Kitschy flowers and houses in line

I was going to talk about my trip to Åland, but I think I'll just refer you to the photos I have uploaded on flickr. It was a great weekend, lots of work, lots of wonderful people and lots of inspiration. There is nothing like the rush of a new idea and that is what I want to talk about today! My studio is a mess, but what can you do... I went to the thrift store yesterday to find some new materials and spotted a plastic bag with those (horrible) flower wreaths that you put around candles, please tell me what they are called in English! They used them in a project in this book and I thought it was a brilliant idea.

I have been asked to make more mobiles so this is what I came up with (more pics on flickr). The pastels of the flowers gave this shabby kitschy look. I think it turned out pretty fun and I liked working in another colour scheme for a change (I will make bright mobiles too, as soon as I can get my hands on some brighter flowers!). The birds have a layer of steady batting inside, the outlines are sewn with a lot of black thread. I added some beads, bells and buttons too!


This is the project I was working on on the ferry that I promised to show off. I needed something small to sell at the fair next weekend so I came up with these house brooches. The fair is at an outdoor museum so I think these will go nicely with the old miljeu. I used felt scraps that I bought from a lady selling felt slippers at the Christmas fair last year. The windows are made from reflective tape so these are meant to be worn on your bag or coat.

I will not put these in the shop until the two next fairs are over, but you are welcome to reserve one if you think you would need one :) The price is 10 Euros/14,50 USD (+ 22% VAT if you're in the EU), just drop me a line and tell me which one you would like! Click on the picture if you want a better view!

I can't believe it, but Summer seems to be over here. It is rainy and far too cold for this time of year :( The kids were wearing gloves at Kindergarten yesterday! To celebrate this unhappy occasion I am having a little sale on Summer items in my shop!

The window quilt came back home from the exhibition and is now listed in the shop. It is hanging right above my head as I'm writing :)
Thanks for listening! I have been talking so much about me and my projects lately that I think it will be time to give something away in next post. But I talk more about that next week!

Happy sewing (or crocheting, or whatever YOU enjoy doing)!

Treeology

This is a quilt Treeology that I finished yesterday, I'm afraid the photo does not really do it justice. Since I have a very bad sense of humour I couldn't help myself with the name... I am happy with the result, the bright coloured leaves against the raw linen surface feels so right. And birds and mushrooms, do I repeat myself (don't answer that, please)?The last two days I have been occupied by making Syko a new home page. It is fun, but very time consuming. First I considered having someone else making them for me, but I just love to know how it is built and above all to be able to update it easily whenever I want to. I will let you know when it's ready, I hope to have a surorise to offer you on that happy day!
Tomorrow I will take the ferry over to the Åland Islands to take down the exhibition. I go alone this time and I am very much looking forward to the ferry trip. I used to hate it, but these days 6 hours for myself is such a luxury. I have packed my bag with a bunch of house brooches I need to finish. I will show you the result on Monday!

Enough about me now! Go over to etsy and vote for your favourites in the Handmade Kids Sweepstakes competition! You can win a 200 $ shopping spree!

Stats and a hit in my head

I finally decided to add a stat counter to my blog this week. I have quite enjoyed reading my stats over at flickr so I thought it would be nice to follow up visits here too. It proved to be much more interesting (and a little scary) than I had thought. I've had 725 visitors since Wednesday! Thank you! I know many of you are "old friends", thank you for taking the time to read my notes and for your ever so kind and encouraging comments! Feel free to say hi if you are a lurker, new or old! I promise to try my best to say something wise here every once in awhile...

The tree quilt was snatched off the shop so I had to get myself busy replacing it. The result is the come what may-quilt. I've had this phrase from Annie's song ringing in my head for far too long now so I thought it best to let it go with a bird. Hope you like it! I have been longing to make some traditional patchwork so I added three scrappy log cabin blocks to it. I got some critique previously for announcing Autumn as started, I hope this is Summery enough for you all!

Things are happening on the patio even if the weather has been very cold lately, here is a sunflower that finally showed her pretty face!

Cleaning robot

I felt so relived over the fact the we only seem to have caught the "flu light" this time, that I had to spend the morning sorting out my new craft room. I moved my stuff into our old bedroom one month ago and have been waiting for the right day to get everything in place. The fact is that there is no such day, all that was needed was some determination. So this is how one of the walls look today after some serious drilling and hammering (click on the picture to see my notes!). T was kind enough to assist me and then model one of the new robot scarves I made today. I tried out a heavier jersey knit for these and I think they turned out great. As a maker of cute girlie stuff I am happy to once have made something that looks great on a guy :) This one is in the shop.


Thank you all for your kind messages yesterday!

Fairs and spaghetti legs

My first craft fair for the season is over and done with, I have two to go in September and I really hope there will be more people than we had at this one. The place was great, the table was huuuge (and provided by the organisers), it was rather cheap, the weather was fine, but there were no customers. And those are quite crucial for a successful fair... But I got some new contacts and a few sales + I learned once again that you need to have a lot of small stuff to sell when you sell at fairs. So I am making reflector brooches for the next show. I have an idea that I think will look rather fun!
The beginning of Autumn is my favourite time of year, I love the fresh air, the smell of mushrooms and the soft sun (except it's raining today). What I don't like is the traditional flu that moves into our house one week after school has begun. So it has this year too, big E is home with a fever and my legs are aching. So the poor souls that are waiting for their custom orders will have to wait a little longer, I am just not up to it when I'm feeling like spaghetti. Hope you are all healthy!

I call the art quilt Autum in the park. The bright trees are appliquéd on 100% linen, with a raw structure that makes such a fun contrast to the bright trees! It is free motion quilted with Sulky from Gütermann. Sulky is the 100% cotton machine embroidery thread that I also use for my appliqués. The quilt is in the shop.

Overcoming the stage fright

I have suffered from something closely related to stage fright the two days I've been working full-time with the kids away at school and daycare. Suddenly I have all that time I have been longing for the last weeks. Where to begin??

I started off making a bunch of houses for the fair on Friday. Today I allowed myself to make a little art quilt. You can see a peek of it above next to my granny's old dress that I took out to get some air. The photo is taken on our balcony outside my craft room. The white wooden wall is the only decent background to take pictures against in this house. Have I mentioned before how much I hate our greyish white rented walls? Well, I do. Can't wait to move to a home where I can paint my walls! While I am waiting I will be going over to my friend Sofia (who, speaking about stage fright, is an actress) next week and take some pics for the shop against her turquoise walls. She's got a beautiful home, I'll take some pictures of that too with her permission. The quilt is called Autumn in the park. I used brights on a raw unbleached linen background, I like the effect very much.
Today I got art prints of the 11 birds (above) and the tree, I think they look gorgeous, the stitches are much more visible than on the postcards. They are digitally printed on Finnish Terreus 250 g/m2 paper, which has a lovely matte textured surface. It is the same paper that I chose for the postcards. They measure 21 x 30 cm, which is the size of a regular paper so it should be easy to find a frame for them! Available in the shop.

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?