Shop Local Scandinavia

Shop Local Scandinavia on Etsy, originally uploaded by -syko-.

This is one of many reasons it's been so quiet here on the blog lately. I was asked to make a "Shop Local Scandinavia"-guide for the Storque, which is the Etsy blog. Click here to meet some great crafters from all over Scandinavia! The bags under my eyes tell the story about how many tomte people I have created during the last month. I have two craft shows coming up, the first one in two weeks and I've still got lots to do. Next year I will have to hire someone to help me cope with everything! I am also supposed to make a pattern for a book, a nice swap parcel and a few other things... I guess all this means my business is growing :) Which is a good thing, right?

For those of you who are in Finland - please check out my web site for information on where to find my Christmas stuff for sale.

More news soon! Hope you are all well! We've been coughing for a couple of weeks now :(

Cards on sale

I will receive my new holiday card collection any day now, so exciting! Therefore I have decided to sell the ones I've got left from last year on sale. The cards have actually never been on sale in my Etsy shop before :) The card stock we used for these is plain, not the one with structure I prefer. Be quick if you want a bargain or stay tuned if you want to see the brand new ones. The cat and pig will be amongst them, they said they could stand one more celebration (I still think they look a little grumpy). My new banner is a sneak peek of what there is to come...

And for those of you who think I should shut up about Christmas already I will refer to the long shipping times close to Christmas. I'd rather be out early than to late ;-)

Yesterday and today

Yesterday I finished a secret quilt project, therefore the quilter's thumb above. I also got my new printer/scanner/all round machine so I will be able to do something about my pattern making plans. But it might take some time. It usually does. But I'm excited anyway :) Even if the machine is huuuge.Today I had to take a break between my custom orders so I designed this bird key fob. My key fob just broke (again), so I decided to invent something more durable. I used natural linen for the front piece with the appliqued bird and a patterned fabric for the back. I put some reflective tape in the side so it can be hanged as a charm on a bag as well. This black bird is in the shop, but there are more on their way. I kept a pink one for myself.

I just found a fantastic blog, BloesemKid's open house. Irene knocks on different artist's doors and lets them tell about themselves and their homes, there are so many lovely creative homes presented! Many of them are small, but still full of life and smart ideas! I got so inspired to do something about our home! And I will definitely buy that polka dot tea set for little E for his birthday next week (very important note to myself)...

Crows, roads and leaves

My mum, Agneta Wikman, has opened up her own etsy shop! I have tried to persuade her to do it for a long time, and yesterday was the day! It's all about this crow with a lot of personality. The crow experiences things that are very typical for people in my family, but they have proved to be very universal :) This is my sister, my dad, me... I'm sure you will find one that reminds you of someone, or reminds you of you. You can buy the crows as postcards or art prints and you should be able to pick as many cards as you like to the same postage cost. There is 19 different motives. The crow above arrived together with a great (x2) cap for my birthday last year. Please take a look at mamma's shop and welcome her by giving her an etsy heart!

I've been working on a theme that has been dear to me since I was about five, I think (I admit having a 20 years break in between). I loved drawing cities with roads and houses and trees and when I do it today I feel I can still somehow connect with the thoughts that little girl had when she was imagining her city. This is the first road cushion I've finished, I have two more on the go. It is in the shop and sold with an insert this time. I am working on some more cushions with a rectangular shape and more "grown-up" themes. Even if I think this linen cushion would look as great on the living room sofa as in the kid's corners.

We've had some really nice sunny, but crisp Autumn days the last two weeks. We went for a walk yesterday and I had to run back home to fetch my camera, the colours were too gorgeous not to document! I hope the sun shines where you are!

Results

No I did not spend my family-free days in front of the telly eating goodies. Only. I did get some serious work done too. 40+ finished pouches, yay! I had forgotten how much you can get done in one day without interruptions. The giggling owl here is the new member of the pouch zoo. I thought I told him not to taste that mushroom... I used one of the cute ribbons I got from Farbenmix last week. I also used some cool vintage fabric samples that I got a thrift store a few months back. I think the fabric this one got for back goes very well together with the state of mind of this birdy... See it in the shop.

Talking about mushrooms, lucyellen has made one of the cutest I've ever seen made from fabric, here. The weather is just right for mushrooms, it's pouring down so we've spent our time building a lego zoo and drawing. What do you do with the kids when it's raining?

