syko

Vintage fabric inspiration

Finally the evil virus has left my body after two weeks of feeling literary sick and tired all the time. I hate being ill! It's great to be back to normal and feeling inspired again! My friend Reetta asked me to make some soft houses for her shop, so that's what I've been up to today. Look at the doll she's been making, she is such a talented artist!

You see the house-to-be that is on top of my pile? It is made from a vintage fabric (an old pillow case) that I picked up at the flea-market last Summer. It is probably from the 1960's. There is something about the very unusual colour combination that appeals to me very much. 

And when a fabric inspires me I start to plan a quilt! This is a very good way to try out new colour combinations and a good method if you want to become a braver quilt designer! So I take a closer look at my vintage fabric piece and what do I find: pea soup, aqua, light pink, violet, baby blue and a hint of white... And look how many fabrics I have in my stash that want to go into this quilt! Do you hear them whisper triangles...? Or was it rectangle?

I hope you are having an inspiring Monday!

 

I'm a dreamer

Greetings from the couch! I've been feeling a bit poorly the last days so I'm spending my time on the couch under a warm blanket. Since it is nearly -20 degrees Celsius outside I can't complain... And I have had some valuable time thinking about priorities in my little business, but I won't bore you with that. I've been trying not to do too much, I want to get well soon, but you can always do some office work off the couch, can't you? Like packing cards for my friend Mari's shop. Those stamps are so cute I feel better just looking at them!

 

 

I've also enjoyed looking at this quilt top I made last Spring and dreaming about having it finished some day soon... It is good to put projects away for awhile (it doesn't have to be for a whole year...), I really liked this when I found it in a pile of fabrics :) Sorry for the wrinkles, I'm just not up for ironing at the moment.

 

 

One of the things I've been thinking about is how much I miss my Etsy shop, so I listed this quilt that came back from my Christmas exhibit. It looks really nice on the wall, but I'm ready to part from it if someone wants to adopt it. I hope to have more up in the shop too! We are finally getting some daylight here so it might be possible to take decent pics again.

 

I appliquéd the white text. The quilting: "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one". I'll leave you with that!

 

 

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!

 

Stitching it all together

I am going to be honest with you today and talk a bit about the person behind this blog. She has been feeling off spirit and has contemplated the option of spending the rest of the dark season under a blanket. I'm not sure if it was my fast approaching 35th birthday that made me feel uneasy or my crazy long to-do-list. Instead of hiding under a blanket I started stitching one together, a far better medicin!

I am definitely over the honey-moon with my little business and getting quite tired of making all the decisions and having all the responsibility myself. Although I love my job so much I have been feeling like a lousy jongleur lately, trying to get it all to work. I have been waking up feeling stressed by all have-to's and feeling bad about all the unfinished projects, the unanswered e-mails and so on. Now this is no good! I want to wake up with a smile feeling happy about things and take the time to be proud about things I have already achived, instead of stressing away and freaking out about the next note on the to-do-list. 

So, this won't do! I told myself. Things always tend to work out, so try to enjoy things, it's so much more fun than stressing out about things. Ok, I said and took a pic of the beautiful Aronia leaves outside the kid's school building. AND I got the best birthday gift ever! We are going for a vacation over Christmas! Our first real vacation since I started my business. We are  so looking forward to going away to see my sister and her family in Switzerland over Christmas and New Year!!!

I will soon be back to announce the winner of the Bigfish give away!

On my table today...

Here I am again, I needed a little break from the quilt I'm working on. I'm designing as I go so I need to stop and think every once in a while. The quilt will be part of a Christmas exhibition I have been asked to have at Loftet, which is a craft centre with a shop and restaurant in Vasa, the town where my parents live. When I get an idea I make a rough sketch, it takes about 20 seconds, as you can see... The most important thing is that I put it down on paper to remember it. Black ink and white paper are important companions, but any pen and paper will do when an idea strikes...

I do not show works-in-progress very often, I guess I am afraid to destroy the magic or "flow" or whatever you like to call it and I am not very fond of constructive critique when I'm in a creative process, but I decided to be brave this time and show you what I have on my table today.

I went for a blackboard look, the background fabric is kona charcoal from Robert Kaufman, if I remember correctly. The text comes from a song about an elf with a cold, that my grandma used to sing :)

I will have a lot of different types of items at the exhibition, not only quilts, so I have chosen to work with red, green, black, linen and white to get a coherent look. I want the space to give the viewer a Christmas feel, but most of the products will hopefully last long after Christmas. The most important thing for me however, is that people smile when they see my "everyday art". It makes me very happy whenever people laugh at my creations :)

Opening day pictures

 
We're back to everyday life, well nearly, school begins next week and I've had my first full-time work day after the holidays. It feels fantastic! I've started making tomte stuffies for Christmas :) Above is a little quilt I made for our kimara container shop. Here are some more pictures from our opening night a week ago!

