syko

Felt cake play-food/pincushion tutorial

Tonight is the night I will be on TV (19.30 at YLE TV2), sadly most of you will not be able to see the programme, but I would like to share a little tutorial with you for the felt cakes me and my friends are making in the programme. They both have small kids so I thought it would be a fun little project to take home. All pictures are taken "behind the scenes" at the TV shoot by Viivi Lehtonen/YLE. The pretty felt needle book in the picture below was made by my friend Laurraine.

Ohjeet suomeksi ylen sivuilta.

What you'll need for your cake:

• basic sewing supplies
• felt (we used craft felt, but wool felt would be lovely)
• cardboard (a cereal box will do fine)
• embellishments, like buttons and lace
• wadding 

You can  either sew the cake on your sewing machine, or by hand, if you have a lot of time! 

1.Start by making the card-board circle. This will make the base for your cake and will prevent the needles to go through the bottom of the pincushion. You will need a circle with about 10 cm (4'') in diameter. Draw and cut it out.

 

2. Cut two circles from the felt. Use the cardboard piece as a pattern and add a 0,5 cm (1/4'') seam allowance. Then cut a 5x38cm (2''x15') strip from the felt. 

3. You can either embellish your cake now, or when it is stitched together. I stitched on some lace cream to the side strip of my chocolate cake at this point.

4. Now stitch the top piece to the side strip. The ends will overlap generously so the side seam does not have to be sewn. Stitch the other circle to the bottom (right sides facing) leave a gap big enough for the cardboard piece (stitch about half way). Turn your cake inside out.

5. This is Tuija's pink marzipan cake. She will now start to fill it with wadding. And then close the gap by hand.

6. And the cake is ready! To eat? Päivi's cake does look tasty!

I made a chocolate & cherry cake! What's your flavour?

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

Blogistania

I told you previously that I am involved in a lifetsyle/documentary series on TV about creative female bloggers called Blogistania (page in Finnish).

The first programme will be on in a few weeks and last Tuesday we had a meet-up with all the people involved. I very much looked forward to it, but was a bit nervous to meet these gorgeous and fashionable blogging ladies, so Wednesday night I got myself busy making this new skirt.

I have often planned it, but in reality I make myself clothes on very rare occasions. I chose linen (love the wrinkles) and pink hearts...

_______________________follow your heart_______________________

I spent most of the night chatting away with the lovely Karin, planning future joint projects, that will most certainly involve her amazing photograhpy. Do check out her blog (WARNING! it might make you hungry)!

Riikka, who is responsible for the pretty graphics, has her own programme in the series as well, she is an amazing doll house artist.

I wish I would have had the time to talk to each one of these girls, but time went by so quickly! Below you will find the links to all the blogs, I got lazy so I didn't translate the Finnish texts, but click away, these are all visually pleasing places well worth a visit!

• trashionista Outsapop eli Outi Pyy
• Helsingin tyylikkäin nainen Fiona Timantti eli Heli Karhunen
• rokkaavan nukkekotiblogin Riikka Kurki
• Jenkeissä breikannut tilkkutaituri Kajsa Wikman
• käsitöitä tekevä insinööri eli Hupsistarallaan Terhi Viinikanoja
• kirppishullu Karin Lindroos
• ruokablogi Jauhot suussa ja leipuritaituri Jonna Vormala
• Vihreiden vaatteiden Anniina Nurmi
• Jonna Hietala ja sisustusblogi Musta tuntuu
• tunnettu muotibloggaaja Jenni Rotonen

 

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!

 

 

Phew!

 

 

The feeling of relief when you are featured in a magazine and you look great! I love to make beautiful stuff, but I have never been that concerned about fashion or how I look. I wouldn't mind to look stunning everyday (who wouldn't?!), but I never seem to have enough time for all that make-up and dress-up. So it has been a bit scary for me after my book was released and people/media started to get interested in the face behind it all. So thank you Kaisu Jouppi for taking this beautiful and natural shot of me! This article about me was released in the 01/12 issue of 101 ideaa. It is a beautiful DIY magazine that is released a few times a year. It has a fresh, trendy and creative look and I think it will have a great future!

As you can see I actually started on the quilt I talked about earlier. It looks very much like...pastel. Who would've thought! I had my fare share in my childhood in the 1980's, but maybe it is time again... How do you feel about pastels?

 

 

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!

 

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! 

Peonies and weeds

Phew! We spent five hours in very hot conditions building our exhibition display today. We had lots of stuff from 10 different makers so it took some time before all items had found a place, but we had lots of fun! It is funny how different people interpret the same subject differently. We all worked around the theme Peonies and weeds and the colours pink and green (I actually thought it was lime). So we had a range of greens and pinks to combine to create a somewhat harmonious whole.

I didn't bring that much stuff, but I managed to come up with a new product, mobile bags, that I have been asked to make several times. I will design a larger bag for iphones too. I found this birdcage fabric that I ordered via Spoonflower a long time ago and got inspired! If anyone would be interested in buying some, I just made it available for purchase @ Spoonflower.

I also made a couple of cushions from old embroidered pillow cases. Kristina Lindroos-Heriksson knitted the matching socks.

Yrsa from ArtGlassCenter contributed with these lovely glass bowls, you can also spot beautiful woven art and carpets by Marina Thurén. The bed linen and the big pillows were made by Mikaela @ Rejböle gård. The white crocheted rug on the bed was made by Marjaana @ Mattobaakari.

Catharina from Cattaus is a genius at making metal wire come to life. I love these dragonflies!

Find all contributors here (page in Swedish). And a last shot of my houses and the poster I designed!

Happy weekend everyone!

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.