Webs and WIP's

The second March block for the Craftsy BOM is finished, I am finally ahead! This time it was a Broken Spider's Web block using foundation piecing, aargh!! Instead of adapting the block again for paper piecing I decided to meet my nemesis head on and have another go at foundation piecing, this time using a more robust fabric for the base, in the hope that that would sort out the previous problems.

Well it did, up to a point (sorry no pun intended!). The fabric still stretched on the bias edge so putting the triangles together still involved a bit of manipulation, but it was definitely less stressful than my previous attempt at foundation piecing. I prefer paper piecing though :)

The Craftsy BOM is billed as being suitable for absolute beginners and I can see from the comments posted on the website that this is the first time that many of the participants have ever attempted quilting. Whilst I am definitely no expert, I think that there is a large capacity for problems, especially for beginners, when you are cutting and/or sewing many of the pieces involved in these blocks on the bias. Then again, maybe that is just me!

We are heading off to Tallinn for a couple of days, which is always a pleasure. I was hoping to have my copy of Zakka style before the trip so that I could stock up on linen, but no sign of it yet. Fingers crossed it arrives before the SAL starts.

Hopefully the trip will include a sprinkling of sightseeing with a few coffee stops thrown in (or maybe, even, the other way around!).

 With maybe a bit of retail therapy thrown in, on my last visit there a couple of months ago I found a shop selling American patchwork magazines, so I am hoping to treat myself to some on this trip too. In Riga, I can only get German patchwork magazines, and neither my schoolgirl German nor Google Translate are up to the task of translating sewing terms!


As another Wednesday has come around it is time to work out what I have been spending all my time on. I already know the answer to that one - paper piecing!

Anyhow here is how my list of WIP's stand at the moment

Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial
• Sew Happy QAL quilt (My March WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)

Ongoing 

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• 5 blocks of FPPFTT completed (on schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks calculated and half cut (the fabric that is not me!)
• 3 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed (on schedule)
• 6 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule)
  

Waiting 

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions - Yellow fabric in post
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am back in Latvia!
• Sunflower Quilt
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• Zakka-style Sew a Long (starts April 2nd) 

Hope you are all making progress too.


Linking up to TNT Thursday

Paper and Padlocks

It feels like I have spent the weekend sewing on paper and then ripping it off! It means though that I am back on track with the Littlest Thistle's FPPFTT and NY Beauty QAL, thank goodness for that :) So, I can contemplate the next two blocks in the series' without panic, well that is the theory anyway. The NY Beauty blocks take me ages to do, starting with agonising over which fabric should go where, so I am glad that we are going at the rate of one block a week and I greatly admire the fellow NY Beauty blockers who are whipping up 4 of each block every week! Check out their blocks  here

 

I must be learning something in this QAL as the inner arch on this block, with only 9 pieces to contend with felt like a doddle to do and three weeks ago the same pattern was really daunting!  There were even more curved seams to contend with in this block, so I paid a lot more attention to my seam allowances and with only a bit of unpicking the block came out at the right size :)

Like several people in this QAL I am not really sure what I am going to do with the blocks when they are all finished. There are some fabulous cushions being made by participants who are making 4 of each block, and that is something I may think about, but for now I will just keep plodding along with 1 block a week and see what inspires me at the end of the QAL.

For Katy's FPPFTT block this week we were mastering "larger scale complex sectional blocks" apparently, and I took the opportunity to use up scraps left over from the Sew Happy QAL. I suspect it is down to my Scottish heritage but I have a bad habit of trying to make scraps fit when they are really not big enough, so I ended up with seam allowances that amounted to a couple of threads in one or two places! I really will have to learn to be more generous with my fabric pieces :) The finished square will eventually (hopefully in the next two weeks!) end up as a cushion and will go to my son and his wife along with the Circle of Geese block that will also become a cushion. They will then have a cushion each to snuggle under the quilt with, although from what I saw of the weather forecast for the UK last weekend, they won't be needing quilts at the moment.

