syko

Skandinavische Näh-Ideen give-away

Hallo alle leute! Today I would like to give away a copy of the German edition of my book, Skandinavische Näh-ideen, so I hope that I have some readers from Germany, Austria, Belgium or Switzerland here today! Or anyone else who would like to practice their sewing skills in German! 

Leave a little comment on this post to be in the draw! Let me know If you share this post on Facebook or on your blog and I will count you twice in the draw! Comments will be open until Monday morning. (Sie können auch gern auf Deutsch schreiben!)

My book is also available in English and Finnish!

 

We love color

I just got an e-mail that I have been waiting for! The collaborative quilt book We love color (Stashbooks) will be released in May! It is over a year ago since I was asked to contribute to this book project, the assignment was to create a quilt using solely Kona cotton solids from Robert Kaufman. It was very inspiring and I have been so curious to see what the other peeps came up with, you can see a few previews on flickr. The contributing designers are: Lisa Call, Alissa Haight Carlton, Emily Cier, Malka Dubrawsky, Amy Ellis, FunQuilts (Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr), Jacquie Gering, Elizabeth Hartman, Rita Hodge, Cherri House, Kathy Mack, Jennifer Sampou, Valori Wells, Jean Wells, Betz White and me!

 

 

And since I am me, I picked up the brightest colours I could find and combined them with white and started playing around. And then spent a couple of very intense days putting my quilt together. Here are some sneak-peeks. I'll show off the whole thing when I have the book in my hands!

 

 

 

 

 

It looks quite cosy there on the sofa, I look forward to having it sent back home, but first I think she will take a tour to Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City, I wish I could go to!

 

 

 

 

Spring birds

 

 

Happy Sunday everyone! I just wanted to pop in to post a picture of these birdy-birds. The pattern can be found in the new 101 ideaa magazine, but there was sadly no picture. The pattern is also in my book Scandinavian stitches. The Finnish edition is called Kajsan iloiset tilkut and the soon to be released German edition Skandinavische Nähideen. 

We still have heaps of snow, but the birds are singing about Spring so I am hopeful, I am very done with this winter!

 

 

Kajsa's happy stitches

I feel bad for being absent for so long, but I'm back now finally on a brand new little laptop! The last weeks have been very busy. Friday night I had a 5 hour long promotion session for the Finnish edition of my book at the Academic bookstore, which is the biggest book shop here in Helsinki. It was very exciting and exhausting, I talked, ironed and sewed for five hours! I need to finish the piece of art I created in collaboration with the audience, but I will show it here later. The book is called Kajsan iloiset tilkut, which translates to Kajsa's happy stitches :) I have ordered a bunch of books so if anyone is interested in a signed copy, let me know!

Sadly I didn't get a picture of my workshop, I was too busy! I took this picture when I came, the authors of the new Marimekko book Surrur gave a workshop before me. It felt really cool to see piles of my book in the store and to have a snack in the lounch with best-selling authors...

Saturday morning I got up early to drive to the Regatta in Turku where my friends from Kimara had set up a tent the previous night, they had arranged everyhting beautifully. Take a look at the pictures at the Tuuni and karuski blogs! I made a bunch of these boat keyrings for the event and came back home with most of them so when I open my shop again a little boat like this might sail in!

And... it's tomte time again in Sykoland! 

Kajsa goes to town

Last Thursday I took the tram into town. My Finnish publisher Gummerus had invited all authors that will be published next Fall for a party. I wore my heels. It hurt, but I felt pretty :) I made the linen skirt a couple of years ago, I think the fabric was actually meant for curtains. I love the little swallow and the oriental feel of it.

I have a bag made of a long zipper, a gift from my m-i-l. It looks great and fun and the best thing is that it does not weigh much so it doesn't hurt my shoulder.

I tried to find something beautiful to show you along my way, it was kind of hard, but I do like this hospital building by Olavi Sortta from 1936 (thanks wikipedia)! 

The tram was museum quality, I liked the lights.

I stopped at Pulu to drop off some Syko-stuff, they had alarmed me because my shelf was looking empty (I love it when it happens!) One of my buntings went straight into the window. 

I had 30 minutes extra time so I picked up some more white alpaca for my crochet blanket at Menita, my favourite yarn shop.

The party was just around the corner...

All authors got to wear white carnations, it looked quite romantic on my linen jacket. I decided I need to read more novels when I heard about the new releases. Food was good and drinks were free. I took the last tram home. That doesn't happen very often :)

And because I stayed late, I got to take home some of the flowers that had been used for decoration.

I enjoy them so much, I am not spoiled when it comes to fresh flowers. I hope this hydrangea will love life on our balcony.

Today it is T's turn to go to a party. I will be watching the Eurovision song contest finale with the kids. We are crossing our fingers for Paradise Oscar! 

 

 

We have a winner!

This friendly party dog has helped me to draw a winner of Amy's lovely book Countryside softies! Thank you all so much for entering and telling me about the lovely creatures around your house, it is fascinating that some of my blog readers live surrounded by animals that I have only seen in the zoo. But I guess that some of you would think that an elk sign by the road looks exotic :) The happy winner is Bettina Groh! Congratulations! Lucky you!

