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!

My craft space

Mission accomplished! It took a while to get my messy desk sorted, because of course I had to take several breaks for Tudor-watching (can you believe I finished a four-season TV series in less than two weeks - crazy). But now that I finally did it, I thought I would take the moment to show off my unusually well organized craft space!

This is what my desk looks like when it's not covered in a complete mess of papers, books, fabric and thread. The desk itself is actually an IKEA Melltorp kitchen table. We have two of these in our combined home office/craft room, this 125 cm one and a (now discontinued) longer one which we use for our computers. We didn't really plan it this way, we actually spent ages looking for matching office desks that fit our needs (white, simple, with a decent depth that would fit monitors and printers, and durable and not too easy to scratch/stain) but we just couldn't find any. Then one day we were walking through IKEA, having just dismissed most of the desks they carry, and stumbled on these tables in the kitchen/dining section. Perfect! We also got a couple of white Helmer drawer units, one of which you can see here holding craft supplies. To the left is a stackable drawer unit which I bought at MUJI, holding supplies for paper crafting.

Actually, I'm realizing as I type this that almost our entire home office is made up of IKEA furniture... How predictably Swedish of us! This Billy shelf holds my fabric collection, of which I am totally proud (it's usually the first thing I show people when they visit for the first time!). I love being able to get an overview of all my fabric when I'm planning a project, and keeping it sorted by color is both practical and decorative in an otherwise pretty boring and functional space. The sweet little thread rack on top of the shelf was a present from my mom a couple of years back, but we have yet to mount it to the wall because our apartment walls are made of incredibly hard concrete - meaning putting anything up on the walls takes a ton of hard work. Seriously, we have already worn out one high-end hammer drill on those bad boys!

In the corner next to my crafting desk are two closets which are gradually being taken over by craft and sewing supplies. In one of them I keep general supplies that don't fit into the two drawer units, and in the other one I store WIPs and ongoing projects, plus clothes that need mending or altering. I'm really grateful to have this extra storage space - in the last apartment we lived in we had barely any closet space so supplies and ongoing projects would always end up littering the desks, the kitchen table, sofa, or even the floor when I wasn't working with them... Having somewhere to put these things away feels like such a luxury.

So, that's my entire crafting space! I know there are people who have entire rooms dedicated to crafting, but I'm really happy and content with my little nook. The only thing I can miss sometimes is having a cutting table, to save having to crawl around on the floor when I'm planning or assembling larger quilting projects. But that's a dream for far into the future!

Sashiko embroidery class

Are you having a good 2015 so far? I've had a busy first week of the year, packing away Christmas and sorting out all those things that tend to stack up after a two week vacation. I'm also still trying to sort out my goals for the new year, and planning for the next couple of months. All this while having a massive headache - Keith and I are doing a "Sugar Free January" challenge and for the first few days I was in complete sugar withdrawal! That means not to much crafting got done, but I did have something I wanted to share: Before Christmas, I took a class on Japanese sashiko embroidery.

Sashiko is a traditional Japanese form of embroidery which uses simple running stitches in intricate, geometric patterns on indigo cloth. I've long loved the look of sashiko, and I have made several unsuccessful attempts at this technique previously. This winter I thought it was time to do something about it and actually take a class! I was thrilled when I managed to snag one of the spots on the Stockholm County Museum's one-day class with Rieko Takahashi, textile artist and author of the first Swedish book on sashiko.

Photo by Rieko Takahashi, www.riekotakahashi.com

The course was lots of fun. Rieko was a great instructor, and once you got the hang of the basics sashiko stitching turned out to be pretty simple and very meditative - up and down, up and down... The class was almost seven hours long, but I could easily have kept going! We we're a pretty small group of stitchers and we ended up having a lot of fun, chatting and eating the tasty Japanese snacks which Rieko brought with her.

The most traditional form of sashiko uses white thread on indigo fabric, but Rieko showed us some modern pieces using blue, or even red, thread on white or cream backgrounds (you can see some of these in the first photo above). 

I started on a cushion cover, and even though it's not finished yet, I still went straight home to order some more sashiko supplies off Ebay. You can't really buy proper sashiko thread in Sweden, so I got a couple of different colors to experiment with.

I also bought a copy of Rieko's book. At around 40 pages it's pretty brief, but it's a good introduction if you're looking to try sashiko embroidery (only available in Swedish, unfortunately).



Have a great second week of 2015!

Smash Book Sunday: Summarizing 2014

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! We're still at Keith's parents' house having a nice quiet time. I'm thinking a lot about the past year and preparing for whatever 2015 might bring. In that spirit, I thought I'd do a post showing some more of my 2014 smash book. I've been smashing regularly all year, and I'm just finishing the last spread of my 2014 book.

The K&Company smash books have the perfect amount of pages for me to record one year - I usually do 2 or 3 spreads per month, or more if something particularly exciting happens. As I write this I'm finishing my third book, and I'm considering what type of memory keeping to do for next year.