It must be officially Spring here as the Laime Clock has had its winter woollies removed! So you can see it in all its natural glory.

And just in case you thought that I spent all of my weekend tied to the sewing machine or ripping out paper, I also visited the Fish Market

and walked through the park bordering Riga Old Town

It is a tradition here that when couples get married they fasten a lock to the bridge and throw away the key to symbolise that they will be locked together in marriage for ever. As you can see it is a popular tradition.

As you can also see the locks are engraved with the name (or initials) of the couple and the date of their wedding.

Looking forward to seeing the results of your weekends too.

Linking up to Manic Monday, Sew Modern Monday , BOM's away and Fabric Tuesday.

Catching up at last!

Having finally started on the backlog of blocks for the Craftsy BOM , I am determined to get up-to-date before April arrives. So, you can imagine my delight when I realised that one of the March blocks was a foundation pieced string block, and the block that I have yet to catch up on for Katy's FPPFTT is a paper-pieced string block! Two blocks with one stone, that is my kind of catching up :) True to my resolution to avoid foundation piecing at all costs, the March Craftsy block instantly became a paper-piecing project!

The HST blocks, which were the February blocks, in the BOM were a mixed bag to be honest. Each of the 2 blocks used a different method for creating the HST's. The first, for the Chevron Block, involves drawing diagonal lines on squares and sewing either side of the line to create 2 HST blocks when cut on the line, whilst the 2nd method, for the Balkan Puzzle block, involves sewing all around 2 squares with a 1/4" seam and then cutting the squares twice on the diagonal to create 4 HST blocks. In Color Order's HST BOM also provides these 2 options for creating the HST blocks, but until now I have only ever used the first method, which In Color Order calls the "traditional" method. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, perhaps now was the time to have a go at the "alternative" method! There have been several comments in the HST BOM about the bias edges created by the alternative method, and although I am not 100% sure that they were the cause of the problems, I have to admit that the Balkan Puzzle block was ripped and re sewn several times before I could get the points matched up in any kind of order! I am obviously a traditionalist at heart :)

Still, with only the Spider's Web block to go for the Craftsy BOM and the end of the month over a week away, things are looking hopeful for a clean slate to start at the beginning of April. Now, if I can only get this week's NY Beauty Block and FPPFTT block completed this weekend, I will be so up-to-date I won't know myself!


In other catching up, the lovely Claire at Sewing Over Pins kindly passed on a Liebster blog award a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't managed to get my act together sufficiently to a) thank her or b) pass the award on. As you are probably aware the  Liebster award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers and as a recipient of the award I should thank the award blogger in a post, list the names of five blogs I follow who fall within that category who I feel deserve to be noticed, advise the five bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and copy and paste the blog award on my blog. Since Claire nominated me for the Liebster award I have been lucky enough to win a giveaway at Ellison Lane Quilts and a Bonus Prize in Sew Happy Geek's QAL, so I am hoping that I am also passing on the luck too!

So here goes, I have nominated the following bloggers who are all relatively new bloggers like myself, and who might not have already come to your attention.


Amy at the cute life :)  Check out the progress of her Fire and Ice quilt!

Catherine at Knotted Cotton Look for her photos of the cutest tree house doors you will ever see! 


Karen at Practically Pippy See if you can help her with her Stale Stash Swap!

Caroline at Quilting in the Cold   A fellow quilter in the frozen north, who is just beginning to thaw out! 

Judy at Sew Rip Repeat Another NY Beauty blocker! 


Sarah at Silly Banana Sewing A fellow Scot in exile! 


Hope you are all having a productive week too. Have a great weekend! 

Riga Bundle and WIP's

One of the things I would like to do whilst we are here in Riga is to make a quilt that is based on the amazing buildings that surround us, like the one below. I often wander around the city, especially what is known as the Art Nouveau district where we live, thinking that the wonderful plasterwork on the buildings would make great quilting patterns, if only I was a proficient quilter!

