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!

Another item on my to do list...

Okay, so my crafty new year didn't get off to a very good start - I didn't do anything creative at all this weekend. Just a lot of cleaning and binge-watching the Tudors (HOW did I not watch this brilliant series before now??)... One reason I haven't crafted a lot lately is that my craft space looks like THIS:

Yes, that's the very ugly truth! In all honesty, this is what my crafting desk looks like most of the time - I do a lot of my crafting in other parts of our apartment, like the kitchen table or in the living room, so this desk usually turns into some kind of "I'll sort this through later" dumping ground for works in progress, supplies and little bits of thread and paper that don't have a proper home yet.

So for week three of the new year, my big crafting goal will be to sort this desk out and actually spend some time at it! Wish me luck!

My 2015 Crafty To Do-List

I told you last week I was working on a crafty to do-list for 2015. I started the year by doing a quick inventory of my ongoing projects, and soon realized that before I start too many new projects, I really need to focus on finishing old works in progress. I have a ton! So instead of listing the 200+ new projects I want to try out, I focused on the projects that I want to finish. Without further ado, I present my 2015 crafty to do-list!

KARIN'S 20 CRAFTS TO DO IN 2015 

1. Finish 1st sashiko pillow 
2. Finish 2nd sashiko pillow
3. Cut out and prep all hexies for my hexagon alphabet quilt 
4. Finish secret EPP project
5. Finish a PocketPhoto cozy for Ella
6. Make 2 china cake stands
7. Make 4 vintage tea cup candles
8. Finish sewing basket make-over
9. Finish photo patchwork cushion cover 
10. Sew wool embroidery pin cushion
11. Sew a hanging sleeve and mount mom’s wall quilt
12. Frame (and hopefully, sell) all machine embroidery pieces
13. Practice face and figure drawing
14. Make watercolor resist paintings
15. Cut and mat old linocut postcards
16. Finish little house lavender satchets
17. Start on vintage embroidery patchwork quilt
18. Sew doll quilt for mom’s garden play house
19. Finish yo-yo Christmas garland
20. Make 3 potholders from old quilt test blocks

What do you think? I will post updates to my list as I (hopefully) start to check things off. Here's to a crafty new year!

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!

Wreck this Journal, NordicCraft style!

There's still one thing from my London trip I haven't blogged about: I finally got a Wreck This Journal! I've been eying these creative journals by Keri Smith for years, but I always felt that it seemed frivolous to spend money on something I knew I would "wreck" in the end. But on our London trip I finally broke down and got one. And I know I'm a bit late jumping on the bandwagon, but I LOVE it!

Wreck This Journal is a best seller in several countries from what I understand, but if you've somehow managed not top hear about them before, here's the lowdown: WTJ is a prompt journal which fuels creativity and challenges your inner perfectionist, forcing you to do lots of things you've been taught NOT to in the process. Each page contains a prompt, and examples include "Spill your coffee here", "Tear out this page", "Write backwards", and (this was one of the worst ones for me) "Color outside the lines". The idea is to get rid of some of those inner "controls" which temper your creativity and make you second-guess yourself. And it really works!

I've been working on my journal on and off over the past two weeks. It was really challenging at first, forcing myself to do all sorts of destructive things to the journal. But once I picked up steam and managed to let go of my inner perfectionist, I really got into it. I think I've probably done at least a fourth of all the prompts already. I've jumped on my journal, brought it into the shower with me (yes, that's one of the prompts) and slept with it under my pillow.

I love my new journal and I'm sure I'll be spending lots of time with it in 2015. And as I had hoped, working on the WTJ has really made me miss writing more regularly - I'm thinking of starting a "normal" journal this year as a result.

So if you'd like to get those creative juices flowing in 2015, I'd highly recommend getting a Wreck This Journal for yourself, too!

The less exciting part of being a crafter

Most of the time craft blogs (including this one) are full of pictures of finished projects, yummy stacks of fabric and carefully styled supplies. And while I wish that was all there was to crafting, unfortunately it's not! Today I've been busy with a boring but necessary crafting task - pre-washing a ton of fabric.

