An experiment on myself, or how I went to work in a clothing factory.

Three days back at the sewing factory where I worked decades ago. The alarm clock, the traffic jam, the industrial machine, and how it compares with life as a small maker.

My company's birthday

The second birthday of my dear little company, at the busiest and most pleasant time of the year, with a sales record to go with it.

Christmas spirit in the patchwork room

A Christmas baby's quilt, Christmas stockings, miniature elf bags, wash bags for women and men and aprons for grown ups, with prices.

Reuse in my design

I work on reuse and zero waste principles: most of my patchwork comes from production offcuts and reclaimed fabrics. What that really costs in time, and why it is a way of life rather than a saving.

A design update for the kannel bags

A kannel teacher pointed out that the shoulder strap loops sit in the wrong place. So the new bag has them at the top, on both sides of the handle.

A sofa cover for a nursery quiet corner

Nurseries and schools have quietly become one of my main groups of clients. This time a sofa cover with the moon and the stars, to go with the sun on the wall hanging.

A crafter's Christmas wish

A crafter's Christmas wish, in one picture.

A photo session with children

A photography course, a new camera and a shoot with the children in aprons, pots and pans: give children the props and let them get on with it.

A patchwork skirt

If patchwork is a way of life, you MUST find time to sew something for yourself too. A long, warm woollen skirt of eight panels with crocheted flowers.

A quilt in autumn colours

Autumn burst in through the door and landed straight on a child's quilt, brush in one hand and paint pots in the other. Cotton on top, wool wadding inside, flannel backing.

New covers for a garden swing and a sun canopy

Twenty metres of supposedly weatherproof fabric for a 4x4 m sun canopy, sewn in a room smaller than any single piece of it. A month later it had torn to ribbons.

Over half a kilometre of fabric strips

The sewing machine pedal gave up, so if you cannot sew there is nothing for it but to cut fabric. In the picture: 560 m of strips.

A patchwork skirt for a doll

A quick technique skirt from leftover strips: five strips sewn together, cut into trapeziums, and the skirt starts to take shape by itself.

A little blonde refugee (2)

A week on, Emma has her first dress, her hair is washed and plaited, and her eyes are a much lighter blue than they seemed on the first days.

A little blonde refugee

A very old doll from a charity shop, bought for 1.50 euros, who gave me the strong feeling that she is not a WHAT but a WHO. And what people made of that.

A quilt with a kaleidoscope pattern

A quilt of coloured diamonds in black, white and dark pink, waiting since spring for the right inspiration to arrive.

Birthday reflections

Is 50+ a little or a lot? A flat tyre in a car park, nobody stopping to help, and how relative the words "young" and "old" turn out to be.

The patchwork squares want to go home.

The squares left over from the dress shirt quilts became drawstring backpacks, a leather trimmed rucksack and pencil cases for the children.

A quilt from reclaimed material

Knitted jumpers, flannel, cotton, fine bemberg and bright artificial silk in one quilt. Every square backed onto white cotton so nothing stretches or frays.

A new collection of pencil cases, or handmade little bags

A new collection of little bags, from heavy linen with archaic embroidery to denim and flannel for boys. Come to the Laulasmaa fair on 4 July.

A wall hanging with pockets for the teddy bears

A wall hanging for a nursery group's 20+1 teddy bears, part of a bullying free upbringing programme. And one work that nearly destroyed my machine.

A quilt in black and white and a little yellow too

A new quilt on the way, and dense quilting called the winding road. By midday my body has seized into the "smartphone" position.

Picnic blankets and dance day at Pangapealse nursery

Dance groups from nine nurseries, 300 children in one hall, and my new picnic blankets waiting for someone to settle down on them.

Audentes 20

An invitation to Audentes's 20th anniversary, and memories of the years when I set up and ran the Audentes Children's School.