Holiday Softie Awards

Tomtenisse Dotty, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Since I was making tomtar anyway and I stumbled upon the 2007 Holiday Softie Awards (in time!!!) I decided to let one of my gnomes, "Dotty", enter the competition. I just love the mint dotty fabric together with the red. Now I wish I could convince my family that our Christmas is going to go in these colours this year...

About: Dotty is a product of my imagination. A mix of a Finnish/Scandinavian tomtenisse, an elf and a garden gnome. A Christmas decoration or if treated well a guardian of your home and family the whole year (however I can not be held responsible for what she decides to do if she moves into your house...).

Materials: Cotton fabrics in red and mint green with dots and red & white toile de jouy for the legs. Filled with polyfill. Heart appliqué from synthetic felt. Mini buttons for eyes.

Some more Holiday Softie love from the flickr pool (they will have a very hard time choosing the winners!): a house, Sprincle, a sweater pigeon and a snow rabbit. And a wonderful dachshund dressed for Halloween by Elsita. Happy Halloween everyone!

For the real house lover

House scarves, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I was making scarves with houses today and had a great line going when I found I had appliquéd one house on each end of one of the scarves. I got discouraged one moment (and nearly gave up, you know these wonderful moments in the creative process....) and then thought that this would be a great scarf for the REAL house lover :-) The scarves are all unique and numbered so these became nr 1 and 2. I'll try to get a shot of them all tomorrow. My house-loving craft friend Laurraine makes the cutest Tape Measure Houses! She also has a shop.

Autumn day happiness

Cushion syko doodle style, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I finally finished this cushion that has been staring at me for weeks. Better do it before the trees turn bare and brown, I was thinking.
The cushion is about an ordinary Autumn day that might just bring something special with it... It will appear in the shop as soon as I get a decent picture of the whole thing.

A little tomte love

Striped gnome scarf, originally uploaded by -syko-.

It's all about gnomes here (or tomtar (sing. tomte) as I like to call them) at the moment. I like this time of year very much, a lot of planning and a lot of making for the Christmas fairs I will participate in. I love the intensive super social days at craft shows as much as I love sewing all by myself, the radio as my only company. I need both. This year I have taken on three Christmas fairs which makes things a little hectic over here, I'm afraid I won't have time to create enough stuff for all the shows. This is me three years ago :) Anyone else thinking about Christmas already?

Next time I will show you some progress on the interactive project. Cathy Gaubert came with the winning suggestion this time, birds it will be! She makes the cutest bags!

Lately I have been...

Stripey jersey scarf with robot, originally uploaded by -syko-.

- sewing stripy scarves
- baking my own bread
- looking after kids pretending to have a fever
- hanging around facebook, want to be my friend?
- admiring the work of Julia's in the shop Lineanongrata.
- and mimi's tattooed man, she is an amazingly talented doll maker.
- elsita, I love her shop too!!

Sunflower in October

Sunflower, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Interactive project stage 3 completed

Interactive blog project stage 3, originally uploaded by -syko-.

The white background fabric always turns out grey on the pictures of this little quilt-to-be :( It reflects the weather here quite well though... Kirsten suggested I should add some clouds to it. So I did. The other one is hand stitched with silk thread and the other one is a piece of silk satin that I appliquéd by machine. I will save a few clouds for the quilting. Now I need ten more suggestions for stage 4, please! Instructions here.

Squirrels and bird

squirrels and bird, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Todays post is for my kids. I should give them more time. Be a better listener, do things with them. At the moment I am just so occupied with my own project(s) that it feels really hard. Must sew, must blog, must make food, must clean mess, must study taxes, must become a successful business woman... Must not become a crazy robot.

Big E is a great drawer. She draws with a steady hand and I just love her style. Recently she's been drawing animals, take a look at this bird and nest.

We've been to the library today, now I'm off to read a book to little e, step 1 in project Good mum. No sewing today.