syko

Merry workshop

Last Friday and Saturday I held a workshop in a town nearby for kids and families. Most of the girls were ages 7-8 years and had just a little sewing experience. I don't really bother about details like that when I have my classes for children and I find that  my approach works well :) I just take it for granted that everyone knows how to design and sew and children do! I did help them with the machine stitching, but everyone who wanted to could have a go on the machine!

First I asked everyone to draw a tomte (= Santa's little helper, elf), a gingerbread man or an angel. And then we turned the drawings into sewing patterns, I helped to add some seam allowances and then we started sewing!

The girl who made this anime-inspired tomte was 14 year old, she came with her two little sisters and was a big help! Two hands isn't enough when 10 little people need help at the same time!

The kids where eager to see the result of their efforts and kept asking me for the time, they were afraid we were running out of it and wanted to finish their stuffies in time. "This is so fun, I'm going to do this at home!" "Can I take this home with me today?" "This is going to be a gift for my mummy!"

Aren't they just so charming!! Such talent! (The weather outside is so poor, we barely get any daylight at all and haven't got any snow yet).

I have been saving up my scraps in Christmas colours all Autumn. We used them to make Christmas balls and wreaths in decoupage technique. I came up with the idea last Christmas when I was asked to have a workshop at a Kindergarten. I remember a little boy who had only just turned three who made such a pretty wreath to take home! I really recommend this for children all age and grown-ups alike! Perhaps I should make a tutorial?

 The kids also made holiday cards, these are my models :) Happy Christmas crafting everyone! I have a bunch of last minute tomte stuffies to make for two of my resellers today.

Blogging on TV

I am sitting in my sofa surrounded by a TV crew when I start to write this post. The first and last blog post I will write in this manner, that's for sure. Yle TV2, which is one of the national TV channels here in Finland is doing a TV lifestyle programme about creative female bloggers called Blogistania. I am one of them! The program will be broad casted beginning in March 2012. Of course I hesitated about inviting a TV crew in our small crowded home, but then again this could be a once in a lifetime experience and our living situation is no secret. I am much more convenient behind the camera than in front of it and have never ever dreamt of a career as a film star or model so this was very much outside of my comfort zone. But, I really like the theme of this programme series and I do think there should be more real people on TV, so here I am! Here are some "behind the scenes" pictures from the two days I spent with the TV team. All pictures taken by lovely Viivi Lehtonen (YLE 2011). 

A big thanks to my gorgeous friends Tuija and Päivi who dared to come to my somewhat unusual party! And to my big girl Elsa, of course, who rather did some guest-starring than went to the movies with her dad! Now I'm going to my last weekend event for the season, a Christmas craft workshop for kids and families. It has been an Autumn filled with events and new experiences and I am looking forward to the (I think) slower pace of January and to get some more time for blogging, I do not want to feel ashamed to call myself a blogger. Happy weekend!

The season is officially here!

I have an early start tomorrow, I will pack my car to go to the mall where I'm going to spend the weekend selling syko goodness. It makes me happy that they are giving local crafters a space at the market square at the mall. That will give the shoppers a good chance to buy locally made, ethical and sustainable Christmas gifts and decorations directly from the makers! Before time flies too far away I wanted to show you some pictures from my Christmas exhibition in Vasa. People were so welcoming and happy so I really had a nice time. And I met some dear friends, I just wish I would have had more time to chat away with people! And talking about good people - I will have to do another post to show some pics from the workshop I held. 

The journalists from the local papers were really interested and I was interviewed for the radio. The radio guy wasn't really into textiles, but he appreciated my "I'm a dreamer..." quilt, it is quilted with the words "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" from John Lennon's Imagine. I didn't get to hear the broadcast, but I loved that he was going to play the song after my interview.

Now I really have to tuck myself in, goodnight my friends!

 

Packing for a crafty weekend

I'm packing and preparing for a fun work trip to Vasa, the town where I went to school and where my parents live. I was asked to have a Christmas exhibition at Loftet, which is the local craft centre. I was very flattered of course and even happier when they asked me to have a workshop too! It is a busy time of year with projects piling up, so I admit that I have been feeling stressed, but it feels much better now! Today I feel surprisingly calm (considering that I am travelling by train with all my stuff + 2 kids tomorrow) and am looking forward to an inspiring weekend!

Of course I did not make half of the projects I was planning to, but that is just how it always is! I am happy with the three new quilts I finished for this exhibit. I promise to show you pictures!

My friend Tuija asked me one day if I had ever thought of selling my card originals and that gave me the idea of framing some of the Christmas card originals for the exhibition. Thanks for the reminder Tuija! When I first started making cards I didn't think of the option of selling the originals, silly me, so the cardboard I have sewn the appliqué on is a bleached shade of white, which means a white frame makes it look greyish= not nice. The lovely lady in the art shop suggested that I'd use black passe-partouts, which make them look great, I think!