New shop

While rearranging I once again realised what an awful lot of fabrics I own. And what a small part of them I actually use. I have a great supplier of English quality cotton fabrics (Liberty, Designer's guild, William Morris, Laura Ashely...) here in town so I keep buying fabrics. Some of them are seconds, many just sample pieces to bargain prices. Sometimes I just cannot leave them behind, I know you fabric addicts know what I mean! So I decided to open up the SykoFabScrap shop, an idea I've been pondering for a long time, to ease the burden on my shelves and maybe get room for those new fabrics I need to buy.... And share the joy of course, the main purpose of my business! I will be adding new stuff regularly during the following weeks.

Thank you all for the input on the pattern question, I might end up making a Christmas pattern booklet with several designs in the end.

*edit* I forgot to add the breaking news that the first two poppies on our patio showed their pretty faces this morning, how we have been waiting! I am about as crazy about flowers that I am about fabrics, but there is more magic into poppies. Isn't it amazing how a tiny poppy seed can grow up to something like this?

Sing with me

You might have noticed the Craft for China thumbnail on the left? I have donated this little quilt for an auction to benefit orphan girls in China. The auction will begin June 1, 2008, I will let you know when! Please spread the word about this! Artists such as Rob Ryan, Elsita and Carla Sonheim have made contributions to it. I can't wait to see what they have donated! You can see a list of all participating artists here. Business on etsy has been slow lately. I have tried not to freak out and have been creating and listing new stuff. I also opened up a new shop(!) on DaWanda, which is Etsy's European cousin. It is based in Germany so I will have a good opportunity to use the German I was taught at school and never really used. Except for when I went to Switzerland and I had to start all the way from the beginning, the pronunciation is so different! The prices on DaWanda are in Euros so I feel like home. But not as home like I do on Etsy. Not yet.

One of my not so secret talents is that I have a song for every situation, songs just pop into my mind in various situations, songs that I often did not know I knew. So here's the first theme song for today, why don't you listen to it while you look at my latest creations (please)! I bet you will sing along! I call the mini quilt above Up, up and away, as you might have guessed. It is one in a series of three. One will stay at my exhibition over the Summer. One is still available on etsy.
*edit* It sold, I should stop complaining...
This is a new zippy pouch, I think I need to take a new shot of it, the dotty background makes it look a little dull. T suggested this tune by Pink Floyd as a theme song for it ;)
For this bag I guess I should have picked Sail away by Enya, but since I have a fear of having it ringing in my head the rest of the day I thought it best to introduce to you the Finnish band The Rasmus and Sail Away.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Summer in print

Today two boxes filled with postcards arrived at my doorstep. I felt like a child on Christmas Eve ripping them up to see how the Summer cards turned out. Do I need to say that I am very pleased with the result? And how lucky I am to have such a great brother who can make these things for me! The theme of the cards is things that are SUMMER to me, like watching my seeds grow, hanging out the laundry to dry, the sound of seagulls, the smell of the sea and the taste of herring... They are for sale in my shop as a set of eight, with two of each designs, but you can mix and match as you want with all the cards I have for sale.
Now I feel inspired to work with the Summer exhibition, funny how you can get inspired by your own work... There is just something special with fabric in print. I nearly managed to put together a quilt top for the exhibition this weekend, quite amazing really, since T spent most of it in bed with a fever and I took care of a reasonable amount of laundry, made food and vacuumed (half of) the house. Things I try to avoid during work week (it comes quite naturally to me). Talking about sailing boats (did I?) I have very much enjoyed following the process on knitalatte's ship jacket on flickr during the last week. Read about the process on her blog.

Cheer me up

Coasters, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Today I just feel like complaining so this will be no long post. This is supposed to be a happy craft blog :) One thing I AM happy about is that I did some planting with little E on Saturday so now we are waiting for sunflowers to turn up in our pots (got to take pictures next time we get our fingers dirty). How I love gardening! We've had some wonderful warm Summer weather for over two weeks. Today was cold and windy, which suited my Monday mood.

I did some coasters with houses too, they can be found in the shop. I made the houses of small scraps with Vliesofix, I get a lot of them making my appliqués. The steam is hand stitched. I love embroidery very much, but since I don't have the time to sit down with anything big I have to keep it very small! This way I can sneak out to my chair in the sun in the middle of the work day to sew some tiny stitches and work on my tan... Now tell me something nice YOU have done today!

