The rest of our time in Finland

 We have been so very busy here in Helsinki that I have been so tired in the evenings when we get back to the hotel, writing a blog post has been postponed. But we are sitting in the hotel on Monday morning, with the bags mostly packed (we head to London this afternoon) and I am making time to add what we have done for the past 4 days.

On Thursday, Krisy picked us up (she has our travel cards for the public transport on her phone as the app wouldn't work on ours). We headed to her apartment by tram, train and bus and spent a relaxing day there. It was lovely to see how she lives, so different from life in Australia and yet in some ways similar. We returned to central Helsinki for a lovely Thai meal and then it was back to the hotel.

Friday was another busy day. Krisy picked us up early and we headed to do some sightseeing. We saw the Orthodox Cathedral which was a lovely building on a hill (many churches are on the top of hills here). 

Helsinki Orthodox Church from the road

 

Closeup of embroidery on coffin cover

Light fitting

Closeup of embroidery on statue of crucifixion

Crucifixion

Ceiling dome

View of interior

After spending time there we headed to the Lutheran Cathedral and were in time to hear a lovely young lady talk about the history of the building and the parish. The church is a very different style to the previous one.

Lutheran Cathedral

Painting behind altar

Pulpit

Pipe Organ

After visiting these two churches, Krisy took us into the historic Library Building which had amazing architecture inside.

The dome in the foyer

Columns in the first reading room

Looking up at the Glass dome with floors circling below

After this we popped in to a cafeteria for a buffet lunch and then wandered over to the square in front of the Lutheran church were a military parade was about to take place. It was done by the Finnish Armoured Regiment and was the Trooping of the Colours. We watched the start and saw them head off to parade around the streets of Helsinki.

Formed up ready to begin

The Colours arriving

Marching off

After the parade, Krisy took us to another Church - The Church of the Rock. Such an unusual building and well worth the visit.

General view of the interior showing the amazing ceiling

The organ

One of the side walls

After leaving the Rock Church, we were caught in a very heavy shower on the way to the tram stop to travel to the Helsinki City Library. Another unusual building, very modern in architecture that uses space and shape to create areas for different activities, and it works. There is even a space where you can use their sewing machines if you don't have your own.

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and I thought the light fittings very unusual. Greg also was taken with a statue on a nearby building.

Light fitting

Statue near the Vietnamese restaurant.

Saturday was a family day. Krisy and her brother Kari picked us up and drove us to Loppi to visit with her family. The visit started with meeting her parents at the parish church where we were shown around and Krisy and her mum performed 2 songs for us, one a Finnish one, the other an Irish blessing. The church (Lutheran) was lovely and a nice start to our time in Loppi.

Loppi Lutheran Church

The altar and painting behing

The organ

Our own private concert

 It was then time to head to Krisy's parents home where we were fed a delicious typical Finnish lunch of soup, salad and cold meat followed by berry pie.

After lunch a friend of the family went with us to the local glider field to see the International Gliding Competition. He was a member of the gliding club and took Greg and the other men on a guided tour.The Gliding field is privately owned and very well designed, it is the second largest glider-port in Northern Europe.  The competition had attracted well over 100 competitors, gliders everywhere !!!

Back to Krisy's parents home for dinner, another delicious meal of hot smoked salmon (caught that morning), veggies, salad and dessert of strawberries and rhubarb, almost everything picked that morning from their own gardens. Then the drive back to our hotel. A very enjoyable day.

Sunday was another day of touristy sightseeing. We caught a tram and train to the Finnish Aviation Museum in Aviapolis Area Vantaa where Greg had an extremely enjoyable time looking a aircraft, some of which he had not seen before. (Greg will chose some photos and I will include them later)

After spending the morning there, we headed back in to central Helsinki and stopped to check out one of the Malls. Lunch was in a Japanese restaurant and delicious. After lunch we headed for the Sibelius memorial, again getting caught in a heavy shower.

We then headed for a lovely licensed cafe for dinner, again delicous, but the servings were enormous. Back to the hotel to start the packing process, which I am about to complete.

Beginning our overseas holiday

After much anticipation, we have headed overseas on our first major holiday since COVID hit in 2020. We left home on Monday 15 July and after a domestic flight to the international terminal in Sydney, we boarded our Qantas flight to London via Singapore, and then to the connecting flight to Helsinki in Finland. We arrived in Helsinki airport and after waiting for too long (about one and a half hours) our luggage finally arrived at the baggage collection carousel. There were technical issues apparently.