So far, I have used the Mod, Doodle and Simple smash folios - I like simple smash books where the pages are not too full of illustrations and other distracting stuff. For next year I have ordered the Eco smash folio as well as the Pink folio gift pack bundle, which includes a new elastic band and a really neat pocket smash book which I think could work well on vacations or trips.
  

Pink Folio Gift Pack (image by K&Company)

But I'm also considering keeping a more traditional journal this year. Sometimes I feel like doing longer, more personal journal entries, and I don't think Smash books are the best place for that - if nothing else, I want to be able to show off my smash book here on the blog or share it with friends and family without having to "hide" those more personal pages! This summer, I got a fantastic Paperblanks notebook which would work well as a journal - if I can bring myself to actually write in it, that is. Still debating with myself, we'll see what I come up with.

Happy New Year!

The London Report, part two

No London trip is complete with at least a little bit of shopping. And while shopping wasn't the primary goal of our trip, we did manage to stop by most of the stores I was hoping to visit. The Cass Art flagship store was great, as was Foyles and Forbidden planet (geek heaven!). And of course, the fabric and haberdashery sections at Liberty was fantastic as always. Above are my Liberty finds: gorgeous washi tapes, a pretty lavender sachet, and... What's in that white package, I wonder?

The above is a phone picture I snapped as we were unpacking our bags on Sunday. With the exception of apparel (because really, this is not a style blog - I doubt you'd be interested in a couple of Primark cardigans) and a few gifts, this is everything I bought on our trip. Of course, leave it to the librarian's daughter to pack her suitcase full of books she could just as well have bought online from the comfort of her living room... I can't help it, books just call out to me! But I also happen to think that books make great souvenirs - every time I pick up a particular book I'm reminded of how and where I got it, and that's the whole point of souvenirs, isn't it?

As you can see these books are mostly my regular brand of non-fiction, but there are a couple of craft/art books in there too. My plan is to learn how to draw faces and draw people in 2015! I also got some postcards, brushes and art masking fluid for a watercolor project I'm planning. And of course there are a few geeky things in there too - the Deathly Hallows key ring has since been turned into a necklace, and the chocolate frog has been devoured.

But now, for the all important fabric reveal. Get ready to drool!


Seriously, how amazing are these?? I've been trying to pick a favorite but it's just too hard! I love the Kayoko Tana Lawn, I bought it in red this time but I actually have it in another colorway (pink/cerise) as well. But I think my favorite of these is actually the red and green print at the top of the stack, I can see myself using that a lot next year. The only problem with Liberty fabrics is that they are so nice, you almost have to force yourself to cut into them. But I wan't these fabrics to be used, not just sit around, so I will have to get over that. Any tips on Liberty-worthy projects I should add to my list?

The London Report, part one

My one week blogging break somehow turned into two - my apologies! Things has been a bit hectic since we got back from London. The past week has been all about job hunting stuff, Amnesty activities, Christmas prep, and hosting a Glögg get together for most of my extended family. It's been a great week though!

So, time for a report from our trip. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and left Sunday morning, so in all we had three and a half days in London. It felt like a lot of time beforehand, but of course time flies when you're having fun! Still, I do think we managed to find the perfect mix of shopping, sightseeing, good eats and just hanging out with friends.

The most time consuming (and fun!) thing we did was the tour of the WB Harry Potter studios in Leavsden - our bus left at 8 am Thursday morning and we weren't back in the city until 3 in the afternoon. It was totally worth the time though, there's so much to see! I loved the whole experience, but some favorites included seeing the Diagon alley set, the Great Hall and the amazing set of Dumbledore's office which had SO much detail. We spent about three hours going through the exhibit but you could easily spend another five I think!

My birthday on Friday started with a huge breakfast at Pret a Manger - I used to work at Pret when I lived in London so I am naturally biased, but I just LOVE Pret sandwiches. Then we spent a couple of hours exploring St Paul's cathedral - despite living in and visiting London a ton of times, I had never been up in the dome before. The last part of the climb was a bit nerve-wracking, but the view from the top more than made up for it. If you're curious, there's a virtual tour of sorts on the St. Paul's website. After a bit of shopping and a change of clothes at our hotel we headed out for an amazing dinner and cakes with our friends Johanna and Marc, who had booked a fantastic indian restaurant (I love indian food) for the occasion. A great time was had by all!

On Saturday we did a bit more shopping, and then headed to the V&A museum for the necessary dose of culture (my dad the librarian would be disappointed in me if I spent all that time in London without visiting at least one museum). V&A was fantastic, even Johanna who is not usually a museum fan was swayed. The evening was spent at Johanna and Marc's place in Wapping, enjoying some excellent vegetarian shepherd's pie (beer might have been involved as well) and talking. And then on Sunday morning it was time to check out and head back home. I can't believe how much fun we managed to squeeze into those four days, but it was tough to go back home again. Can't wait to come back again!

