Chicken lovingly handmade by my daughter Elsa ♥
This week I have been stitching up a bunch of happy word cushions from vintage fabrics and neon thread. Now I am waiting for Elsa to come home from school, I will take her shopping in the Spring sun. We want to put the winter clothing away soon! And tomorrow we are travelling to see my family, I look forward to the break! Happy Easter holidays everyone!
I must be under the influence of Spring sun or something, it is after 9 p.m. at night and I am feeling inspired and still up, awake and making things...
I have dug into my vintage/second hand fabric stash to make a collection of word cushions, these are the first two! And, most importantly, I got to use the neon thread the very kind Ulla sent me, I felt foolishly excited to finally try it out :) I hope the sun keeps shining tomorrow so that I can get a better shot of the neon. I also hope that the inspiration intends to stay over night, it would be quite cool to fill the couch with dream, love, laughter and... Which word would you like to have sitting on your couch?
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!
I picked a winner from the hat and her name is Katie!.... Tadaah! Congratulations! You will get a scrappy box in the mail soon! This is what Katie intends to do with the scrappy scraps:
How lovely! I would probably frame some in tiny frames and make a dolls quilt out of some of the other pieces - then send you photos! Thanks and thanks for the bloggy inspiration - I love it!
The quilt-to-be above with the important saying was made by Anita aka RhubarbPatch on Flickr, she has added it to the Scandinavian Stitches Flickr group where anyone is very welcome post projects made with inspiration from my book (or my work in general). Happy weekend!
Last week I spent two mornings crafting with the kids at a Kindergarten. We made decoupage wreaths for Valentine's Day. I had no time to take pictures, but I can assure you they were all very pretty and personal! I pre-cut the hearts above for the wreaths. I so enjoy it whenever I get to craft with small children, they are so cute and very honest with their opinions :) And you make friends with them very fast: "Hello, what's your name?" "Kajsa" "Ok, Kajsa, can I sit in your lap?"
I have been Spring-cleaning and was thinking of selling this box of scraps, but since it is Valentine's Day I thought I'd give it away to someone in need instead! So if you are an aspiring quilter or appliqué artist please leave a comment (+ e-mail address) and tell me what you would do with a box of sykolicious scraps and you will be in the draw to win this collection of quilt fabrics from my scrap basket! I will draw a winner tomorrow morning Helsinki time!
Have a lovely day my friends!
Image credit: Kirsty/BigFish
The winner of the crafty goody bag from BigFish is UllaV!! She will make a project that I really hope will not end up in the UFO basket (=unfinished objects), because I'm dying to see it! This is Ulla's comment:
I would invite my big girl Anne-Sophie for a cozy afternoon with lots of crafting - I don't think that Emil will join us, but he is more than welcome ;). From the beautiful felt and the happy buttons we will make garlands of felt circles. On each side of the circle we will sew on a button with pink neon thread, and we will make a whole lot of these circles. When we have enough, they will all be sewn together with some more neon thread - one circle after the other. Afterwards the garland will hang in our dining room and remind us of a wonderful day.
I really love the idea of using neon thread, I have been looking for sewing thread in neon pink myself, but have not found any yet! Even more I like the thought of taking the time to sew and make something with your child! To take some time off all the everyday busyness and create something beautiful together ♥ I want to thank all of you who took the time to participate, I really enjoyed reading about all your projects! Happy stitching everyone!
This stack of beauty (kona cotton solids) has kept me busy this week, I can't tell you more about the project I'm working on right now, but wanted to share this simple beauty. There are few things that make me as happy as a stack of new fabric, full of possibilites. Another thing that makes me happy is to take the bike to Kindergarten with my little boy. We both love biking as much, but have rather different perspectives. Like this morning, the air was fresh and clear after two rainy days and I fully enjoyed all the flowers and the smell of Spring.
Me: Look! The cherry-tree is in full bloom!
Little e: Look! Someone's dropped a cherry candy on the ground!
Happy weekend my friends!
Hi! How are you today? Helsinki is freezing, but sunny. It was -20C this morning, brrr... The sun puts me in a Spring mood though and a lot of Spring projects are coming to life here in the studio. I am also slowly dressing the shop in a Spring costume. If there are any shop owners lurking out there or big Syko card fans my postcards are now easily available for wholesale via my Etsy shop.
I ordered some circular pillows back in December, but haven't had the time to make anything of them so last week I took some time to play around with my stash and created this 'candy' patchwork pillow. I do have more ideas for new pillows! But before that I have a long to-do-list that needs my attention. I really really want my first pattern+sewing kit to be ready in time for Easter and can't wait to show Agda to you!
Thank you all old and new readers for visiting my blog during the last days! I know many of you are hoping for more frequent posts here on the Syko blog, so I will do my best to pop in more often. This week I have made myself at home in my new studio and started to make a bunch of zippy pouches, because I know I need to stock up on them for my resellers. Trying to foresee future orders, need to become better at that!
I have been making these animal pouches for years now, which is the reason why I would avoid blogging an ordinary day like this, however I realize that what's old to me might be new to you! So here's a grumpy kitty pouch, she doesn't seem to much appreciate the lovely fabrics she's surrounded by, strange thing!
I would rather be making a quilt...like one of the Red Pepper Quilts, so since I end up with a lot of 4 1/4" leftover pieces when I cut the strips for the animal pouches I thought I'd start stitching them together on the side so maybe in a few weeks or so I will have a colourful quilt top to show off :)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! And don't forget -- the sale still goes on in the shop, everything -25% off with the code JANUARY11!
Have a lovely weekend!
Hello everyone! Nice to be back! Happy new year! Before I say anything else, the heading is a coupon code for my Etsy shop, by entering it you will get 25% off everything in my shop (sale items too). I will add new items to the shop every day this week, mostly old produce and printed seconds. The code is valid until the end of this month.
Now sorry for my long absence! Last Autumn was busier than ever for my business + my first book was released which meant a lot of work and e-mails so I decided I needed a long break over Christmas and I think it has made me good! I didn't sew anything for 3 weeks, so long that I started to miss it very much and new ideas started bubbling in the back of my head. I love that feeling and have missed it when I've been too busy to slow down and be creative. The mosaic above is proof for myself that I actually managed to create a few new things in 2010. The best thing that's happened however is that I've finally moved my studio out of our home.
You can tell how happy my kids are to have a dining room, can't you? We have a small home, but with all my crafty stuff away it feels so light and airy! I got the "new" table on huuto.net, which is the local ebay for 5 Euros and I love it! This is how this room looked before.
This ikea shelf has been in our home a long time, and the paint is fading, but it's practical! I came up with the idea to put hooks underneath it when I decorated my daughter's first room and now I could finally put some of my Etsy prints on display, easy piecey, I never get to frame them anyway so better enjoy them in this simple way... Click on the pic to get links to the Etsy shops where I got the art!
Syko now resides in a small room at Whyprint, the place where all my cards are printed. I finally have more space and room to create + the light here is so much better for taking pictures. It does feel a little strange to go to work in the mornings like a normal person, but I can live with it :) I have already started planning my first projects....
Talk to you soon again!