Our good friend Krisy met us as we left Customs and her brother had kindly come to pick us all up and drive us to our hotel, Radisson Blue Seaside Hotel, near the centre of Helsinki. They dropped us off and after we checked in, we had a very light dinner and headed for bed, we were so tired. Normal after travelling for about 40 hours to get to our first holiday destination.

Krisy picked us up from our hotel yesterday (17 July) morning and we travelled by tram to the harbour and a short walk later boarded the SS J.L. Runeberg for a 3 and a half hour cruise to Porvoo. Lunch aboard the boat was traditional fare - salmon soup followed by Runeberg cake (and a Berliner donut for me as the other contained milk). First donut in nearly 30 years and it was delicious (donuts in Australia are not milk free).

SS J L Runeberg

 

Upon arrival in Porvoo we went for a lovely walk - crossing a bridge with the love padlocks hung along both sides, and continued along the riverbank past some historic buildings, then crossing further down to stroll back to the centre of the town. Krisy took us to her favourite cafe and we indulged in a cuppa for me and cake and lemonade for my husband.

Padlocks on bridge

 

Historic Houses on riverbank

Greg and Krisy on riverbank walk

Afterwards, we headed for the bus station, and caught a bus back to Helsinki, viewing the scenery which was amazing on the way. At the end of the bus trip, we caught a tram into central Helsinki, and then Krisy took us to a lovely buffet restaurant The Factory for our dinner. The food was lovely and more than half was milk free so I had lots of choices. Back to the hotel by tram and then after a short visit there with Krisy she left to head home and we retired to bed. The jet lag is still catching up with us.

A few things finished

I've been busy over the past month or so with quite a few projects. I continued the work on the three baby quilts. The two allocated for my great niece and great nephew went to The Quilt Lady for quilting and were returned a week later ready for me to do the binding. I did that and finished both just in time for the news that my great niece Zoe arrived on 10 March. So the label went on and her quilt was posted off to her and her family.

March 2024 Zoe's Quilt

The other baby quilt is waiting the arrival of my great nephew and I will share a photo after the quilt is given to him. The third quilt top together with the back and binding are packed away, ready to quilt when news of another baby in the family is due.

While hunting for something else in my sewing room, I came across 3 Caron Skinny Cakes in shades of grey. I had purchased them to knit myself a vest. I had made one in rainbow colours for my daughter but decided that the design didn't sit well on me so the yarn was put aside waiting for inspiration. I gave up on that idea and instead crocheted a corner to corner blanket which I love. It's currently resting over the back of the sofa.

Grey corner to corner blanket

The other projects I have worked on have mostly been for Quilts for Others. During Feb and March I have brought home quite a few tops from QFO that have needed binding made, quilt trimmed and binding machined on, and other small things done. I have also made up 2 kits for other people to piece together.

I completed the cross stitching for a cushion, It was a kit called Songbird Wreath that I started many years ago. I need to make the rest of the cushion cover now.

I also attended a class at The Sewing Shoppe to learn how to do free motion quilting using rulers. It was a fun class and I hope to do some more practice at home before trying to quilt one of my many tops that are waiting.

Patches in Stitches Cross-Stitch completed

After many years I have finally completed this cross stitch. I bought the kit for it in 2013 at the ACT Embroiderer's Guild exhibition and decided to enlarge it, finding extra quilt blocks to use. The dresden plate in the centre and corners has special meaning for me as it is the emblem Wyndham Patchworkers chose for their badge. I was the founding president and am a Life Member of the group. Which is why I repeated the block when adding the extra stitchery blocks. 

I actually completed the stitching in late 2013 while staying with my Mum while Dad was in hospital but didn't get it framed. I bought a frame for it a few years ago together with the board to lace it onto and pinned the fabric over the frame. And that is where it sat, waiting for me to get enthusiastic enough to do the lacing. This is a job I don't like doing which is why it sat waiting.

Patches in Stitches Cross Stitch

I did the lacing yesterday and inserted it into the frame. Job completed. We will get a picture hook and put it on the wall later today.

The reason I picked this project to complete is that my new year's resolution was to complete a project every week (Mon-Sun) and I hadn't done one this past week. So I found something that I could complete quickly and found this waiting.

I have spent the week making three baby quilts. I need 2 for babies that are arriving in the family - a great-niece due in March, and a great-nephew due in April so I chose to buy 2 Moda charm packs and make "Happy Blocks" (these are the same type of block I used to make my grandson's baby quilt in 2016). Each charm pack of 42 charms yields 42 blocks, only 30 needed for each top. Two tops are made, ready for me to shop for backing. The third top is in progress and is made up of 12 blocks from each charm pack and 6 blocks from a fat quarter purchased for the occasion.

