Welcome new year of fabric play!

Hello blog! I've been looking forward to this moment, but at the same time it is hard to decide where to start after a long break. The last two months of 2008 were very hectic and the theme seemed to be "one flu a week", so I decided to take a break from work to get well, be a full-time mum and recharge my batteries. It seems to have worked, even the weather is on my side this year, it is freezing and sunny so I think I will have to take a walk at lunch to catch some of the beauty before it disappears!
It has been a challenge to stay off the sewing machine so I have had to express my creativity in other ways. Big E got a very nice cookbook published by Unicef for Christmas so I have enjoyed exploring kid's favourite foods from different corners of the world. So far our favourite is adobo, chicken from the Philippines. We celebrated New Year's Eve at my parent's place and I didn't even bring a ball of yarn with me! Luckily my mum is a knitter so I made Big E a winter cap, I got to take a pic when she gets home (she actually wears it to school, which must mean it is a success)!

I also took up my crocheting hobby again, the progress is slow, but the blanket is already warming my knees at night :) I am using this pattern for my hexagons, but I'm sure I would have used the pattern from attic24, if she had written it down when I started, the progress would be much faster! Explore more loveliness in her flickr album. I use thin washable wool yarn instead of cotton, because I wanted to make a warm lap blanket, that wasn't too heavy.
And since I am know officially allowed to play with fabrics again I started planning a quilt inspired by the lovely piece of bird fabric I got in a Christmas swap with Anna. Can you spot the red fabric with the flying white birds? I found that at the fleamarket the other day! I love it so much! I think it might be made in Finland, probably in the early 80's. You rarely find fabrics with small patterns second hand so this made me really happy, I would probably have bought this if I had found it in the fabric store too.

And of course I had to join Katy's FQ swap!

Wishing you all a joyful and crafty year of 2009!

Tomte 2008

The children have been on holiday since Thursday and my attempt not to work has not worked very well, I've spent far to much time by the sewing machine. We did however visit the old castle and the art museum here in town, which was very nice, so I haven't neglected my family totally. At the art museum I discovered a local artist, Teija Lehto. I love how she pictures everyday scenes in her woodcuts. I couldn't find my favourite pieces online, but I did find a few that I think are representative for her work. Here is a kitchen mess, and another messy kitchen scene :)

What makes it hard to take it easy is the long to-do-list that I have in the back of my head. I need to stock up for Christmas and have a bunch of orders to take care of. So I need my time in the studio! I got a call from a home decor magazine a few days ago, they wanted me to send over some stuff for a photo shoot for their Christmas issue, very exciting and on very short notice! I have had so fun combining fabrics for the new tomte* collection! Since the fairies have girls names I decided these will be boys! Names is one of my "hobbies" so I enjoy naming my tomtar very much! I just love browsing though the name book. Some names I love so much that at times I think we will have to get another baby just to get use for them. Not a very good reason to get children, I know... I will be listing tomtar in the shop over the coming week(s). More fairies are on the go too. And a holiday edition of house ornaments! Oh, and the feet you see above belong to Melker!

*gnome, elf, Santa's little helper...

Rain

Today this happy little girl has accompanied me in the studio. The fever from yesterday seems to have rained away (it's pouring down outside). She decided to get out of bed, peeked in and said: "I quite like sewing." And we came to the conclusion that her Barbies were in desperate need of new pillows. She wanted to make them out of felt. And I helped her with a little appliqué, a heart for her and a star for him. I just love the windows in their bedroom :) I made the bed from foam plastic and wire a year back. The Barbies do have a quilt too. I made that for my little sister some 15 years ago. It might have been my first quilt!



Talking about kids I have totally forgotten to share the great news that some of my stuff is now available at:
Craftsbury Kids is an on-line shop specialising in handcrafted products for children made by independent artists. The selection of items is beautiful and the mission is just great! Read more about Cecilia and her shop here. On of my dino cushions will be up for sale later today :)

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!

Another inspiring trip

I have been away again. We have visited Äppelviken (The Apple Bay), the place where we are going to spend our future Summers. It is also dad's hobby and passion. This is Villa Agnes, built by him on a big stone. The Swiss flag was hanged to greet my sister and her boyfriend when they came over from Switzerland this Summer :) The plan for next Summer is to move an old log house there, which will become our Summer house. My dad bought this piece of land two years ago (or is it three already) and he and mum have worked really hard to make it an oasis for the whole family. They were planning to build a new house, but got the offer to save an old house instead, which thrills the Ethnologist in me, of course :)
This is little e tasting the harvest. The sweetest carrots ever! Which reminded me of a carrot pouch I made a long time ago.
Sunday was spent at the Autumn fair at the outdoor museum Stundars. On the picture I'm posing with Ms Hedgehog, an American quilt blogger who happens to live in Vaasa (the town where my parents live). I was so happy when she showed up, I have been waiting for one of my blog contacts to turn up, we had a very nice chat!

