Stockholm Sewing Festival

This weekend my aunt, my mom and I visited the Stockholm Sewing Festival at Stockholm International Fairs. I love the Sewing Festival! It's the largest Swedish fair for sewing, quilting, knitting, embroidery and a host of other, fabric related crafts. Always really inspirational to visit.

It's been a couple of years since I last went, and to be honest I think that's a good thing - a lot of the sellers return every year so you start to recognize things from previous years. But after waiting a couple of years I found lots of new inspiration!

One of the biggest thrills for me this year was visiting an entire stall devoted to English paper piecing - I rarely see a lot of EPP in Sweden but apparently it's on the rise! If you're in Sweden and feel like buying some EPP supplies without splurging on overseas shipping, have a look at QuiltPassion! I couldn't resist buying some hand quilting thread, it will come in very handy once I start sewing my hexie quilt together. I also got some clamshell templates - not sure what they will become yet, but I'm thinking maybe a pillow using some of the Liberty fabric I got in London?

 Of course I had to get some fabric, too, but I tried to resist impulse buying. The yellow, orange and red in the photo above is going straight into a project, so I figure it almost doesn't count... Oh well. I did manage NOT to buy this amazing wool embroidery kit from Swedish embroidery artist Karin Holmberg. I love the look of wool embroidery and I would really like to give it a go, but I just don't think I'm ready to take on a huge project like this. I'm hoping to take a class on wool embroidery someday, there's so much to learn!

I spent a lot of time ooh:ing and aah:ing over all the traditional swedish wool embroidery at the fair though. All those vibrant colors - yum!

In other news, I have had my hands full with starting a new job, mom visiting and Keith contracting a really nasty virus which completely knocked him out - meaning our Valentine's Day was spent on the couch watching TV. I did get him some flowers and chocolate though, so not a total loss! I hope to get back to blogging regularly soon, I just need to find a way to organize myself and get settled with the new job. Hope you all have a great week!

Geek week: Instax outing

 

My apologies for dropping of the map this past week! I've had a busy week craft-wise, but since I've mostly been working on my "secret" project I don't have any pics to share.  Instead I thought I'd share some snaps from out visit to Stockholm ComicCon this weekend. An awesome outing in all! I brought my Instax with me, loaded with the perfect film for the occasion.

 

I also visited the awesome folks from Nordic Legions (Scandinavian storm troopers - now there's an idea!) and they snapped the above photo of me, wielding a light saber like a true geek. And lastly, this is a photo we snapped on the subway on way home - after an awesome but exhausting day:

Zzzzzzz!

Stockholm Chocolate Festival

What did you do this weekend? I visited the Stockholm Baking and Chocolate Festival  - an annual fair focused on all things sweet. There were chocolate tastings, baking competitions, trade talks and of course LOTS of stalls selling amazing treats.

Apologies for the poor photos, I was a bit too focused on what was going on in the stalls (free samples!) to pay attention to my camera. I could not resist buying one of these huge "artisan" chocolate bars either:

Yum! There was a house and home trade show going on at the same time as the chocolate festival, so I actually scored two fairs in one day. I didn't buy much though, mostly I just walked around and soaked up the inspiration.

Among other things I had the chance to chat with craft book writers and bloggers Sania Hedengren and Susanna Zacke who were busy promoting their latest craft book and showing off this amazing vintage caravan. Isn't it adorable?

The inside was equally sweet, decorated with vintage wallpaper, linens and crochet. It's always been my dream to ride off into the sunset in an old VW camper van (this article could totally have been written by me), but a caravan as sweet as this could do the trick as well!

"Attention: Craft" Exhibit

I love exploring all the crafty things that Stockholm has to offer! My mom and her husband came to visit recently, and we took the opportunity to go and see the "Attention:Craft" exhibit at Liljevalchs art gallery. It was a pretty small exhibit, but there were several fantastic pieces which I thought I would share with you.

I think this one is my favorite - it's a waterfall (hard to tell in the photo but it's massive, several meters high) made entirely of old recycled denim! Isn't it amazing? The artist's name is Hanne Friis, she makes really thought-provoking textile art.

My mom's husband is into woodworking, so of course we spent a while looking at this fantastic sculpture. It's entirely made of wood, no metal nails or screws. I could barely stop looking at it, it's so fascinating!

This fabric piece is meant to resemble an autopsy - it was quite disturbing! 

Lots and lots of beautiful metal bowls - I was so tempted to try and steal them all home with me! I especially love the turquoise designs in the forefront, they would look so perfect on our living room table... Oh well, maybe I'll be a millionaire one day and able to buy all art that catches my eye.

We spent maybe an hour going through the exhibits, and combined that with a lunch at the excellent museum restaurant and (of course) a look through the gift shop. If you are in Stockholm and have an hour or so to spare, I would definitely recomment a trip to Liljevalchs. The "Attention:Craft" is on for another couple of weeks, so there's still time!

Exploring Stockholm: Textile Arts at Nordiska Museet

I love moving to a new city, exploring and trying to find a way to "fit in" to my new surroundings. Having spent the past 5 years in Gothenburg with only sporadic visits to the capital, the move has really prompted me to explore more of Stockholm than I ever have before. There's so much to see!

Keith's family came up to Stockholm for a visit a few weeks ago, and one of the things we did was visit Nordiska Museet, a great museum housed in this beautiful building:


The museum showcases Swedish cultural artifacts from the 16th century to the present day. And of course, my favorite part of the visit was the textiles gallery. Embroidery, weaving, tatting, beading... I love to look at traditional handicraft, it's so impressive how well these (mostly) everyday objects have held up for centuries!



This is an example of traditional Scandinavian wool embroidery, dated 1791. I love these colors! You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the photos though - the textiles were all housed in glass cases, and of course flash photography was not allowed.


I hope that you can at least get an idea of how colorful and vibrant these pieces are. Real works of art, often using patterns and stitches unique to different regions of Sweden.

Of course, the textiles were not the only thing in the museum. Keith and the others got bored with the textiles after a while and dragged me off to look at this statue of Gustav Vasa, the first king of Sweden.


All in all, this was a great day trip and if you are ever in Stockholm, I'd definitely recommend a visit!


A good time was had by all!

Catching up!

So, really, how do you summarize six months in one post? There has been way too much going on for me to write about it all, but I thought I'd show some snapshots of what I've been up to - enjoy!


I finally managed to finish my thesis, and in June I officially got my MSc in Political Science. I am beyond thrilled! I'll miss all the friends I've made though - some of whom I may never meet again as they will go back to their home countries far away from Sweden. Here is one of the last shots of my graduating class:


Keith also got his MSc (in computer science though) this spring, and one of the lovely things we did to celebrate was attend this graduation ball at a swanky ballroom in Gothenburg.


Yup, that's us. Looking way more grown up (and dressed up) than usual... The next thing we did, only weeks after me finishing my thesis, is pack up our apartment and move from Gothenburg to Stockholm. We managed to find a gorgeous sublet in Gamla Stan, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Stockholm. The building is 18th century - a bit drafty perhaps, but we love it!


So now that we have a new place to decorate and shop for, you may be seeing some more of that on this blog... Can you believe we have lived in the new place for four months and we still have several boxes yet to be unpacked! Our new apartment is much bigger than the last, and we just don't have enough furniture yet!


Anyway, I'm really enjoying Stockholm so far, and hopefully 2012 will be a good year for us with new things to see and do, people to meet and fun to be had!