The Bag Ladies strike again

Every girl wants a new bag in the Spring. Mine is All About Anna, an easy to follow pattern by Stephanie of Loft Creations. This generous lady gifted her European friends in the Bag Club (very, very unofficial!) with this pattern, and now we finally found time to make our versions. Be sure to check what  Melanie and Simone have made with it.

It took me a long time to pick the perfect fabrics for this bag. These are the fabrics I bought recently at a Handicraft Fair, with the bag in mind.

Here is a picture from four years ago, showing my loot from another Craft Fair. I have only been touching and folding the middle four fabrics, but decided to cut them for the new bag. Just a little nib at the edge, 1½" wide!

I took Melanie's challenge before she even wrote about it here (way at the end of the long post). Your loveliest fabrics are worth a life away from the cupboard! Give them a chance! See here, I needed just tiny bits of the pretty fabrics, and still have lots left for the really, absolutely perfect project for them. I just happened to have the perfect vintage button for the bag too.

Inside pocket.

And finally the back. The main fabric is coffee brown linen.

Thank you Stephanie for this nice pattern, and thank you Bag Ladies for the deadline and for making the bag with me. This time we didn't need each others' help for solving problems, as there weren't any. The bag is perfect size for me, it will hold everything I carry around plus a magazine, a water bottle or even my camera. I can carry it on my shoulder and have both hands free.

In the evenings I have been knitting tiny beanies for preemie babies. I still have some yellow baby wool and I want to try another pattern too. The preemie blanket is knitted using a 100 g ball of baby yarn. I started in one corner and added in the middle of the row so the blanket would be square whenever I ran out of yarn.

Finally a picture of the guy who lost the battle and his tail feathers. He didn't want to show his face, which is quite understandable. The other guy has tail feathers almost 20 inches long, and four ladies. But I like happy ends, and so do you, so we can all be happy that Mr. No Tail has a big, good looking lady of his own. And he will have a perfect tail by the end of the summer.

Secrets revealed and wonders of the nature

It has been a long time since my last post, due to Internet problems. Things are getting better now and I hope to catch up my blog reading soon.
This is what I have been working on in secret:

In February I heard through Simone about the Stained Quilt Along hosted by Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. After seeing Simone's blue and grey fabrics I thought my son's shirts would make a lovely stained glass quilt to match the Business Class quilt I made for his birthday.

His long-time girlfriend has her birthday this week and I had a chance to give this to her yesterday

They had invited us and her parents for a very delicious Mother's Day lunch at their home. The quilting is in the ditch as I didn't want to disturb the "glass".  -  I couldn't resist borrowing DD's stained glass angel for the last picture. There is no border in this quilt, just a narrow binding in the same grey as the sashings. Sarah's pattern was for a crib size quilt and I wanted to make a lap size, so I added a row at the bottom and to one size. I forgot to measure the finished quilt but it should be around 55.5" x 66.5".

Marimekko has taken old prints into production again. This one is "Helsinki - Helsingfors" by Per-Olof Nyström from 1952, the year of the Helsinki Olympics. I don't remember this print from my childhood, but my mother used to have summer dresses and skirts in this style. I found this piece of fabric in the local Marimekko shop and used it for a shopping bag for my sister Maija in Germany.

And now some spring feelings. Wood Anemone is one of the first wild spring flowers, usually popping up for Mother's Day.

My daffodils like their new place and are blooming right now. This is their second spring in this spot.

The green finches were courting over lunch. He on the right is showing his nice yellow wing feathers.

Mr. Pheasant has four lovely ladies, here he is watching over two of them having lunch. He is wearing his spring feathers, with brighter colours and much red in the face.

 

I almost forgot to update my Scandinavian Christmas. Here is Block 4 all finished:

And here it is added to the other three. I'm slowly starting work on the border of hearts and snowflakes. If you want to see a finished Scandinavian Christmas, pop over to Melanie. She is being a star pupil!

This is all for today, I hope to come back soon with new finishes.