We had the best sunny weather so I very much enjoyed myself chatting away with happy people. I particularly remember a lady in her 60's who stopped at my stand and looked at everything and said that " I wouldn't know what to do with all this stuff, but this is CREATIVITY".
Talking about creativity - on the way home we stopped at Malakta, an amazing place in the countryside some 40 km from the nearest town. A young couple, Maja and Jukka, has created a creative oasis in what used to be a dairy. We arrived in the middle of a cake party (I regret that I didn't take any photos inside), everything looked delicious! There also was an exhibition space and a little shop with new crafts and thrifted goods. I am very happy to announce that my cards are now for sale in this shop!

I was talking about a give away in my last post- here it comes to celebrate post 166, or was 167! Just leave a comment on this post and you will be in the draw for a little something made by me!

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?

As time goes by

Days just seem to go by while I am waiting for everything to get back to normal (school starts in two weeks). I am making very slow progress on my craft projects at the moment, some days I just choose to give up after 136 interruptions by needing kids. But hey, I wanted to have them so what am I complaining about! So then I just talk to my flowers on the patio instead and try to zoom in the nice spots in our cluttered home. And I go on to do all those things mums usually do while my head is boiling with new ideas (yes, it's been HOT here!).
I am very proud to tell you that Holly from decor8 has picked my shop for her Etsy Take Five Tuesday today! She talks so nicely about my work, thank you! Thanks so much Malka for letting me know about it! Malka makes the most amazing quilts from a mix of her own hand dyed and batiked fabrics and commercial fabrics. If you haven't seen Malka's quilts already you should move on to her flickr or her shop now! Just look at this Great Aunt Irma Patchwork Mini Quilt, I love the faded colours, but I also adore the lime green wall that she uses as background for her shop photos!

Young artist and a mini quilt

This proud little girl has finished the first project she has ever sewn on the sewing machine. With a little help of course, and the little brother helped to stuff it (wanted to be involved very badly and now wants the pig for himself...). As you see on Big E's pattern it was supposed to become a waving teddy bear, but at some point we just came to the conclusion that it wanted to become a waving little piggy. I found a blank card among the lot I got from the printers on Monday so Big E drew this little piece of art for her grandparents. You can see little piggy sitting on the back of the bike.
Lesley, who made me this lovely quilt, received her swap quilt today (in time!) so now I can show you the whole thing. Close-ups here and here. So glad it arrived safely!

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!

Cake for everyone!

We are back home after a long weekend spent with my parents in Vaasa. The weather was warm and sunny so we almost felt like we were on Summer holiday. Yesterday morning we celebrated dad's birthday by having ice cream and waffles for breakfast. A heavy, but oh so yummy start of the day! The cake is for all of you kind people that take the time to read and comment on my blog, thank you! Thank you for all the nominations and memes I've got lately too! I highly appreciate it, but I will not nominate anyone particular for anything today I am just serving all of you some tasty fabric cake. The cake will become a printed card soon. I told 7 seven random things about myself a year ago, I am still quite the same (except that I'm one year older...), you find my answers here, if you're interested.

I am very happy to tell any Finnish passers by that some of my stuff is now available in Elina's new web shop patio.fi with beautiful things for your homes and gardens. This lovely message board is on my wish list!

If you are not yet in the draw for a pikapackage, be sure to visit Pikaland today!ck

I'll be back soon with some crafty news!

Hello my name is stupid

I broke my camera! Left it on the floor during a photo session and accidentally kicked it. And obviously destroyed the zoom and lens thing. No kids involved. Just me. HOW CAN I BE SO DAMN STUPID? Just when we have a huuuge car bill to pay. And just when I got my shop up and running again. Does this mean that I can buy a new and better camera now?

The picture is from my kids drawing corner in the living room and has nothing to do with the accident. When we moved to this apartment I decided to try to furnish our home after our needs and what we actually do at home. One thing was the issue with the crayons and drawings that used to live on our dinner table. So they got this table next to my sewing corner. We also have room for a sofa and a tv, an armchair, a play kitchen and a bookshelf. So this really is a family room. You can make a lot of a small space. It's just a matter of organizing an being open for solutions out of the ordinary. Damn camera.

