Seat cushions on the galley

Remember I had some mattresses and cushions to recover for our boat? I have not got all of them done. The only ones that are done are the seat cushions for the boat's kitchen. There is still the mattresses to cover for the peak and the rear. That makes six mattresses altogether. But five is done too, so about half way there. Yay! I finished these many weeks ago and I took these photos long ago. I had hopes I'd take new better photos but every time we've visited the boat I have not had the good camera with me, so I'm afraid you'll have to settle for the dreadful pictures I took with my phone. Sorry. 

This is the only photo showing the colour about accurately

What has been slowing down the sewing of the covers is the fabric. I think we chose a bit poor quality fabric. It frays really easily, plus it stretches on the other direction which makes it very difficult to sew and cut accurately. Also the old covers for the cushions are broken and stretched too, so the pattern I have cut out from the old covers are not very accurate either. So I have been bit disappointed with the quality of my sewing and it has not inspired me to move on with the project. In my opinion the covers look really bad from some places, but luckily adding the shank buttons on the cushions makes them look more professional than they are.

Once I get a few more of these covers done I will take better photos and maybe change these terrible photos on this post.

A's mom sewed curtains for the windows. Those are made from black striped cotton. The curtains fit really well to the boat. She did a good job.

The phase of the boat cushions

The re upholstery of the boat cushions, which I mentioned in this post, is moving forward, slowly but surely. We have washed most of the mattresses. Washing them is like grape stomping, not that I've ever done that, but I imagine it would feel similar. I ordered new shank buttons covered with the upholstery fabric from a professional. There are kits also available so I could have covered them myself, but I trust that the professionally made ones are more long-lasting. Then I have made the cover for one (smallest) cushion. It's not my best work, but I used the smallest one to familiarize myself with the new fabric and how it behaves. Few more cushions to do still.

Pile of mattresses (no pea just other green stuff)

You might remember we bought a sail boat last summer. Last year we did not do much maintenance to it, besides some work on the engine for the winter. This spring there will be some more work to be done for the hull, electrics, genoa sail, the motor and for the cabin. 

Last summer the textiles looked like in the following picture. The cushion covers are faded, stained, missing buttons and even broken from some parts. The curtains are faded and well just ugly.

The cushions also have moldy spots under them and they stink. Also the matresses on the rear which we mainly use for sleeping are too thin and at least for me those are not comfortable for sleeping. So not only do all cushions need new covers, they also need to be either totally replaced or washed.

And there are a few of those cushions. To change the covers for these we needed to buy almost 20 meters (22 yards) of fabric. That is, sorry for the language, a shit load of fabric. I had to order most of the fabric. The colour I chose is called Gargoyle, but I almost ordered the wrong one. On the samples there was also a colour called Charcoal. The pronunciation is fairly similar and I did not notice difference until I got home and looked through the receipt again. Ups, lucky I noticed that, it would have been embarrassing to get the wrong colour.

I'm planning to recover the cushions only a few at a time since I do not know how many of these I can get done and how fast because of Likka. She might not co-operate with me or then she will. So in case I wont get all these done, then those are not all unusable, but some will be finished and some not started at all, or at least so I hope.

Summer vacation 2013

On our summer vacation we did not take any long trip anywhere abroad. That is quite exceptional, I cannot remember the last vacation we had took without any bigger trip. I must admit I was a bit sceptical if the vacation would feel like a vacation at all because we did not have anything planned. But in the end we did so many different things that the two weeks of vacation feels way longer.

Our vacation started on Midsummer which we spent on a friends' cabin near Loviisa. From the cabin we made car trips to Loviisa town and to Strömfors iron mill area. So even the first few days of the vacation were active. After the Midsummer we returned home and booked a trip to Tallinn for the next day. I had never spent the night in Tallinn so we desided to stay there for one night. When we arrived to Tallinn we were greeted with heavy rain. We walked to a crafts shop Karnaluks and our shoes were soaked with water and for the whole trip those just did not dry. It was unbeliavably humid and hot on those two days, like in a rainforest. 

We arrived to the Karnaluks craft store only an hour before closing time. I had read about that shop from many many craft blogs and knew that it was well equiped. But oh my it was huge! And not only was it huge but it was packed, there were shelves so close to each other that it was sometimes difficult to move between them. I wondered between the shelves and was so amazed that I could not even deside what I should buy. So of course the next day I had to return to the store with a shopping list I made on the evening. I spent at the shop a good two hours while A visited the Lennusadam. We did not spend that much time in the old Hansa town of Tallinn this time but visited lots of other areas. I had never realized how much there is to see in Tallinn, we could have spent there way more time than we now did.

After our Tallinn trip we spent one day at home and I was able to continue some projects on the back yard. Then we spent one day sailing. It was our first sailing trip together with our new boat, we had a bit rough wind and had some trouble with a leaking toilet seat, so the first trip we took was not very pleasant. Next day again I spent at home finishing some projects and A was fixing and cleaning the toilet at the boat. Then we took a short sailing trip to a close by island where we stayed one night at Gula Villan restaurant's pier. The wind was just perfect and we had a really nice evening at the island.

Then we took another sailing trip with a friend couple to other friends' cabin. Our friends had never sailed before and we warned them that it might be cold and rough on the sea even though at land it might feel very warm. But we had tailwind and on one point it got so hot that we were even able to dress only in bikinis while sailing. One night was spent at friends' cabin and on the next day we sailed back. This time we did not have tail wind and it felt colder, but yet the wind was just perfect, not too rough, and we had a very nice sail back home. Sun was shining all the time and the freckless on my face multiplied. Next day after the sailing we visited a friend's parents' strawberry farm and self picked lots of strawberries. Then we went to my parents' cabin.

At the cabin we warmed up the sauna and waited for something remarcable; my sisters return from the Netherlands. Yay! She is now back in Finland! We ate huge amounts of strawberries and chit chatted, had a sauna and swam in the lake. So nice to have her back.

Then we went to A's parents' cabin for one night. Again we had sauna there and swam in another lake and did some BBQ and ate toasted marshmallows. 

In a nut shell we visited four cabins, had one small trip abroad, finished one big project on the backyard, sailed for five days and met lots of friends and family. Nice active vacation. It couldn't have gone any better.

Offshore

We are sail boat owners now, how cool is that!

We bought a sail boat together with A's parents'. A's family used to have a sail boat quite many years ago and now they had missed sailing so much that they wanted to get one again. My family used to have a motor boat when I was a child, so I'm not that unfamiliar with boating, but sailing is something that I need to learn. I have sailed a little before with some friends' boats, but I cannot do anything in a sail boat without instructions.

The sail boat is old of course and it does require some maintenance. Besides the yearly maintenance it could use new covers for the seating and sleeping. And curtains could be renewed. Maybe those projects are something I could work on the winter.

This summer we will just enjoy the boat as it is now. Pretty exciting!