Minna looking pretty with lovely balloons.

My house keyrings and badges...

We had some lovely homemade cookies! Love the look of the geranium with the crocheted table cloth (which is actually an old bedspread)!

Cushions I made for the Peonies and weeds exhibition in June and some mobile bags...

My quilt and lace pillows from tuuni.

Another optimistic little quilt, all fabrics are reused, except for the violet flap :)

A little Syko goodness...

I will be in the shop on Thursday, if you're in Helsinki -- do come and see me! If you're not, thanks so much for visiting me here on the blog! Once I get my new computer I promisepromisepromise to blog more frequently!

x

Kajsa

Summer circus

Peeking in to say hello! My days are filled with kids, sewing, food making and attempts to enjoy the beautiful Summer weather. I'm trying not to freak out and to focus on enjoying it all. Starting on Friday I have a show in the town Porvoo together with 9 other local crafters. It will last for the month of July. We call it Peonies and weeds, I got the honour to design the poster :) I will have it printed today, crossing fingers that it will look good!

Everyone has been working with the theme colours pink and lime combined with white/natural colours and lace. I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with! I will make sure to bring my camera on Friday and show you the result! 

 
 I made a baby quilt from new and vintage fabrics for the exhibit. I also used some of my own apple fabric! I am working on a lap quilt too, I wonder if I'll finish it in time... Probably not.

Now off to feed the kiddos and then sort out a way to make them entertain themselves in my workspace!

I hope you are all happy and relaxed!

 

 

Mini quilt Monday

I just realised I am once prepared for Mini Quilt Monday (even if the pic could be better)! This quilt was a Christening gift for little Tyra from her parents. They liked Lovisa's garden and Tyra's mum also told me that they have two cats and a dog so of course they had to be in the picture! I hope Tyra will enjoy her quilt when she grows up!

 

Oh, and I'm back on twitter! My account was hacked a year ago and I finally got it back, you are very welcome to follow my tweets!

Down shifting....

Summer..., originally uploaded by -syko-.

Hello my friends!

I'm about to send the last package for the season to a reseller today and after that I will take a 2 week long break from Syko. It's been a busy Spring with book business, an exhibition and lots of wholesale orders and now I feel very much in need of a holiday. It's hothothot outside so I have spent the afternoons reading about Coco and Igor. I heard someone wise say that you have to start with some light reading to get into the groove and then when you're on the hook you can move on to the Nobel prize winners. I've got one behind the patchwork curtain there :) That is my project improv quilt top that is still not finished. I think I will just add some more white around it let it become a window quilt. I love what the light does to the colours and patterns. My son just spotted the shape of a dinosaur on it this morning :)

I will be adding the exhibition quilts to the shop in the near future, I will keep you posted on Facebook when!

Have a wonderful Summer! I will be back when I've had far too much ice cream!

 

textured

 
  
Finally a peaceful, rainy Saturday morning! My kids are even playing together in their own room! Life's been busy the last weeks so I haven't had the time to sit down and talk to you, I hate blogging in a rush!

Now I promised to show you the result of our cooperation for my little quilt exhibition that is now up and hanging! Sadly I didn't have time to use all the mottos you submitted, but the "textured"-project will not stop here! I have a lot of wholesale orders at the moment, which is great for my little business, but that means I don't have much time to make small art quilts, but I look forward to incorporate your sayings in coming quilt works! If you click on the picture above you will see what says underneath the flaps of the "hidden messages quilt"!

  Here are some picture of my work in the gallery, the colours could be better!

 
Laurraine's (Canada) favourite saying inspired me to make this little quilt! I used a worn-out embroidered tablecloth for the teapot!

 
Susana gave me this sad and beautiful Portuguese saying "because one swallow has died yet Spring is not over".

 
This is my quilt from the book Quilts, baby! that I decided I was ready to part from, if anyone wants to buy it, that is :) I was happy to find a pretty mirror hanging in the gallery, which shows off the quilt backing quite nicely. The quilts that are not sold will move from the gallery to my Etsy shop in early July!

  Your favourite words became favourite-word-fairies with lovely words stitched on their tummies. They all turned their back on me when I took the photo! And there's my little helper looking very bored...

  And here's big E too, you can see from here face that school's out for Summer can't you? We had a wonderful weekend at my relatives Summer house last weekend!

 

Have a wonderful weekend! I will stay inside to do some hand stitching and watch football with the other eye (the fifa world cup), what will you do?