syko

Christmas joy and holiday cards

I am used to start Christmas season early, but this year it started earlier than ever! Thanks to this fresh book, Jouluiloa kierrätysmateriaaleista (☆) Gummerus 2013, that I've made in co-operation with Karin Lindroos.

And before you ask, yes, it's only available in Finnish this season. We are crossing fingers and toes for editions in other languages next year. But for now this is what we have to offer! A Christmas candy with craft and sewing projects for the holidays. 

I have a few of the projects I made for the book on display on my studio wall a long with some new holiday card originals; a patchwork stocking, a little santa, a superhero cape and a kitchen towel. We used recycled materials for all projects, a challenge I enjoyed very much!

Look inside the book! 

These cards are available in my Etsy shop!

(☆) Christmas joy from recycled materials

Hoop-La! book blog tour + Supercat give-away!

 

A month or so ago my blogger friend Kirsty Neale of Ginger & George e-mailed me and asked if I might be interested in participating in a blog tour for her new book,  Hoop-La!: 100 things to do with embroidery hoops. When I get these requests I am often a bit worried that I won't like what I see = awkward. I wouldn't be comfortable with praising a book or a product that I do not love at heart or fit the vibe of my blog. Now, watch the promotion video above and you will understand why I did not hesitate to say yes this time!

Hoop-La! is a playful, whimsical, happy and inspiring book! And I was particularly charmed by the quirky and playful appliqué pictures. The dachshund and giraffe here make me smile. I am sure these would be very appreciated in most kids rooms!

I happened to have a little hoop that I've picked up at the Flea market some time ago so I decided to have a go at this loopy hoop art and whipped up this wreath. Kirsty has a lot of good tips for decorating the frame too, with more time I might spice this one up a bit as well!

 Kirsty is giving away one of the hoopy projects from the book at each stop at this blog tour. I picked the super cute Supercat. Sadly I can't participate in the give away myself, I know my son would like this on his wall. You can. If you are really, really charmed by this kitty, comment on this post and you will be in the draw to win this famous kitten from the brand new book Hoop-La!  

 Remember to check out all the stops at the blog tour here! 

P.s. There will be more book news in next post! My new Finnish holiday craft book Jouluiloa is out!

You can enter the give-away until November 15th, the last day of the blog tour!

Happy Christmas!?

The catalogue is out so I guess I dare to say it out load! During the last few months me and Karin have been busy working on this Christmas crafting book Jouluiloa (~happy Christmas) that will be on the market in October! This first edition will be in Finnish, but we eagerly hope that there will be an English and a Swedish edition (and what else!?) next year too! 

It felt a bit peculiar to play around with Christmas fabrics in March, but it's been fun! I appreciate to work with Karin so much, it is great to share and discuss your ideas with someone, quite different from when I made my first book by myself! Now I feel that I finally have the energy to do something about that next sewing book of mine! I have a box full of projects that are waiting for my caring attention!

P.s. The whole catalogue can be found on my publisher's homepage: http://www.gummerus.fi/

New notebooks!

It felt like Christmas today when a very heavy box arrived in my studio! I have been waiting eagerly to see how my new notebooks with fabric covers would turn out and I am very content! The appliqué was made by me and I then had the books professionally bound. The quality is great and it makes me so happy! They have 100 blank pages that I hope will be filled with your creativity: poems, sketches, garden dreams... Or then good food in form of recipes or maybe lots of happy greetings from friends if the notebook becomes a guestbook!

This was the first time I ordered bound notebooks so I wanted to try out a few different variations. There is appliqué on retro floral fabric like this.

 And appliqué on off-white linen. The linen structure is really nice for books! I also love how you can feel the appliqué and stitches with your hands. You can follow the flying track with your finger of the bird from the front to the back of the book, for example! 

Coffee or tea? And a sharp pencil...

The books made from my Spoonflower prints are pretty fine too :)

Do you feel an urge to start writing? I have listed a few books in my Etsy shop if you would like a new notebook for yourself.

Happy weekend everyone!

 

Bad flu go away!

There was so much I was going to do this weekend! And here I am coughing and sneezing on the couch. *sigh* I really hope I feel better tomorrow, I want to go to work and SEW! 

I am liking this little corner of mine, but it still needs a lamp on the wall. And another quilt! The light grey quilt I covered the sofa with is actually this christmas quilt I made for an exhibit last year (click here if you want to see me looking silly in the paper...). I was very clever to make the backing this neutral (it is ash/kona/Robert Kaufman), I think, it is sad to hide quilts away in the closet, isn't it?I made the quilt on the wall behind me for the book We love color (Stashbooks). If you would like a signed copy of the book I have few copies for 19€ including shipping whitin Europe. Just leave a comment on this post and include your e-mail if you're interested!

 

I hope you are all well!

We love color book blog tour and give away!

Hello, hello, how nice of you to stop by! Today we are celebrating the fresh, new book We love color! We love color is a collaborative quilt book and the fact that 16 different people have designed the quilts really makes it an interesting and inspirational read! Our assignment was to make a quilt using Kona cotton solids solely and I loved to see what everyone had come up with! I love a project like this, when you are 'allowed' think outside of the box and get out of your comfort zone, even if I think the result still looks quite...me! There was a rainbow of colours to choose from...heaven! I went for happy and bright of course! I talk more about my quilt here. 

I was asked to tell you where I get my colour inspiration...well...I just love colour! That is how simple it is, colours inspire me, especially when they are happy and bright and combined with non-colours such as white, grey or black. You know like the first bright yellow flowers that pop up after a long winter, when nature is still brown and grey. That is my colour inspiration!

I was very fortunate to work with a wide palette of kona cottons, but the color I keep coming back to is candy pink. So this is my favourite kona flavour, yum!

And in my world pink and green belong together, this is a new green from kona, leprechun...

One lucky person will win a copy of We Love Color and a bundle of new Kona colors! Just comment on this post and tell me what your favourite colour is and you will be in the draw! The winner will be announced on June 13^th!

That is not all! This blog tour is also a scavenger hunt and there is a Grand Prize! Each designer will be choosing a favorite Kona color, at the end of the tour, if you give a full list of every designer's favorite color, you will be entered for a chance to win a Bounty of Basics box containing 100 fat quarters of the top 50 Kona colors used in the book! Please visit the Swatch and Stitch blog for more information about that! Here's the tour schedule for you! 

June 1st - Stash Books: stashbooksblog.com

June 4th - Valori Wells: valoriwells.typepad.com

June 6th - Kajsa Wikman: syko.typepad.com

June 8th - Modern Quilt Studio (Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr): craftnectar.com

June 11th - Cherri House: cherryhousequilts.com

June 13th - Amy Ellis: amyscreativeside.com/blog

June 15th - Rita Hodge: redpepperquilts.com

June 18th - Jacquie Gering: tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com

June 20th - Emily Cier: carolinapatchworks.com/blog

June 22nd - Malka Dubrawsky: stitchindye.blogspot.com

June 25th - Betz White: blog.betzwhite.com

June 27th - Lisa Call: blog.lisacall.com

June 29th - Jean Wells: stitchinpostinsisters.typepad.com

July 2nd - Elizabeth Hartman: ohfransson.com

July 4th - Alissa Haight Carlton: handmadebyalissa.com

July 6th - Kathy Mack: pinkchalkstudio.com/blog

July 9th - Robert Kaufman Fabrics: swatchandstitch.com

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!