Whilst I can't attain the giddy heights of intricate quilting patterns, I can at least dream about the fabrics that I would use. To help me in my daydreams, and perhaps provide a start for a quilt, I have been enjoying myself selecting fabrics for the FQ bundle contest that I'm a ginger monkey is currently running on her  blog . In conjunction with Pink Castle Fabrics, one of her Sponsors  they are inviting participants to put together a FQ bundle of their choice and post their selection on I'm a ginger monkey's blog. Two winner will each win their bundle and the bundle will be listed in Pink Castle Fabric's store.

Here's my selection:

The fabrics are:

Top Row

Free Spirit Designer Solid in Jade

Dumb Dots in Citron

Pezzy prints Mono Pez in Gray

Second Row

Secret Garden Vintage Ironwork in Leaf

Echo Spring Buds in Gray

Half Moon Chevron in Yellow

Third Row

Outfoxed Leaf Stripe in Green

Prince Charming Frog Prince in Indigo

Free Spirit Designer Solid in Saffron

Fourth Row

Secret Garden Lock and Key in Mint

Metro Living Lattice in Marigold

Metro Living Circles in Pewter

All of the FQ Bundles are very different, and it is just fun seeing what fabrics people have put together. I would happily have any of the Bundles in my stash! 

As it is Wednesday again (they come around so quickly sometimes!) it is time to have a look at how I am getting on with my WIP's and link up to Freshly Pieced's WIP's and Esther's WOW. 

Thankfully there is some progress to show this week, the Craftsy BOM has finally moved up to Ongoing :) Naturally, now that the Sew Happy QAL is finished, I have added a new project to the list. The Zakka-style SAL, which starts next month, is 24 small projects (I think, the book hasn't arrived yet!) so, in theory, shouldn't be too much extra sewing!

Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial
• Sew Happy QAL quilt (My March WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)

Ongoing 

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• 3 blocks of FPPFTT completed (1 block behind schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks to be calculated and cut
• 2 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed (on schedule)
• 3 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (I block behind schedule)
  

Waiting

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions 
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am back in Latvia!
• Sunflower Quilt
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• Zakka-style Sew a Long (starts April 2nd) 

That is certainly enough to be going on with I think. Hope you all have made some progress too this week. 

Paper Piecing Blocks and Beauties

Five hours of rugby on the television on Saturday was the perfect excuse to get stuck in to the backlog of blocks I seem to have amassed lately.

First up were the first two blocks of the NY Beauty QAL. I am using a Kona Solid in Hibiscus and a FQ bundle of Kaffe Fassett fabrics for this QAL. Even although these are the first blocks to be done, I am already thinking that I don't have enough fabric! When I read the initial instructions for the blocks the fabric requirements were 10 Fat Eighths of the main fabric and 1 and 1/2 yards of the background fabric, so that is what I bought, but having done the first two blocks (and read the introduction to the QAL again!) I now realise that this yardage is only to make one of each block.

Having seen the photos posted to the QAL Flickr group I think the real beauty of the blocks is only really seen when there are 4 of each joined together. So for the minute I am making one of each block, but I suspect that I will have to go back later to make 3 more of some of them at least.

I really enjoyed the paper piecing of these blocks, I found the rhythm of pin, sew, cut, press quite relaxing, but the curved seams were another business all together! The second of the blocks above came out a good 3/8" smaller than it should have been, which was I think down to a too generous seam allowance on the curved seams. More practice needed I think!

With the backlog of NY Beauty blocks out of the way, the next target on my list was the Craftsy BOM that I have managed to ignore since signing up in January. However, having discovered on Friday that I had won a $25 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate in Ellison Lane Quilts' Craftsy BOM Giveaway, guilt kicked in and I finally got around to watching the video for the first two blocks, and wondered why I had put off starting this BOM for so long! As I had also promised my son, the recipient of the SH QAL quilt, another, bigger quilt for their bed, this seemed like the ideal time to start another sampler quilt for them.

