one. However, no matter how I tried the turquoise and violet nuances just didn’t turn right in my photos.

The quilt became a modest striped one with a floral border but I am rather pleased with it. Anything multi-coloured and bright will warm my heart. Hopefully this one will delight that of hers also. There is one regret though. Completing this project was no different from most of my other doings. It was completed at the last minute, i.e. in the middle of the night before the morning meeting with the friend. Moreover, the morning was a rainy one and I was in a hurry anyway. I didn’t have a chance to shoot it properly.

You couldn’t imagine how long I’ve been planning to start some serious quilting. I am convinced one day I will be completely crazy about this craft and will continue recording every finished project, however amateurish, with pride.

PS. Dear R, if you would like to have a full-sized bedspread out of these fabrics just let me know. There is much left of the browns and the yellow.

HT 7: Framed cross stitch fish

It looks like we might be lucky enough to skip a couple of months this winter: the little snow we had is now almost gone. It has been wet and dark so I am finally continuing my Handmade treasures series with a very fitting item.

When I saw this cross stitch ‘aquarium’ in a thrift shop a few years ago I instantly knew it would be ideal on the wall under the roof window of our upstairs hall. You see, although my photos do not reveal it the sofa against the pitched ceiling is purple underneath the bedspread. I’m keeping a spread there because of our Jack as well as my daughter’s cats who visit us every now and then. The colour of the sofa is rather close to the darkest hue of violet in the cross stitch piece.

A couple of years ago when we had the roof replaced (more about that here) we also had the roof window replaced. I find the little framed fish very charming against the present off-white trim he was clever enough to build out of plywood around the new window. Quite an accomplishment in an old house like ours where no two corners are identical.

The sofa nook is one of the places for his afternoon nap. It is also the spot for my late-night or rather early morning knitting by the digital TV recorder. I have neglected both my handicrafts and recordings this season. I should put on a spurt with both as the device’s huge capacity will soon be pushed to its limits. Well, there is always the option of deleting some of the recorded files...

Now that I have finally revived the series I am hoping to show more of my handmade treasures soon.

HT 6: Embroidered book jacket

Summer has been keeping me occupied and it still is. Many plans and projects have been left at a standstill, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unintentionally, while something else has taken over. One of the forgotten thoughts is my Handmade treasures series. I am reviving it in this post hoping to get it going on a more regular basis now that we are heading towards autumn and even worse.

This treasure is my latest handmade flea market find, a book jacket of linen with a light cotton lining and embroidered rowan fruit on the cover. This is the kind of handicraft that could never pass unnoticed by me. Every time I discover something like this I am amazed someone would want to get rid of such a delightful item. All the better for us who cannot get enough of them.

The folds are deep enough to make the jacket suitable for both thicker and thinner books. Too bad I don’t seem to have any time for novels these days. Maybe there will be some use for the jacket in a few months when the season I don’t care to mention yet is again entangling us in a state of not that welcome blues.

Suncatcher without sun

Here it is, the stained glass project I announced a few days ago; a framed rose suncatcher I made using the Tiffany copper foil technique soldered in tin. I am not completely happy with its rough look, especially because it will be a present for someone who has always been very clever with her hands and has done almost everything from woodworking to oil painting (but lucky for me, no glass work).

Starting to take shape.

This was the best I could do in the present time frame. As it is hand made by me it will have to do. After all, this is only my fourth Tiffany work ever and the three earlier pieces were made several years ago. I had forgotten all about cutting glass and soldering, not that there was much to forget yet. However, I’m determined to continue with this hobby so one day I’ll show you something I’m actually proud of, I hope.

On a gray day such as today even this poor little rose will make rather a nice bright spot against a window, I must admit. (If any of my ex-in-laws are reading this: hush-hush, this is for grandma.)

Working on glass

I just started a project and I’m hoping announcing it here will speed up the process because there is a time limit. And my own deadline is even tighter. Now back to cutting glass so I can start grinding the pieces today. I love what you can do with stained glass but I’m such an amateur I had better stay by the desk and let the laptop be for once. So cheerio for a while! I’ll show you the outcome if there will be one.

HT 5: Framed embroidered flowers

Time certainly flies. Tomorrow will be the first of April and I haven’t posted anything on my Handmade treasures series in March.

So here is one of my most recent flea market finds, embroidered poppies and forget-me-nots in frames painted in glossy black. By chance, these are two of my favourite flowers. But then again, the list of my favourite flowers would be such a long one almost any flower would qualify, at least if embroidered.

I don’t know yet where to hang this treasure. For the present, it is standing on my ‘sewing’ desk. It may stay there permanently to inspire me into action. I have some projects I should implement in the next couple of weeks. If these flowers can’t make it happen I don’t know what could.

HT 4: Embroidered tablecloth

It’s about time I continued my Handmade treasures series so I’m displaying this lovely embroidered ‘Sunday’ tablecloth my mother made for me as a present some 15 years ago.

My parents retired – or rather were made to retire – in their mid-fifties at about the same time they had their first grandchild. Thus they were lucky to have almost three productive decades to devote entirely to their own interests. Their most precious gems were the 12 grandchildren they were blessed with during the years but they had plenty of time to engage themselves in many other kinds of things such as crafts, both at home and on special courses their local community offered.

My mother had always done lots of handicrafts and she was very skillful in all the types she took up. Everything that ever left her hands was flawless be it sewn, woven, knitted, crocheted or embroidered, as you can see from the close-ups. She made many precious pieces for her offspring and as regards me, she always got it right. I love all the items she surprised me with, not that I didn’t love the ones I later inherited.

The square tablecloth measuring 1.5m has proven very versatile. I’m hoping it will last much longer than my time so I’m only using it on special occasions but it is the perfect size for our living room coffee table as well as the breakfast table in the kitchen diner. In addition, it fits our extendable dining table nicely crosswise when the table is set at 2m or less.

How could you not love an item like this? I have never tried any embroidery yet and I believe if I ever could create anything haft as beautiful and laborious I would be forever proud.

(PS. In one respect nothing has changed since the late 1970s: employers still consider the over-fifty-year-olds an undesirable burden.)