Follow your heart

One of my most popular photos over at flickr is the one of two turquoise linen dresses for little girls. I have been meaning to put the follow-your-heart appliqué on other things too. Orders, life and time has kept me from doing it, but today I decided to make some cushion covers for my shop. I just needed to follow my heart, instead of my to-do-list, today ;) There will be more cushions during the coming week, I'm off to shop some more linen now. Meanwhile I suggest you take a look at Sara Ahearn 's work, so beautiful!

Oh, and that chair, I know you are going to ask, is from Ikea. I bought it last Summer.

A lesson in taxes

Sailing - work-in-progress, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Sometimes I would just like to sail away to a place with no bureaucracy... My bookkeeper called me today just to let me know that I need to charge VAT (sales tax) not only from my national customers, but also from my customers in the European Union. This means that EU residents will be charged 22% sales tax (yes, that's what we pay here in Finland) when they buy something from my shop. Sorry to bore you with this, but some etsy sellers within the EU might need this information too, if they have been as ignorant as I have been about this until now! To celebrate this very unofficial tax day I have reduced the price of some of the items in my shop. All the house scarves left are now 22,50 USD (+ tax if you live in the EU ;)

The little boat is a detail of a mini quilt that is going to be displayed at the exhibition I will have with my mum this Summer. But before I quilt it I will order some postcards of it. I hope to have a new little Summer card collection to offer next week. Here is another quilt/card to be with a herring theme!

Bright head(ing)

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Big E learned how to ride the bike she got for Christmas so we had a very happy Sunday. I decided to take on my crocheting project again, after abandoning it for some time (after 8 hexagons I realized I had made them all wrong so I had to take a break...). The blanket is now the size of a small doll quilt so it will take "some time" to finish it, but I'm in no hurry, this is supposed to be my relaxing, slow project. T says the colours are crazy, but I like it, and I am using white in all of the hexagons to lighten it up.


I went fabric shopping last Friday, I needed fabric for more bird scarves (will be available in the shop tomorrow Tuesday) and I found this aqua ribbon to a bargain price so I bought a few meters. And found a (p)syko way of displaying it :) The mobile in the background is from painted fish studio.

Wishing you all a joyful work week!

*edit* If you are a lover of dots, take a look at Julie's blog dedicated to dotty things. She features my piggy cushion today in very good company!

syko in print

As many of you have already noticed I have received the first collection of paper goods from my brother. I am very excited about our cooperation and I really like how these first cards turned out. It feels special to see your designs in print. I developed a special technique for these with appliqué on paper. Rasmus and I have big plans for other printed products with my designs, everything from shopping lists to wallpapers is on our list :) I have had some troubles sleeping, planning future paper products... What is your favourite kind of paper goods? I think napkins would be so cool...

I was overwhelmed by the response my cards got on flickr and etsy. Thank you so much my friends for going shopping!!!

Now when I got this back from the print shop I will be able to go on with the interactive project. I'll be back in a few days!

It's a very cold Easter here, the wind is freezing and we just got some snow! How is the weather in your part of the world?

Spring fashion

7 birds scarf, originally uploaded by -syko-.

It's snowing again, but I am doing my best to help Spring to fly in. Todays contribution is this Spring scarf, I made it a little wider than my previous scarves. This one is in the shop, but I think I'm going to wear one myself next week, when we go to the first night of this opera. T has made sound design for a robot they will have in the foyer. So cool. The project is. AND the fact that I am going to a first night with grown-up people. I hope I will behave myself.

On Friday I will get the postcards I've been waiting for (one with a flock of Spring birds) + a few other printed products my brother has helped me with. Yes, a bike with a pile of fabric too, thanks for asking! I'm so excited!

Carina was kind enough to interview me, please head over to her craft blog, if you are curious to see what I had to say about my craft! And check out her shop too. This crocheted blanket is so beautiful and well made!

*edit* for those of you who haven't seen the origin of my crazy birds, it can be found here.

R is for rabbit

R is for rabbit - mini art quilt, originally uploaded by -syko-.