Countryside softies give away

Hello my  friends! Today it is give away time here in Sykoland! I was so happy when Amy asked me to participate in the blog tour for her new book Countryside softies and immediately decided that I would take the time to make a project from the book, but first let me say a few words about this book! Amy's instructions are clear and easy to follow and the designs are so clever and cute! I love the layout of the book, it is fresh and clean, browsing through the pages made me feel like I was taking a walk in the fresh air somewhere in the woods in England discovering all these fantastic animals! I love that there is 'room to breath' on the pages of a book! The teeny softies are made from upcycled wool. If I had had any wool in my studio I would have made these hedgehogs for my kids. The look in those button eyes makes me melt :) The swan was an attractive alternative too...

...but when I saw the dragonfly I new that it had to be it. I love those small, shiny helicopters! They work hard to fight the mosquitoes at our Summer house! As I was looking for pictures for this post I discovered that you can download the dragonfly pattern at the stashbooks blog for free (but of course I suggest you buy the whole package :) 

I used cotton jersey knit for the body and steady linen for the wings for my dragonflies. This is the he and here's the she:

I hope I didn't scare you there! For a chance to win the book, please leave a comment on this post and tell me which your favourite wild animal from your environment is- big or bug! The draw is open untilTuesday night the 26th Helsinki time. 

Follow Amy on her tour for more chances to win Countryside softies:

April 24: lucykate crafts 

April 25: treefall design 

April 26: i heart linen 

April 27: sometimes crafter 

April 28: plush you 

April 29: allsorts

 

Now I'm off to eat some more chocolate eggs! Happy Easter!

 

Countryside softies book tour

I am very happy to announce that my lovely blog friend Amy Adams has just published her first book Countryside Softies at Stash books (that's my publisher too!) and that she is doing a blog promotion tour for it now! For every stop there is a chance to win a copy of the book! My post will be next Saturday, but I promise to leave comments open for a few days so that everyone will have returned from the Easter holidays. Here is the tour schedule:

April 18: whip up 

April 19: bari j 

April 20: blue nickel studios 

April 21: fat quarterly 

April 22: ric-rac 

April 23: syko

April 24: lucykate crafts 

April 25: treefall design 

April 26: i heart linen 

April 27: sometimes crafter 

April 28: plush you 

April 29: allsorts

I will be making a project from the book for my post, If I can decide which one! I can't wait, I am so happy to have an excuse to sew something just for fun!

Updating....

Why, oh why do I not blog more often! More and more things pile up that I should blog about, which makes me procrastinate even more. So this is an update post to let you know what I have been up to lately. The Dad is picking up the kids today so there is no rush, I am going into town for an Etsy meet-up later, I am so excited! It was so fun last year. I love when people arrange these things that makes me get out to meet some wonderful creative people!

 

This is what I have been up to:

♥ I got seven new cards printed as always with a positive attitude! They are in the shop!

♥ I went to see the team at Gummerus, my Finnish publisher. The atmosphere was very welcoming and they are happy to have me so I am very glad that I teamed up with them! I blushed when I saw this huge picture of me in their Fall catalogue :) 

♥ The brooches are nearly ready, trying to finish them along side custom and wholesale orders.

 ♥ I have been interviewed at the Petite Purls blog as part of their renaissance Mom series. I talk about being a mother and about running a craft business, I hope you enjoy it!

Phew, I made it! More updates coming soon! Now I'm off to meet the local etsyans AND Matt, founder of Etsy.

Blog tour - may I introduce... part 3

Thank you so much everyone who took the time to visit and comment on the posts during my blog tour! And congratulations to the happy winners!!! 

I've been contacted by a few people in the UK who have had some problems getting a copy of Scandinavian Stitches. I am happy to tell you that I just received a case of books today so you can get a copy in the shop. All orders done today will be mailed tomorrow so if you're lucky you might have it in time for Christmas (if you're in Europe!), I can't promise it though...

I would like to introduce the four last blogs I visited on my tour, I'm late, I know, it's that time of year, but I also know that it's never too late to visit these lovely blogs! I first "met" Kathreen, who is the brains behind whip.up, when she contacted me about her book project, which was to become the pretty book you see above called Whip up Mini Quilts. It featured this mini quilt made by me. Kathreen is great at finding the best crafty how-to's on-line. Check out all the Christmas crafts she has featured this week! 

 

Päivi was my first ever buyer from Finland on Etsy and like me also one of the first Finnish Etsy sellers. So that brought us together. We now meet on a regular basis at fairs, last time a few weeks back in Tampere, when she lent me one of her pretty new fabrics to cover my ironing board (which looks pretty bad) for my little presentation. Päivi's husband was kind enough to film it so if you're curious to see me sew and hear my voice speak Finnish you should watch this video :)

The pretty fabric I got from Päivi is called Fairytale Forest and is available for you all at Spoonflower! 

Laurraine of Patchwork&Pottery is one of first friends I made on-line and our small businesses have developed side by side. She has a very unique style and colour world and is a very talented quilter with a great eye for detail. I was very honored when she took the time to create a couple of projects from my book, this is a small version of the Ruska quilt in typical 'Laurraine colours'. You can find some of Laurraine's pattern's in her shop.

 I  was so happy when Jenny B of Allsorts agreed to host me! I love her colourful world and I just adore the look of her studio! And her blog is like a candy shop! If you haven't been there yet, you must go now! She shares a lot of pretty patterns and tutorials for Christmas. I think she might even like Christmas a little more than I do! Look at this amazing flower wreath she made of simple Christmas lights, sucha pretty idea!

I hope you are all having a nice time making Christmas gifts! I have yet to start... As usual it has been a very busy Autumn for my little business. Luckily I've had the chance to buy some lovely crafts made by other crafters as Christmas presents.