I've got a patchwork project in the works, and I hate being unsure when I pull out a fabric from my stash whether I've pre-washed it or not. Especially for patchwork that will be used and washed a lot, pre-washing is important. These days I try to pre-wash new fabrics as I buy them, but I still have a ton of un-washed fabrics in my stash. My goal is to wash and iron my whole stash in the coming months.

Two IKEA blue bags full of fabric, whew! I'll be spending the next two weeks finding little bits of thread all over the laundry room, the couch, my clothes, and in the most unlikely places... And now it's time for an even more boring task: All that ironing! I'll spare you the pictures of me at the ironing board, binge-watching Stargate episodes. The things we do... :-)

Smash Book Sunday

I have been using smash books to record memories for years now. A smash book or smash journal is a simple way to capture life as you go along - similar to a scrapbook but much less hassle. Smash booking really just goes back to the roots of the scrapbooking phenomenon. For hundreds of years, people have been making simple memory books to preserve mementos from daily life - I know I did this long before I ever heard the term "scrapbooking"! The basic premise of the smash book is that you can just "smash" anything you want into your journal - photos, notes, lists, ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, left over packaging or anything else you can think of. No need to worry about elaborate layouts or fancy embellishments, and no need to spent hours and hours on making records of your life because really, that sort of gets in the way of actually LIVING it!

Ever since I was a kid, I've tried to keep "normal" journals, but I never seem to be able to keep them going - I'll buy a pretty journal or note book and make an ambitions start but before long, entries become more and more sporadic, and eventually I'll just give up. The blank journal pages tend to intimidate me, make me feel like I need to have something REALLY good to say before I even put pen to paper.

Scrap and smash books work so much better for me. For one thing, the pages are not big, blank and intimidating, but colorful and inspiring. Most smash books use  scrapbooking type papers in different colors which sort of "set the tone" for each spread in the journal. And they are designed for a mix of mediums - you can write, draw, glue, collage or do whatever you like to the pages, they are sturdy enough to hold up. I do a fair bit of journaling in my smash book, too, but the pressure is much lower. Most of the time a few short paragraphs is enough to say what's going through my mind, but if I want to expand on something there's always room.

Another thing I love about my smash book is how portable it is. I often bring it with me to record travels and holidays while they happen, rather than waiting until I get home (and have inevitably forgotten half of what went on) to put photos into albums or journal my experiences. I keep all the things I need attached to the book using an elastic band, so it's easy to just grab the book and go!


























I use K&Company brand smash books because I like the size and quality, and the sturdiness of the covers make them ideal for taking along on your travels. In this photo you can see what I like to keep attached to my book at all times:

- A Smash stick: This is the specialized pen that comes with the K&Company books and attaches with an elastic to the side of the book. It's got a black ink pen on one end, and a mini glue stick on the other. Super convenient!
- A black ultra fine point Sharpie: I mainly use this for writing on Instax prints (which most regular pens can't manage).
- An extra glue stick: The glue in the Smash stick is not very heavy duty, so I like to keep an extra glue stick with me for photos and heavier items.
- A pair of Smash scissors: Another K&Company product, these scissors fold up to become no larger than a normal pen or marker.

That, plus a few odd bits of paper, is all you really need to Smash book on the go.The pages you see here are a few of my favorites from my 2014 smash book - it's my third one and I think I'm really starting to find a style of memory keeping that works for me. I'll be sharing more pages as I go along, hopefully they can serve as some inspiration to someone out there!

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!

Cheap Indulgence: Supermarket roses

I love having fresh flowers around the house, but it's a treat I rarely allow myself. Nice-looking cut flowers are often a bit too pricey for me, but I recently found a solution: One of my favorite bloggers, Cup of Jo, shared a brilliant tutorial last year on how to arrange supermarket flowers. I've used it several times now, and it really does make cheap supermarket roses look really nice.

This pic shows a bunch of super cheap and previously rather sad-looking cream roses I bought last week, and after some prepping they look totally acceptable on our kitchen table. Thanks for the tips, Jo!

College Student Care Package

Just a quick update today, as I'm having a bit of a busy week. As last week marked the start of the college semester here in Sweden, I thought I'd show you this care package we recently sent of to a new college student.

