syko

The first door and a crafting tip

The first door in my Moomin advent calendar reveals the Moomin mamma! The kids have got many calendars and on rare occasions have they got up as fast as this morning to open the first doors, I hope it goes on until the Christmas holidays, it is a challenge to get them out of bed in the mornings at this very dark time of year!

Do they send advent calendars on TV where you live? We are very much looking forward to the first part of The Christmas weather that disappeared (Julvädret som försvann) tonight! It is produced by the Swedish television channel FST5 here in Finland and for me it will be very exciting because some of my creations will be featured in it, Syko's first TV appearance! I really hope the will find the Christmas weather, it's rain, rain, rain right now....

To celebrate the beginning of December big E and I would like to share a craft idea! She is 7 and can manage to make these houses by herself really well, so we recommend you try them out if you have school-aged kids!

You will need fabric scarps, cardboard, glue varnish and few things more to make our house ornaments. Click here to see my notes and more photos of our houses on flickr! Happy crafting!

How-to (do read the directions on the glue varnish bottle as well!

1. Cut out a house shape from cardboard. 

2. Choose the fabrics you want to use before you start gluing. Use the house for model and draw the roof and the house body with the pencil on the wrong side of the fabrics. Cut a hanging loop.

3. Use the brush to apply glue to the cardboard house. First place the hanging loop and then roof and house body and the decorations on top.

4. Make the backside when the glue has dried.

Apples, ribbons and plans for the new year

I've been sketching a lot of apples this Autumn so when I got a custom order for an apple shaped quilt I had to say yes, even if I have had to learn to kindly say no lately. Which is not a bad thing I guess, but it sure is difficult! I thought it would look dull if I used only one or two fabrics for the apple, so I went for all the red and whites I could find instead :)

To try out the design I first made this cushion. And I also made this one, with a little Christmas friend :) Both are available in the shop! I am slowly updating it with a little this and that during the coming weeks.

At the moment I have my sewing corner in the living room and it is getting frustrating for all of us, I need SPACE, so I am looking to find a little studio to rent somewhere close to my daughter's school so that she will be able to hang around with me after school. But that will not happen until after Christmas. I did a little something to handle the mess last night, not much, but a start... I have been planning to arrange my ribbons for a long time and when I spotted this solution somewhere on the net I decided to make my own. I took a simple dress-hanger from the dry cleaners and cut it off in the middle, then I put on my spools and fixed the hanger with a piece of Scotch. Very simple! As you can see I have got my own advent calendar, when I saw Moomin at the post office I couldn't help myself :)

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, it so dark and rainy that it is impossible to take good pictures! Today it got dark at 3 p.m! We need some cold and frost!

And then to the plans I promised! Today I booked a gallery in the charming old town of Porvoo to hold an exhibition in June 2010, I am so excited to be able to make some larger pieces! Now I just have to think of a theme and a catchy name... Since it is in the old town and since I am me I think there will be quite a lot of houses...

Thank you all for your kind comments on my previous post, I am so happy you haven't forgotten about me while it's been quiet in Sykoland!

Glad to be back

This Autumn has left not much time for blogging, but I have missed it a lot and hope to get back to regular posting now! Last weekend was spent in Tampere at the craft fair here in Finland. I think I was quite lucky being there alone and having to watch my stall all the time, otherwise I would probably have spent too much money on craft supplies. I did manage to get my hands on a few delicate pieces of quilt fabrics though... Here are some pictures of how it looked, next time I need to bring more lights, the overall light in the hall was awful. I was however very content with the shape of my booth. There are more photos over at flickr, if you're curious. You might spot some new things, I will take some pictures and hopefully even update the shop tomorrow! I'll be back again this week. Promise!