syko

Patchwork!

We have been working a lot with patches lately! Well, you know I always do, but together with my trainee Nadja we have made a bunch of peek a boo baby quilts during the last month. We only used what I had on my shelves, a mix of new and fleamarket fabrics. It was a creative challenge to find the right fabrics for each quilt, when I had decided not to order any new fabrics for the quilts, but a very fun challenge it was, and I did have enough to choose from and my shelves are not empty yet... Here is one of our favourite quilts, a very springy one that is now available in my shop!

Under the flaps you will find some appliqued pictures to peek at together with the baby. A kitty...
A piggy...
And a doggy dog!
For the backing I found a really nice baby blue gingham sheet.
One more patchy thing before I wish you all a happy weekend! A brand new print of a little elephant going off on an adventure in her home made hot air balloon! It's available in the shop.
Happy weekend everyone! I am enjoying the silent early hours myself, when the rest of the house is still sleeping!

 

Studio update

Next weekend I am taking part in Konstrundan, an open studios event, which means there is a great deal of tidying up going on here in my studio. My trainee Jennifer is helping out and has been busy all day ironing and folding fabrics. Guess which shelf she is done with?

Fall is in the air so I wanted to bring the season into the shop and composed a harvest teamed cushion.

I've also bought two skeins of yarn, which seems to happen every year this time. Now I hope that I will have a pretty shawl to show off in a month or so!  

 

Flea (or was that flu) market day

This winter really won't come to an end! It has been snowing for two days and I have a nasty head-cold and am coughing and sneezing away. I was really in need of some Flumarket therapy (ha-ha). 
I am always on the hunt for good cotton fabrics, if you find sheets you get a lot of fabric for the money and I was lucky today! The green fabric is made of that thick cotton sheet quality they don't make anymore and a great shade of green! Dots, stripes and checkered fabrics are always good to have. The yellow gingham fabric is a whole duvet cover so that's lot of fabric! The milkglass bowl will be added to my collection, I previously had this one and two is a collection, right?

The embroidered tablecloth is beautiful, however discoloured, broken and stained so it will be great for my fairy-angel dolls. I also got a roll of cute good-to-have wallpaper and an blue retro Christmas table-cloth for my tomte stuffies!  

Big E has asked for a reading chair for some time now and this faded beauty had a note on that said "GRATIS" (for free) so I took her home! E will love to sit there and read. I am happy to say that most of our furniture is second-hand. Yesterday I bought a cupboard for our kitchen too that "just needs a little fixing", so does this side-board that now hosts my little plant nursery.

Just look at that detail! You can't walk away from a piece like that, can you? Especially when it's 35€. I love small town living, yes I do!

Have you made any great flea market scores lately?

 

The Close your eyes quilt -- part 1

In a few weeks I will be teaching a quilt workshop, the theme is to (a) use up some of that stash and (b) go wild and creative and (c) not to think too much. So I decided I'd better make another quilt to show the participants what I have in mind! The idea is the same as in the Improv quilt top I made a few years ago, a free take on the traditional log cabin pattern. The colour inspiration is my daughter's new room that goes in grey, turquoise, pink, black&white and a hint of yellow. This is where she likes to sit and read (she is 10 years old and is reading the 5th Harry Potter in English, we speak Swedish at home, that child is a genius)!The other night we watched a documentary about the composer John Cage, which inspired me to make a quilt where I pick the fabrics "by chance". What I did was to fill this bag with fabrics in the theme colours from my stash and placed it by my sewing machine. 

I found 12 smaller pieces in different sizes in my scrap basket that became center pieces for the blocks and then I started sewing. I closed my eyes and randomly picked a fabric from the bag. When possible I chose the size of the strips "by accident" too. Like here on this black fabric that was already cut into, the strip naturally became 4 inch wide.

 This is so fun! I just hope it won't end up looking like a catastrophe, I promise to show you the result anyway :)

  It's too early to say, this is what I left by my sewing machine earlier today, can't wait to get back to work tomorrow!

It would be great fun if you would like to join me on this! If you do, feel free to post your links here! 

Happy Easter!

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!

It must be Spring!

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?

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

Scrap box winner

 

 

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!

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day and a scrappy give away

 

 

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!

We have a winner!

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!