A quick trip to the factory store and I had my 4 metres of solid fabric in pale turquoise to go with the several metres of Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric, which I have been hoarding since using them as linings for these bridesmaids bags used at my son's wedding.

Two blocks down, four more to go to catch up!

 

Of course now that I have just finished the Sew Happy QAL, there is a gap to be filled, so naturally I have signed up for another project. This time, though, it is not a Quilt a Long but a Sew a Long for Rashida Coleman-Hale's new Book, Zakka Style hosted by LR Stitched I really enjoyed Rashida's earlier book, I Love Patchwork and had debated whether to buy the Zakka Style book when it was published in the UK, so it only took a minute to decide to sign up for the Sew a Long! There are, apparently, 24 projects in the book and there will be 24 different bloggers hosting the Sew a Long, which starts on April 2nd. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get the book in time. 

Linking up to Sew Happy's Manic Monday Link Party, Canoe Ridge Creations Sew Modern Monday and What a Hoot's BOM's away Monday

Circle of Geese and Shades of Green

Determined not to fall too far behind in the two paper-piecing Sewalongs, FPPFTT and NY Beauty, that I have joined, I have been cutting, snipping and sewing up a storm to get this week's FPPFTT block completed. The Circle of Geese block lends itself very well to becoming a cushion, so I decided to use up the last of my scraps from the Sew Happy QAL to make a matching cushion for my son. I thought that I ought to tackle this block first before attempting either of the two NY Beauty blocks, where the capacity for disaster seems even greater!


Mind you, this block was not without its' fair share of mishaps. Accidentally folding a piece under the wrong way and sewing it to the seam was bad enough, but quickly remedied but slicing through the last sewn piece when cutting off the extra seam allowance was really pushing it! Lesson learnt the hard way, concentrate all the time and more haste less speed will need to be my watchword from now on I think, otherwise those NY Beauty blocks are going to drive me mad.

With tomorrow being St Patrick's Day and an England v Ireland rugby game imminent, Irish feelings are running high in our household. Irish stew will, no doubt, be on the menu tomorrow and I have a recipe for a fruity soda bread that I am looking forward to trying out. In addition, the day gives me my first opportunity to use my Shades of Green handbag.

I really went for the Shades of Green theme with this bag. So the exterior is a fine green tweed, the interior is a brighter green cotton and as you can see I have used green satin ribbon to line the handles. There is more green cotton for my yo-yo trim and as if that was not enough green I added a shamrock button! If St Patrick's Day is not the perfect day to use this bag, then I don't know when is :) The bag pattern is from the City bag collection in Nancy Zieman's Trace'n Create bag templates. I have used them a couple of times and found them very straightforward to use. The patterns call for a number of Nancy Zieman products, which I cannot get here, but they are easily substitutable (is that a word??) with local available hardware, so it didn't cause any problems.

Last night we went to the National Opera house to watch a performance of the Ballet Don Quixote, the tickets were a birthday present for my husband from our son. Whilst sitting in the theatre waiting for the performance to begin, I caught myself thinking that I should have brought my camera to take pictures of the interior to post on my blog! Am I becoming obsessed do you think??

If you are ever in this part of the world, I would definitely recommend a visit to a ballet or opera performance. It is not something we did very often back in the UK partly because of the cost (especially if the whole family were going) but also because of the time and effort required in getting to the theatre. In Riga, the Opera House is within walking distance and ticket prices are very reasonable so whole families go, in fact you can see all sections of the society here at a performance from grannies with their granddaughters to students, visiting dignitaries and all groups in between. The dress code is similarly broad, so at the same performance you will see couples in evening dress, little girls dressed up (in flamenco dresses last night!) and students in jeans and jumpers. The theatre looks like I imagine it must have done decades ago, especially the cafe for the interval, where rows of cups and saucers sit on long, lovely wooden counters and delicious cakes are displayed in beautiful glass cabinets. You can definitely imagine ladies at the turn of the century in their finery sipping their tea in these surroundings.


Hope you all have a great weekend, Happy St Patrick's Day in advance!