Greetings from Switzerland

I don't feel like being on a break anymore so I think I'm back! I went to Switzerland alone with my two kids last week to visit my sister. It was an exciting first flight and trip abroad for them but everything went fine and we had a great time. I can highly recommend Zürich as a safe and nice place to travel with kids. Two big toy stores, zoo, trams, water and big green parks. AND they have some great souvenirs to take home. I chose a SOUVENIR as you can see... I also found a treasure box full of buttons at the cleanest thriftstore I've ever visited. More pictures from our trip here.
I am happy to tell you that I am a proud owner of this teacup print by Seealso. It is the first in a collection of etsy teaprints I'm planning to get for our kitchen wall. Any suggestions or any tea-art of your own to offer me?

I'll be back soon with a little new crafting. I'm working on a big wedding gift, three more weeks to go...

Mailday!

Today was one of those great days when I got a note from the post office that I had a big letter waiting for me. I had to pick up big E a little early to get it sooner... And I was so spoilt!! Thanks a million Kristin! As I said I really hope the fleamarket collection I put together for you was worth it... I need to take better pictures tomorrow of everything. You can enjoy them in my flickr album later. In the meantime you can look at the wonderful little pincushion I got! Thanks Ellia for organizing a great swap!

Me and big E started a dinosaur project this weekend, it's going to become a quilt finally (or maybe we'll end up with a small cushion, who knows.)

Kristina asked me when I craft. I admitted I don't clean my house so much... And if you look closely at the picture of my daughter's jam-hearted porridge you can see what my kids do to my antique table while I'm crafting. This might be a good idea for us... And speaking about chalk I made another little bird quilt. I just don't know how to take a good picture of it!! I thought it would make a fun graduation gift :) Acctually I was thinking about my own situation when I got the idea...

Tea please, now!!

I'm going to kill someone. Soon. I have so many ideas, but the family wont leave me alone with them for a second. Arrgh. I think I'd better do it the English way and make myself a cup of tea, and join Risa's teaparty (which I acctually missed, but I still need some tea and company, join me here if you like! Any angry mothers out there?). I did some really good finds at the fleamarket yesterday. The mug I'm having my tea from is a great addition to my collection of cups with numbers on, I got these coffee cups for Christmas last year. The tin I have my teabags in is from Marimekko (shop Finnish design on sale here. Look at Rinne Niinikoski's great clothes for example!). I will have my favourite tea, Keisarin morsian (the Emperor's bride) from Nordqvist. To celebrate the teaparty I'm going to put this tea cosy up for sale in the shop today.
I know my expectations are too high. I acctually got 15 minutes of sewing time and got this drapery made for the kid's room. Finally. I hate sewing straight seams. But I love the Designer's guild fabric and I love the price I paid for it in the favourite fabric shop I always talk about (desgner fabrics, vintage buttons, zippers and trims and a lot of rubbish). So I guess I should feel happy I got this finished. Now tea.

It's been nearly a month since my last post. I've been using most of my spare time for sewing stuff to take to the Christmas fair (Kvinnornas julmässa - Naisten joulumessut) that I attended last week with my mum and sister. It was very fun and also surprisingly tough to stand from 10-18 five days in a row. Little E joined us and behaved like a little prince. I got many compliments for my pouches which made me very happy because they are really fun to do and I have plenty of ideas for new designs. The ones I have left are now up in my etsy shop. The monkey pouch is the most fresh produce, ruby crowned kinglette suggested I should put a banana on his head :-) I have a few tote bags that I will add soon too. I need to develop a better pattern for bags (reminder for myself). It was so inpiring being in the middle of a crowd of creative women so we started to plan products for next year already the first day at the fair :) I am thinking about fabric bowls of some kind and then I want to make mini wallhangings/ fabric paintings. First out will be a robot I think, I want to make something for small boys.

I'll be back in a day or two to tell you more about what we've been up to. I've promised to do some Christmas crafts with big E so I'll show off the results soon. We bought a Christmas tree for the Barbie dolls yesterday and have started to decorate it :-)

One year

Little E is one year old, the guests came and went and now we are just taking it easy. And my studio will be back in the livingroom soon. Two days without sewing and my fingers are tickling ("det kliar i fingrarna, as we say in Swedish...). But I think the ugly black box will win over the sewing machine tonight. Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post! I think that my promised etsy-shop will be a few days late. I tend to forget that time ticks faster with two kids...