And I discovered that my little laptop makes a nice little art display. Now I just need to decided how to attach a loop to the back of my art pieces. And here's a sneaky peek of the back, I know you always wanted to know ;)

I do have a bunch of tomte stuffies that are longing for names and a couple that are eagerly waiting for eyes, so I'm off my friends!

Have a crafty weekend!

 

I made something new!

It's not that I don't have any ideas or inspiration, but it is hard to find the time to create new things these days. There are just so many other assigments that need my attention all the time. Coming up with new designs should be an essential part of my work, but days and weeks just seem to fly by while I'm busy doing other things. Another thing that I find hard to find time for is to sew with my kids, so when I got older (again!) last Saturday I decided to gift myself with some time for sewing with my two sweet E's and create something new for Syko on the side too. Little e and I played around with paint.net to create the 'painting' of my birthday table above, he was very impressed :)

If you ask this little guy what the most fun thing to do is, the answer will involve a Playstation (he's allowed to play 2 days a week). Right now the Lego Batman game is the game. So when I asked him if he wanted to sew with me I got a very straight NO, but when he realized my sewing machine has actually got an engine and can drive pretty fast he got excited. And we decided to make the Joker! He's been carrying it around since ad brought it to Kindergarten to show his friends. Turns out he now LOVES sewing :) Big E made a love♥superhero, which has already disappeared into the depths of the playroom...

 This is what I come up with using the same concept, small tomte friends for the Christmas tree! I'm making angels too! Sorry for the flash picture, November darkness and photography is a challenge!

 

What are you up to in November?

What I am doing today

 

Hello everyone! I've got a new table and it makes such a difference! Finally I have room for my cutting mat next to my Bernina! I'm still very fond of the colour of this mat from Fiskars! I have a very compact space to work in so I am trying to find a place for every nick-nack and still create a nice place to be in. With small additions and improvements I'm slowly getting there. The wooden chair is from a charity shop and has a very nice patina. "It looks like something you'd find in the attic, but I guess that's your style" said the dear daughter. My fabric shelves are behind my back when I sit at the table, can't show them today, no time to fold fabric nicely for you, too many tomte, houses and angels to make!

 I like to put the stuffed tomte legs in this pretty Finnish design bowl Flora, designed by Oiva Toikka in the 1970's, good design is supposed to be used, don't you think?

In between sewing and stuffing legs I have been running back and forth to the common laundry room in our house. I like to use this washing machine because it's HUGE and I can wash one week's laundry in 3 hours instead of washing every day. The only laundry I like to hang up to dry though is of the kind above= new fabrics ♥

And then back to sewing! My resellers are waiting for their Christmas items and Bernina Aurora is still working smoothly.

Give the house a loop to hang it in, put them aside and start cutting angel bodies. Just a regular October day in the Syko studio! 

Thanks so much everyone who have bought or pre-ordered my book! If you are making houses or tomte stuffies too or anything else from the book I would be delighted if you'd post pictures of your projects in the Scandinavian Stitches flickr group! There is one tomte looking a little lonely today...

Help I'm in the evening paper!

Who's that geek in the evening paper (Ilta-sanomat) today? Oh my, it's me looking goofy! I had nearly forgotten about this thing, a freelance journalist contacted me some 6 months ago and told me she was doing an article on female craft businesses on the Internet and asked me if she could do an interview  with me. Sure thing, I said and had no idea that it was going to be sold to one of the evening papers,this fact made me a bit nervous about the result, but it does look alright, except for that expression on my face :) And look at all those cards getting all this exposion!

What else is going on in Sykoland? Well, I started making tomte stuffies yesterday, just a little bit later than last year. I quite like spending my evenings in the sofa stuffing tomte legs and bodies. I will make enough to have some to add to my shop later this month. We've had some wonderful warm autumn weather here the last weeks and the colours outside are wonderful, we are happy to live surrounded by big old maple trees.

 

 

Christmas in August (sorry)

I promised to show you what I've been working on lately. The first thing I had to do when I started working after the holidays was to design a set of new Christmas card designs (or 2 sets actually, the other was a custom order, will show when I get samples!). I wanted them to be ready for the fair last weekend because many shop owners go there to order stock for Christmas. This is a tomte girl and the tulip in the new banner is another motive! I got the idea for the tulip and bird from a painting in the ceiling in a manor house and museum we visited this Summer. There's a lot of white, red and lime going on in the cards of course! I'll show you more in late October and will try to keep quiet about Christmas projects until then...

I'm still in the fresh new start mode and determined to do some decorating and organising at home and am thinking about painting our little dinner table in this aqua shade I found on the Fjeldborg blog (the side table), it would go so well with the map of Europe that hangs over our sofa and since I didn't get to move my work space out of the home I will invest in a Melltorp table. Which reminds me of the fact that I haven't got my hands on the new Ikea catalogue yet! Have you got any grand plans?

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.