New Blocks, Loved Fabrics and WIP's

Being back in the UK last week, the opportunity to have fabric delivered within a day was too good to miss. Having signed up for the New York Beauty QAL I have been watching with envy all the fabulous fabric selections being posted in the QAL Flickr Group, so I knew my opportunity to join in had come with my trip back. Unlike my quilt from the Sew Happy QAL, which was always destined to be a present for my son and daughter-in-law, the NY Beauty quilt, if it gets that far!, has no definite destination. In theory, that should have made the fabric selection easier, but it didn't seem to work like that. After browsing loads of websites looking for inspiration I decided to use a fabric I already had, Kona Solid in Hibiscus from Sew Fresh Fabrics as the base fabric. With that in mind I set to browsing with purpose and eventually settled on a FQ bundle of Kaffe Fassett fabrics from Tikki Patchwork and here they are together

I added a note to my order telling them that the fabrics were for a NY Beauty QAL and would be paired with the Kona Solid and I am thrilled to bits with the fabrics they selected. So thrilled in fact, that I am already worrying about messing up such beautiful fabrics with my first attempts at NY Beauty blocks!


On my return to Riga I had another fabric parcel waiting for me, Erin's of Missy Mac Creations Fugly Fabric giveaway had arrived. Isn't in nice to get fabric in the post when you are not expecting it? Erin had offered a very generous 80 charm squares, and I am already mulling over which projects to use them in. Having enjoyed my paper piecing so much recently I bought Carol Doak's 300 Paper Piecing Patterns book whilst at home, so I think that might feature heavily in the projects for the squares, although I also have a couple of bag patterns using charm squares too, so they might get a look-in too.

Didn't Erin package them up nicely?

In amongst all this retail therapy I did manage to get some sewing done too! As well as finishing the Sew Happy QAL, I also finished the third block of In Color Order's HST BOM, compared to the Sew Happy QAL, the gaps between the blocks appearing seem so long, but as I am currently behind with both Katy's FPPFTT and the NY Beauty QAL blocks, perhaps that is just as well. As for the Craftsy BOM, let's just not go there!

So my WIP list is now looking like this


Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial
• Sew Happy QAL quilt (My March WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)

Ongoing

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• First and second blocks of FPPFTT completed (1 block behind schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks to be calculated and cut
• New York Beauty QAL fabric bought (1 block behind schedule)
  

Waiting

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions
• Sunflower Quilt 
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am back in Latvia!
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• Craftsy BOM which I have signed up for but still haven't looked at yet!

 At least there has been some movement on the list, even if the NY Beauty QAL has only moved from waiting to ongoing because I now have the fabric!

Hope you are all making progress too.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and Esther's  WOW

The Best Laid Plans!

I had it all planned, we were going home to the UK for a week last week, so I brought all the blocks of my Sew Happy QAL with me to finish off and send to my son and his wife before we flew back to Riga. It was all going to be so straightforward, all I had to do was print out the instructions and template for the last block, cut out and sew the sashings, buy the wadding and then back, quilt and bind the quilt. That doesn't sound so hard, does it? Hah!!

There was the small matter of a trip to Dublin, the husband's birthday and catch-ups with friends to fit in too, but it was all going to work out. Hah!!

So what I really needed was for the phone line to die and for us to have no Internet connection for 5 days!!

Buying the wadding was easy enough, fortunately I had already found the perfect backing material in Riga before we left.

A local bedlinen manufacturer, I discovered, sells 100% wide width cotton for around £1.50 per metre, so when I saw the last 2.5 metres of this grey, shadow striped faux patchwork for sale I knew that I had found my backing fabric!

When we did eventually get our phone line sorted, something to do with old wiring in our area being replaced and engineers inadvertently twisting wires apparently, I had only a couple of days left to make the last block, finish the quilt top, quilt and bind the quilt. Nothing like a deadline for concentrating the mind :) Cue also much muttering from my husband about how much longer was I going to be tied to the sewing machine!

