syko

Simple joys

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!

Today

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!

 

Pouches, pouches and maybe a quilt

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!

 

 

JANUARY11

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!

 

What I am doing today

 

Hello everyone! I've got a new table and it makes such a difference! Finally I have room for my cutting mat next to my Bernina! I'm still very fond of the colour of this mat from Fiskars! I have a very compact space to work in so I am trying to find a place for every nick-nack and still create a nice place to be in. With small additions and improvements I'm slowly getting there. The wooden chair is from a charity shop and has a very nice patina. "It looks like something you'd find in the attic, but I guess that's your style" said the dear daughter. My fabric shelves are behind my back when I sit at the table, can't show them today, no time to fold fabric nicely for you, too many tomte, houses and angels to make!

 I like to put the stuffed tomte legs in this pretty Finnish design bowl Flora, designed by Oiva Toikka in the 1970's, good design is supposed to be used, don't you think?

In between sewing and stuffing legs I have been running back and forth to the common laundry room in our house. I like to use this washing machine because it's HUGE and I can wash one week's laundry in 3 hours instead of washing every day. The only laundry I like to hang up to dry though is of the kind above= new fabrics ♥

And then back to sewing! My resellers are waiting for their Christmas items and Bernina Aurora is still working smoothly.

Give the house a loop to hang it in, put them aside and start cutting angel bodies. Just a regular October day in the Syko studio! 

Thanks so much everyone who have bought or pre-ordered my book! If you are making houses or tomte stuffies too or anything else from the book I would be delighted if you'd post pictures of your projects in the Scandinavian Stitches flickr group! There is one tomte looking a little lonely today...

Angst and joy

It feels a bit unreal that I will have my book in my hands soon, but the lovely write-up today on the stashbooks blog proves that the day will come very soon.

It's more than 1½ years ago since I got the first mail from Susanne who wanted me to be one of the first authors in C&T Publishing's new book concept stash books. If i remember correctly I thought the first e-mail from Susanne was some kind of spam and I hit the delete button quite fast (sorry about that!).  Well, she didn't give up and was very convinced that I should go for it whereas I was seeing all the obstacles in the way, the loss of income during the writing period, the kids home on holiday and me writing a book, disbelief and yada yada... And I had a hard time imagining the process as far as to the finished product. But, then I thought, what the heck, if I could finish half a PhD thesis (that's another story...) it can't be that hard to write a decent craft book! After all it was only going to be my first book, not necessarily my best book (the thought comforted me at the time :). So I went for it. It wasn't fun all the time, I still suffered from serious writer's angst from my previous life at the univeristy, but I did it and I'm proud! And I know it will look awesome because Kristy did such a great job with the layout!

And for those of you who have been thinking that you could as well make one of those tomte stuffies all by yourself (much cheaper) I can pop the news that the pattern will be in the book for you! There he sits on the stove enjoying Christmas (I know I promised not to talk about Christmas in my last post, but I admit it was a mistake so can you forgive me, please?). If you'd rather just look at the pretty pictures in the book I will also be listing some tomtar in the shop soon for those of you who are patiently waiting. I've got some really yummy vintage Christmas fabric waiting in my stash. The lovely picture was taken by my very talented friend and photographer Sanna Peurakoski.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I have promised myself to sort out my craft corner today, what are you up to?

Teabag!

 

I've updated my poor neglected Etsy shop with this teabag! Not much, but it's a start, I will do my best to add some more soft art before I go on holiday in July! I hope you like it! The cup appliqué is made from one of my own Spoonflower prints. I used a lovely soft canvas for the bag and of course it has polkadots inside! Oops...1 minute later a very happy friend of mine bought a new Summer bag for herself, so my shop is still waiting for the promised soft art update!

While I am making pouch after pouch for my local retailers I keep peeking at this rather messy pile of vintage fabrics I have been hoarding for a while, I hope that I will find time to make a quilt from these this Summer. It is a shame that we don't have a homemade bedspread on our bed, don't you think? Do you ever find the time to make anything for yourself?