Recovering my Blog

 Well, after many years, I have finally recovered my Blog. It's taken some working out but I can finally post again.

Life has been very quiet for hubby and I over the past few months. And I have decided to restart doing the blog posts weekly as I did before.

In the past few years I have been gradually working on getting some of the tops I have accumulated turned into completed quilts. As I find hand quilting difficult with the onset of arthritis in my hands, I have been getting them quilted by a friend who has a machine quilting business - The Quilt Lady - here in Canberra.

Apart from that, as all of the immediate family have more quilts than they really need, I have been producing tops for Quilts for Others, a part of Canberra Quilters Inc, who donate quilts to refuges, charities who help children and other recipients in the Canberra region who assist those in need. I am on the committee for Quilts for Others, which gives me an outlet for my need to be involved in something outside of the home.

In the time since my last post, my mum has passed away (February 2018), I have a grandson (born 2016), my husband has retired (2016). Both my children are now home owners. 

On the more important quilting front, I will gradually upload photos of the quilts as time permits - I have completed lots, and also photos of the tops donated to QFO (Quilts for Others).

Life is getting back to something like normal

Life has certainly been very different this year. Since I last posted to my blog in February, I spent my time with my mum in Adelaide until late April. By then Mum had decided she was not able to live there on her own, so I packed a bag for her and brought her to my home in Canberra.

The process of arranging residential care then took over my life, all the while taking care of Mum. In June I managed to break my ankle when taking a basket of washing out to the line. I was confined to a "moonboot" for ten weeks and then began the slow process of getting the ankle to move again, a process that is still ongoing. Back to the physio tomorrow for another visit.

Mum moved into St Andrew's Village in late August and has begun to settle in well. Three weeks ago, I travelled to visit my sister in Victoria for a couple of days and then together we went to Adelaide to pack up Mum's home in a retirement village. This process was quite difficult both physically and emotionally and took two weeks. Both of our husbands also came over for the last few days to finish the process. We completed the hand-back last Friday about lunchtime and began the long drive home, towing a very heavy trailer.

We stopped at Barmera the first night and Narrandera on the second, getting home on Sunday. Mum was happy to have some of her furniture around her again, especially her rocker. Each day I am going over with a box of things to unpack for her, and am trying to find time to unpack the boxes of things I am keeping myself.

On a crafty note, I have been crocheting mostly in the past few months as handwork. I discovered a blanket that I made many many years ago as an extra large granny square was beginning to fall apart in places where the wool had worn out, so I am remaking it, larger and in small granny squares which I will lay out and crochet together with black wool. I have bought quite a few balls of wool to supplement the blanket, and then found quite a bit in Mum's stuff which I have added as well. It will probably end up being 2 blankets, not just one by the time I'm finished.

My friendship group has started making "Quilts for Others" for Canberra Quilters and I have an almost completed top at the moment together with fabric put aside for 4 other tops. I am looking forward to being able to get back to sewing, but can't see the dining table at present as it is full of bits and pieces that I need to find places to store them.

A time to Crochet

In the past few weeks since I last posted, I have spent most of my time crocheting doilies. Many years ago I was given 9 balls of pink variegated No. 40 crochet thread. I located a magazine that I had bought in the 1980's and have part crocheted a doily of motifs with a flower centre, I popped that on hold when I discovered that it was only going to use up 1 ball of thread and downloaded quite a few pineapple doily patterns from online. I have made some of these up and am currently working on the final one.

I first made this oval pineapple design
which didn't even use up a ball of thread

Then it was onto this slightly larger doily with a pineapple edging.
This managed to take just over a ball of thread

So then I made this graduating pineapple doily which took most of a ball.

The next doily was a bit fiddly in the centre but I love the design now it's pressed.

I also have done a bit of applique and embroidery and have completed another block in Esther Aliu's Forget Me Not quilt - the Calla Lily.

Calla Lily - An Esther Aliu design

I had a lovely surprise this morning when my husband said he would be coming to visit tomorrow for a week. He has a quiet patch at work so it will be nice to have him here for a while.

On a home front, we have had the Home Help people come, one lady to help with cleaning and another to help with shopping. Mum seems to be happy with the 2 ladies. Both have been very friendly and helpful, so I'm hoping that this will help Mum be able to cope on her own.