Fortunately I have already practised Dresden Plate blocks before for the QAYG sampler quilt that I started years ago at an evening class, so I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't, however, have enough of any of my fabrics for the background 12 and 1/2" block for the fan, more shopping needed!

Ideally I would have like to have had less grey in the fans in this block, but these were the only fabrics left that were big enough for the fan template. I really went down to the wire with fabric on this quilt!

I had to raid my stash for the turquoise solid for the pieced blocks in the sashing and paired it with blocks from the extra white fabric I had bought to finish off the Dresden Fan block.

With some of my feature red leaf fabric in each corner, this is what I ended up with.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of Jenna's Sew Happy QAL, it has been a great learning experience, even the foundation piecing (!), and I would definitely recommend joining a Sew Happy QAL to anyone.

Finally, the evening before we flew back the quilt was quilted and bound. The binding was a bit rushed to say the least, but, fingers crossed, neither my son nor his wife will notice the few tucks here and there! I posted the quilt to them yesterday morning, so they will, hopefully, be snuggling under it soon and my son can no longer remind me that he is the only one of the family not to have their own quilt :)

So, I can tick off my March WIP of my 12 WIP's in 2012!

I am off to check out the blocks I have missed on Katy's FPPFTT here and Sew Sweetness NY Beauty QAL, before I end up too far behind!


Linking up to Sew Modern Monday here and Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday

Foundations, fish and finishes

Well, we are on the home straight now with the Sew Happy QAL, the second last block and boy, was it a pain in the neck! Nothing to do with Jenna's brilliant video instructions, I hasten to add, but if this had come along earlier in the QAL, I think I would have been running for the hills. I have been struggling with this block for the last two days, and I am glad that it is now finished (and far from perfect, unfortunately!). I think this may prove to be my one and only foray into foundation piecing, in fact, I am sure of it.

Part of the problems I had were, I think, due to having to use up scraps of some of the fabrics to make up the block, as this was all that is left of the lovely turquoise fabrics that I started with. So some of the seam allowances were, I think the technical term is "scant", or in my case, "very scant". In some cases they were so scant as to be non-existent, so seam ripping was called for and another attempt made. When I measure this block against previously completed blocks it is about 1/2 inch bigger all round, now I know that is better than being smaller, but isn't this kind of piecing supposed to do away with that kind of problem??

Actually, I think that the fabric I used for the foundation might also have contributed to my problems as, although I starched it before using it, I suspect that there was a bit of stretching going on, which all the ripping and re-sewing probably didn't help! That probably accounts too for one square of the centre square being 1/8" too small. Aaargh!!!

I had dithered about whether to paper-piece this block (and am now wishing I had!) because I am enjoying Katy's FPPFTT so much, but decided that the whole point of this QAL was to learn new skills, so ought to try the foundation piecing. Well, all I can say is that I have now tried it and won't be trying it again any time soon!

This week hasn't been all bad though, I have finally finished a cross-stitch towel that I have been working on since the New Year. I only work on it in the evenings in front of the TV, which is why it has taken so long. The pattern, again, was from the book, Made in France, cross stitch and embroidery in red, white and blue by Agnes Delage-Calvet and is rapidly becoming my favourite source of cross stitch and embroidery inspiration.

 Stitching and watching, or more accurately listening to, the TV is definitely easier when you are only using one colour!

Speaking of fish, I thought you might like to see an example of the fish for sale in the Central Market here in Riga. The market is actually 5 buildings, which were used as aircraft hangers in a previous time, housing a fish market, meat market, vegetable market, bread market and dairy produce market. In the summer the market spills out onto the surrounding area, but only some hardy souls ply their wares outdoors in the winter.

 
The selection of fresh and smoked fish available in the market is extensive, but these fish have always intrigued me. I have never been brave enough to try them but every smoked fish stall has them so they must be popular!

It doesn't seem like a month since I linked up to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet for the first time, but I am delighted to be linking up again. It was lovely to see what other new, and nearly new bloggers were getting up to.