In my next post I thought I'd show you some of the shopping I did. I didn't buy too much in the way of clothing, but I did get a lot of books, craft supplies, and of course, fabric! We didn't make it to Goldhawk road for fabric shopping in the end, but that was probably just as well since I already spent a ton of money on fabric at Liberty. Lucky for me, Keith's parents had made a secret deal with him that if I found something I loved that they would pay for part of it as their birthday present to me. A big thanks to Maria and Dennis! Anyway, more on that later. I'm off to start wrapping the Christmas presents!

ETA: I almost forgot to mention: I'm guest blogging today over at The Pickled Herring today for Kathryn's Scandinavian Christmas series! My post this year is about making pomander oranges, one of my favorite Christmas decorations. Head over there if you's like to read my tutorial!

Crafty London

Exciting news: I'm going to London in less than a week! It's my birthday next week (turning thirty - eek) and we're flying over to celebrate and to spend time with one of my closest friends, Johanna, and her boyfriend Marc. I used to live in London when I was younger and I absolutely love the city - and the last time I was there was in 2011 so it was about time for another visit!

Now, we only have 3,5 days in the city and we want to have as much time as possible to hang out with Johanna and Marc, but I couldn't resist putting some crafty things on the to-do list as well. I thought I'd share them here as inspiration, if you're planning a visit to London anytime in the future.

Image by Gryffindor (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

1. Liberty of London. Of course, no visit to London is complete without a trip to Liberty's. This department store has an amazing fabric section selling (among other things) the signature flowery fabrics. I plan to stock up on some Tana Lawn and soak up the atmosphere before taking on Oxford street.

2.Cass Art. When I started looking around for the best arts and crafts shops in London, this one kept popping up in all my searches. Looks like they have a great selection of paints and tools, can't wait to visit!

3. Paperchase. As a stationery nut I LOVE Paperchase products, but unfortunately they don't ship to Sweden. So I'm planning on stocking up during my visit!

4. IF we have the time, I would so love to visit the fabric shops on Goldhawk Road. Apparently, this is THE place to shop for fabric at reasonable prices. It is going a bit off since we will be staying in and spending most of our time around Shoreditch, and I'm not sure whether we'll find the time. If we do go I promise I will update you on my loot!

Image by Karen Roe, The Making of Harry Potter 29-05-2012 [CC-BY-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons (image has been cropped)

We have lots of not-so-crafty plans as well, for example we will be spending almost an entire day at the Harry Potter Studios outside London. What can I say, I'm a geek! Also, Keith has only visited London once before so some touristy stuff is a must. A lot of the "standard" sights we did last time he went, like Trafalgar square, Parliament, that sort of thing. We've done the London Eye and visited Tate Modern, so this time I'm thinking the St. Pauls whispering gallery, the Tower (I loved it when I visited as a kid!) and the V&A museum (I've never been!). And I'm also considering booking a Jack the Ripper tour of Soho - a fun way to introduce Keith to some of the history of the city.

I can't wait! I promise I will share some pics of the trip once we're back home again.

Collection: Hot pink craft supplies

I've been sorting through my craft supplies, trying to organize everything... Not easy, I tell you! I did find something interesting though - a color pattern in my supply stash:

Clockwise from top left: Dymo-style label maker and neon pink label tape, pink sharpies, origami papers, washi tape collection, pink embroidery floss, Sewline fabric glue pen.

I love pink!

Small packages

Not that I don't like doing large swaps and crafting bigger things, but there is something special about small packages and tiny things... I've been doing many small swaps over the past weeks, and it's so much fun to pack up the little gifts and send them off - not to mention the fun of receiving tiny treasures!

This is a fabric covered matchbox I made for a swap-bot swap, it's filled with buttons, charms, ribbon as well as a few handmade things; a magnet and some button thumb tacks. It's amazing how much you can fit into a tiny matchbox!

This second pic shows the lovely package I received for another Swap-bot swap, the Button Swap #2. A great mix of new and vintage buttons, all in my favorite colors! My button stash is growing all the time, I'd better start making some more button-themed projects! Any ideas? :-)

Time to get organized

Sorry it's been a little quiet here lately - I thought I would have more crafting time now that I'm done with school, but it's been quite the opposite! I have done a lot of organizing though. This is what my new embroidery floss organizer looks like:

Yummy, isn't it? I also tidied my craft space (long overdue!) and reorganized my inspiration board with some new images. I need to make some more button thumbtacks, too!

And here's something for any Swedish crafters reading my blog: last week when I was busy studying, this little gem dropped into my mailbox. It's the spring catalog from Sweden's largest craft store chain, Panduro, and it's fabulous! The new fabric line from Tilda is just lovely, I wish I could get every print!

If you haven't picked up a copy of the catalog yet, check it out here. My resolution not to buy any more craft supplies is killing me! :-D