Trip to Germany, Part 2, about Fly Fishing and Scandinavian Christmas

Between two rainy days, Saturday was warm and sunny. We headed to the 7th International Experience the World of Fly Fishing. On our previous visit we had a wonderful lunch at the Restaurant Fürstenfelder at Kloster Fürstenfeldbruck old monastery, and there we saw posters of the coming event. We could not extend our visit to the fly fishing event at that time, but before booking the flights for this year's visit we made sure to be there at the right time. In the old monastery buildings the exhibition was spread on two floors. - I promised you some more traditional clothing, here the gentleman is wearing a felt hat. Pictures of my SC are at the end of this post, feel free to jump over the travel report part.

 

Examples of finer fly fishing gear: silk lines. 

The most interesting part of the event was outdoors at the casting pools.

The Austrian casting guru Roman Moser demonstrated different one-handed rod casting styles; here he is showing an Englishman's style:

At the end of his demonstration he showed that a rod is not always necessary if you master the double haul cast. He shortened his rod with every cast, ending up with just the line in his hands and the fly still reached the wanted spot every time. Looks so easy when you know what you are doing. For those of you who are not Candace or otherwise familiar with fly fishing, the fly with the hook weighs "nothing" and it flies because of the weight of the line and the energy transmitted to the line from the rod movement.

After the demonstration Mr. Moser had a casting clinic at the other pool. Mr. K. got some useful tips and a velcro band for holding his wrist in line with the rod.

A girl's eye wandered after fashion: a Scottish fly fisherman met with a local one.

Among the audience a traditional Bavarian men's jacket. Antti Guttorm from Finland is demonstrating casting with a two-handed/switch rod and Skagit casting.

In the Monastery's park there are modern sculptures. This one was on the lawn where visitors could test rods and practise their casting.

The name of the sculpture is "Istsituation", could be translated as Status Quo.

Wild Primula on the lawn.

Fritillaria - one flower checkered, the other white, with a dandylion under it.

Before going home we had grown quite an appetite, so we decided to try the other restaurant at the Monastery, Klosterstübchen.

The Wiener Schnitzel was big enough to feed a small family, but somehow I managed to eat most of it.

On Monday, when changing trains on the way to the airport, I had a chance to take a photo of the peculiar "nests" we had seen on many trees.

No nests at all, but mistletoe, Viscum Album. They don't grow in Finland.

Finally, at last, my finished Block 3 of Scandinavian Christmas by Lynette Anderson. I'm stitching this together with Annik, Elin, Grethe, Hanne, Lynn and Melanie. You can see their results through the links on my right sidebar under Scandinavian Christmas. Here's my stitchery:

And here the new block with numbers 1 and 2. I'm starting number 4 now.

While bonding the applique parts for block 3 I made some hearts for the border as well - there will be a lot of blanket stitching with these in the evenings when the time comes!

Munich in Spring

Today I will take you on a walk in Munich. Mr. K and I visited his sister in this area last week, and while she was busy with her studies, we enjoyed a day in the city. On the S-Bahn we met a big party of people dressed in Tracht, their traditional costume. I tried to take a picture, but they were in a hurry to get to the Cathedral on time for a First Communion. I love the long skirts of the ladies, worn with pretty aprons and short jackets. In my next post you will see some of the men's clothes a little closer.

This is where they were going, to the Frauenkirche behind the houses:



 

From the train we walked to Viktualienmarkt. It is a large farmers' market with all kinds of specialities. If you are interested, there is a lot of information in the link.

It is asparagus season, many stalls had this delicious treat beautifully displayed. Guess what I made for lunch today? Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and prosciutto.

Fruit and vegetables.

Ornaments made of dried flowers and fruit.

Meat and sausages - the regulations must be different here where the meat is on the table and not cooled. The shops around this market had meat hanging in their window too.

There are six memorial fountains for folk singers and comedians around the market place, all donated by citizens of Munich. This one is for Liesl Karlstadt.

One of the many beer restaurants.

Turning back to the city

where we needed to sit down for tea/coffee and Apfelstrudel mit Eis und Sahne:

Rested and nourished we walked on to visit the Hunting and Fishing Museum.

The bronze boar

 and wels catfish, both about their natural size, guarded the entrance.

Inside the museum we concentrated on the fishing gear from stone age to early 20th century. We have been here before, so we skipped the hunting department. We had perfect timing: it rained while we were in, but it had stopped by the time we came out.

On the way back to the sister's home we noticed this lawn covered in tiny flowers.

I had to have a closer look. Veronica!

Next time I'll take you to something different, and show my latest finish which is just one block of the Scandinavian Christmas.