 

I'm a ma-ma-terial girl!

I'm pretty amazed I haven't quoted Madonna here before, I have been humming that song all day! These incredible, yummy fabrics arrived today from Sew, Mama, Sew! Right in time to make it to the flaps for my exhibition quilt. It will become a splash of colour!

And some more material love! I did a little swap with Milja at a fair I was selling at last weekend and got this lovely 100% ecological yarn. It is made from waste from a factory that produces clothes from ecological cotton and hemp. The quality reminds me of linen. I was going to give it all to mum for mother's day, but I think I will have to keep one skein for myself. I would like to make one of these, wouldn't it be pretty in bright colours?

 
Milja also makes these amazing ecological dish clothes under the label Kierti. Be sure to take a look if you're in Finland, the site is in Finnish only at the moment.

I got something else in the mail today too, be sure to check back tomorrow on Thursday if you want to see what it is and maybe participate in a give away!

 

Syko fabrics!

 
Today they arrived! My first Spoonflower fabrics. The apples are great, but the Spring tree is perfect! Sadly I didn't order more than a fat quarter of it so I will have to think before I start cutting in it. It would make a beautiful Summer dress for my girl so I will have to order more later. Each tree is 11 cm (4 1/4'') high. The background is off-white.

  

The apples are more orange than the original, but I can live with that, colours always change in the printing process. One apple is about 3cm (1.18'') wide. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but both fabrics are quilting weight cotton so I want to combine them with other fabrics, hopefully I will have more sewing time next week...

I have put the fabrics up for sale at Spoonflower, the more they sell of my prints, the cheaper it gets for me to buy more of them, so I guess it's a good deal.

I've spent a lot of time with little e this week, he had some problems breathing, was huffing a lot and got us worried so we've seen the doctor and got some medicine that seems to help him. Today they xrayed his lungs just to make sure he is OK. We've got asthma in the family so it might be that, I just hope it doesn't get worse and that it will disappear with the flu season. I'm so ready for Spring!!!

 

Syko apples in Spoonflower contest!

A big thank you to all of you equally for the hugs, the cheers and the pay raise(!) I got for my last post! I got so many lovely comments that I just can't get back to all of you individually, but I want you to know that you made me feel much better and that you're the best!! My friend who is a postcard artist and creates two new collections per year said that being an artist does not get easier with time! On the contrary with a range of successful designs behind you and a network of customers waiting for new lovely cards it can be very hard to come up with something new. At least if you want your new collection to stand out and shine brighter than the previous ones. Now I know what she meant. Most of this is in your head, of course and you just need to find the trick to fool yourself. And I think I have succeeded to shake off that awkward feeling I've had, with these three steps ;-)

Step 1. I gave myself a little flea market budget and went out shopping to get some new ideas and materials and found the best vintage fabrics, a lamp, a couple of baskets and some very nice superficial grass (will take pictures on Monday when everything is washed and dried).

Step 2. I mentioned earlier that I ordered my first fabrics from Spoonflower. They haven't arrived yet, but at the same time I decided to enter their contest of the week with a Children's print theme and the voting just started! The competition is hard with 130 sumbmissions, but you can vote for as many as you wish, so if you have a little time, go here and click on me apples! Try to picture this as a fat quarter! I will make the fabric available for sale as soon as I have seen it irl myself (if I'm content with the result).

Step 3 has been white paint and a visit to the hardware store. Pulu, a shop that sells Syko stuff is moving to a new location in the city center and the sweet owners have asked me to make a Syko display for the new shop. So I have made myself busy building it using what I have at hand mostly. I will build it in shop on Sunday and will post a picture when it's in place! I must say I love styling and can't wait to find a studio to rent for myself. That will be step 4!

Have a joyful weekend! I am off to see my in-laws and to one of my favourite fleamarkets!

*edit* Oh my, I forgot to add my signature yesterday! Someone asked how I made it; I wrote it one a piece of paper and then scanned it!  Have a lovely day ! **