I used to love the start of the new school year back when I was a student, partly because it gave me the chance to stock up on new office supplies. I am a total geek when it comes to things like pens, notepads, and binders! Now that I'm not a student anymore, I try to live vicariously through others...



Of course, the perfect college student care package has to include some edibles, as well. This particular student has some dietary restrictions, so instead of the usual chocolates we opted for some healthy snacks from Swedish health food guru Renée Voltaire. I LOVE her products! Lots of vegan, raw, clean eating type things, and always delicious.

(Image from Renée Voltaire)

This college care package included:
- A set of adorable mini highlighters from Muji
- Whitelines notebook (another love of mine)
- Neon page markers
- Glass and Porcelaine pens for this particularly crafty student
- The awesome book Me on the Floor, Bleeding by Swedish YA author Jenny Jägerfeld
- Chocolate covered gojiberries
- White chocolate covered raspberries & blueberries
- Heavenly Spread almond butter
- White sesame crackers

I hope you're all having a great week!

"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!

Wedding weekend

We have had a busy weekend! We left for Gothenburg on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday we had the joy of attending a wonderful wedding on a friend's estate north of the city. The beech forest was such a magical setting for a wedding - my pictures don't do it justice... Many congratulations to Jonas and Camilla!

Summer reading: Embroidery Magazine

The past week has been unseasonably hot for Sweden - around 30 C / 90 F and super sunny. It's fantastic! But it does sap your energy a bit, so I've been trying to slow down and take it easy. Lucky for me, I received a treat in the mail which kept me busy for a while!

I love summer reading! I recently bought a couple of back issues of Embroidery Magazine, published by the Embroiderers' Guild in the UK. I have been thinking a lot about embroidery lately, and I thought some reading could help jump-start my creativity. And this is not your grandma's embroidery either, every page is a work of art!

I especially loved this piece about artist Louise Gardiner, who makes impossibly intricate thread paintings using both hand and machine embroidery. The article totally made me want to dig out the free-motion foot for my own machine and get going!

Along with the magazines I'm spending a lot of time browsing and reading e-books on our tablet. I'm half-way through Countrymen by Bo Lidegaard - a great read if you are a history buff like me - and then I'll be starting on I am Malala which I am reading for my women's rights book club.

My head is shock full of inspiration! What are you reading these days?

Reviving a craft blog

This blog has been dormant for over two years now, but over the past few of months I've really started to miss blogging. I'm not crafting as much as I did when I was at university (working full time and all) but I do try to do something creative - whether it's sewing, drawing, smash booking, baking or playing around with my Instax - on a regular basis.

Over the summer I'm hoping to revive nordic craft and get back to posting regularly. As can be expected my tastes have changed slightly over the past couple of years, so I've opted for a new and more neutral look for the blog. Hopefully the content itself will be colorful enough to spark your interest!

I debated with myself about whether to unpublish the previous posts on this blog, seeing as most of them are over four years old and they don't really reflect my current crafting tastes and skills. But in the end I decided to leave the old content up  - so if anyone is interested in ancient history they can still browse through the blog archives. But fresh content will be coming soon!

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!

Spring is almost here!

We've had a couple of lovely days here in Gothenburg, the snow is melting and the sun is shining. I'm so ready for spring to come!


I've been crazy busy with my thesis, so there hasn't really been much crafting for the last couple of weeks... But here's a couple of completed pages. I'm a bit late with my March page for the calendar challenge, but here it is finally!


A little bit of spring decoration... The two little cupcakes are handmade by me, finally got them painted a few weeks ago... And don't you just love the table runner? It was made by my mom when she was a kid, circa 1965! Still looks good as new, and I love it so!


Please forgive the goofy expression and my hunchback pose! :-D My dear friend Johan had his 30th birthday this weekend, and Keith and I offered to help with the food prep. This is a traditional Swedish Smörgåstårta (literally translates as "sandwich cake"). An odd dish if you ask me, but Johan loves them so there you go... If anyone's curious, here's a link with some info about this Swedish curiosity... Hope you're all having a great week!