This is the most fresh member of the ABC-family. It is for a little girl, obviously. I think this is my personal favourite so far. I am thinking of printing cards of these, but I will have to see if the scanner likes them, it can be a little tricky with fabric. At the moment I am waiting for another collection of postcards with my designs, I will hopefully have them next week.

I just talked to a friend from Åland, who is engaged in a local museum where I worked for two Summers when I studied. I was trained to become an Ethnologist, you know :) Freya (I love that name!) asked if my mother and I wanted to have an exhibition in the attic of the museum. Of course we want! Mum will make a summery collection of paintings and I will quilt, of course. Very inspiring. I will probably be making a couple of larger quilts similar to the baby quilt I just made, but with a Summer feel. A fun project to look forward to!

Finished quilt and etsy news

Autumn day quilt - finished!, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I used some cotton batting I have been saving for awhile for this quilt. Finland is a developing country when it comes to quilting so I was so happy to find a shop that had cotton batting in the town where my parent lives. Because people does not understand the wonderfulness of this , that shop is now closed :( I guess I have to go on-line to get it next time.

When you use cotton batting you want to wash the quilt when it is quilted to get that old fashioned look. Another nerve wracking moment in the making of this quilt. Luckily it came out in one piece and in the same colours (I had pre-washed the fabrics before sewing, but you never know...). I love the texture it has after washing, the clouds got fluffy and the quilted lines around the borders appear much better. I used what I had for the back, it got a contemporary look I like a lot.

And about something else, the Alchemy is back on etsy! I've heard a lot of this old-new feature and I can understand why it's been so missed among old etsyans. Through the Alchemy you can put in requests for custom items. Take a look at it! I think it will be a great way for customers to find what they are looking for among all the etsy shops!

Nightlife

Summer houses in a row, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Yawn. I didn't get my beauty sleep for a couple of nights so I'm a little off. My happy little baby E is showing that he will son be 2½. He has major mood swings during the day, cry attacks at daycare and apparently processes this during night. Last night he woke up several times screaming: "No, it's mine! I had it first!" Which led to me lying awake thinking about the best ways to arrange papers for the bookkeeper.

Next week I will quilt and write the instructions for the baby quilt I am making for the LARK book (Baby quilts) I will participate in. It will be published some time next Autumn. They wanted us to send a baby photo of ourselves so I have had a fun time looking through old pictures. My mum has tried a lot of different hairstyles :) I hope to show you some quilt progress next week! Cross your fingers that Aurora does her job well!

I have added a few fishing boats and Summer houses to the shop.

Happy weekend!

Monday monday - woohoo

owl cushion cover, originally uploaded by -syko-.

It is a natural law that Mondays are like Mondays. Not my favourite day at all. The shop I made ten ABC-quilts for is not going to open it's doors after all, due to sad and understandable reasons, but it was no good news to start the new week with. I will list the quilts in my shop instead during the week.

When I showed you the house cushion a few days ago I promised something more natural for Spring too. I thought I would not join the owl trend, (there is 5896 owl items on etsy at the moment...), but then I got this piece of Japanese fabric that had to be used. Woohoo, says my owl, I bet he likes Mondays more than I do :)

Good Monday news is that the Spring issue of the online magazine small is out. They take magnificent pictures, support indie artists and it is free to subscribe!

I hope YOU are having a good week start! See you soon!

Mailday

mobile for swap, originally uploaded by painted fish studio.

My mobile from Elsie Marley's mobile swap arrived the other day and I love it! I love the colours and the contemporary look of it and wish I had a beautiful burgundy wall like Jen (painted fish studio) to hang it against (see picture). Thank you so much, you made my day Jen! Check out the painted fish studio shop too! I especially love these block printed coffee cup cards:

House love

House cushion, originally uploaded by -syko-.

As you might know I have a thing for houses. Here is the new house cushion I've been working on. It seems this Spring is very much about pastels here :) However I have something in a more natural colour scheme for those of you that are not so much into the nursery style (will post tomorrow)... I have listed a couple of Springy house ornaments in the shop too. I've been making a bunch for Janet's little gallery, so inspiring! My next project will be to make some soft boats for her. Here is my inspiration:
There is also some laundry to take care of, I wish there was a Cath Kidston shop nearby, I'm sure I would be thrilled to do some housework if I had something like this in the my laundry room. It is even eco friendly!