Exhibition in Vaasa

I've been busy lately, and one of the reasons is an exhibition of my textile work at at Loftet, House of Crafts, in Vaasa, Finland. The exhibition is from 7 January to 4 February 2017. For those who can't go to Vaasa I will post a few images of the room and my work. I apologize for the poor quality of the images. Photography in Finland at this time of year is not ideal as there is hardly any daylight to speak of. Luckily there is photo editing software. 😀

The room

Wall pouches / Väggpåsar

Aurora & She Has Flowers in Her Hair

Aurora & Blommor i håret

Pouch with sashiko, Japanese knot bag & Papaver

Påse med sashiko, japansk knutväska & Papaver

Art Nouveau & Winter / Jugend & Vinter

These Are a Few of My Favourite Things

"Pretty Purses" / "Finbörsar"

Another Chance / En ny chans

I hope you enjoyed this little tour!

I [heart] Sashiko

If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that I enjoy experimentation just as much as working with a particular product in mind. However, once in a while it's very satisfying to actually finish a project that's been hanging around in the UFO (UnFinished Objects) basket for a while. A few days ago I put the final touches to a little sashiko drawstring purse that I started working on 1,5 years ago, on my trip to England and The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. For this little baggie I followed the instructions in Susan Briscoe's The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook.

This image will illustrate how I went about creating the sashiko embroidery:

I marked the fabric with the help of my favorite marking tool, a Prym mechanical chalk pencil, and a circle cut out from card.


On one side of the purse I embroidered a pattern called 'linked seven treasures' (shippo tsunagi)

and on the other side a pattern called 'circular Bishamon' (maru bishamon) for courage, prosperity and protection.

This is what it looks like when the purse is closed:

I love the flower decorations at the end of the strings:

I hope I have inspired you to try some sashiko embrodery. The stitches are basically just a running stitch where the gap between the stitches should be shorter than the stitches themselves. I'm always amazed by how much you can do and how beautiful work you can create with the simple running stitch. I think it must be my favourite stitch along with French knots!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Judging a Book By Its Cover

In my previous blog entry I showed you a rather dull image of a project in progress: a machine stitched jersey appliqué project, where I used tissue paper as a stitching guide. By now it´s all is finished, and made into a cover for a sketchbook, which will be filled with surface designed fabric samples.

The sewing was a bit tedious, but when it was done the real fun began! First I removed the paper.

Then cut away fabric.

When the cutting was done, the fabric looked like this:

And here's the finished book cover

The Christmas Mouse gave its approval.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Annika

Happy and Creative New Year 2014!

It's been all about slow stitching this Christmas, and mostly about Alabama Chanin. I've been working on the fabrics I stencilled earlier, and finished the cuffs fairly quickly.

I then moved on to another hat (in this country you can't have too many hats, cuffs, mitts and socks),

on which I'm also making good progress.

But it's not all about hand stitching. I also wanted to try machine stitching an Alabama Chanin project, and started with a sashiko-inspired pattern ('Seven treasures'). The image below isn't patricularly inspiring, but as you can see, I'm using tissue paper as a stitching guide in this case, instead of stencilling. The beige fabric is the backing fabric, which will be revealed when I cut through the top fabric, which is violet. More images later, when I've made more progress.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I  wish you a very Happy and Creative New Year 2014. May your life be filled with happiness, and your stash bursting with inspiring supplies!

- Annika

Own Time

After a tough week I decided to enjoy a bit of own time with a simple embroidery project. Or two, in fact. Both are inspired by Japanese sashiko embroidery. Simple and relaxing.

I haven't decided what to do with this one yet. I'm just working on a piece of fabric that I coloured earlier, but that didn't work out as planned. I'm just improvising as I go. A mystery project!

This will be a dramatic skirt in black cotton sateen with red details. A long-term project, but I'm getting near the end now.

Have a great weekend! - Annika

Breast Pockets with Love from Finland

Last week I did my best to promote Melanie Testa's Breast Pocket Project on my blog, in Facebook groups and at the adult education centre where I currently work. I don't know how many of you blog readers joined the project (please leave a comment if you did!), but I got ten pockets from the fabulous women at the adult education cenre, two from my mum, and I made two myself: a total of 14 pockets! So far, that is, because there will probably be one more next week, which will travel to New York bravely on its own. A heartfel Thank You to everyone who joined the project! Here's a photo of the whole ensemble, getting ready for their journey across the Atlantic:

And these are my pockets, with some sort of sashiko embroidery. Melanie is the only "flattie" I know (of), so I made two pockets, as she is a full flattie.

And don't forget that October is breast cancer awareness month, so please give a donation to your local breast cancer reserach organisation. Even a small donation helps!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for popping by! - Annika

Call for Art: Breast Pockets

(Ni som talar svenska kan skrolla ner en bit, så får ni samma information mera lättillgängligt.)

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My friend and mentor Melanie Testa, whom I've mentioned many times on this blog, as she's had a major influence on my own creative journey, needs your help! Melanie is a breast cancer survior who has chosen against reconstructive surgery or prosthetics, and she wants to turn the repressive body image pressures off for women. Women should be allowed to feel sexy, strong and beautiful whether full, flat or half flat. Melanie wants to raise awareness and acceptance of this alternative, and therefore she has started an art project which involves breast pockets. She needs 1000 pockets before 22 October 2012.

Please, make a breast pocket (use Melanie's pattern, or your own imagination) for every woman you know that has chosen to forego reconstruction, add her name (first name only) to the pocket, and send it to Melanie to show your support. Leave a comment on her blog and she will contact you and give you information about where to send the pocket. If she receives 1000 pockets by 22 October, an ABC News reporter will do a story about the project. I will report back to you on how it went.

Please read Melaines blog post and recent article for more information, and visit her Facebook page.

Thanks! - Annika

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Och eftersom detta är ett så viktigt ämne, så skriver jag samma sak också på svenska denna gång:

Min vän och mentor Melanie Testa, som jag har nämnt många gånger på den här bloggen, eftersom hon har haft ett starkt inflytande på min egen kreativa resa, behöver er hjälp! Melanie har överlevt bröstcancer, men valde att inte rekonstruera sina bröst eller skaffa protes. Hon vill avskaffa den press som läggs på kvinnokroppen om hur den ska se ut. Kvinnor borde få känna sig sexiga, starka och vackra vare sig de har båda brösten i behåll, är delvis platta eller helt platta. Hon vill väcka medvetenhet om och accepterande av detta som ett alternativ, och därför har hon startat ett konstprojekt som handlar om bröstfickor. Hon behöver 1000 bröstfickor före den 22 oktober 2012.

Snälla du, tillverka en bröstficka (använd Melanies mönster, eller din egen fantasi) för varje kvinna du känner som har valt bort rekonstruktion. Sätt hennes namn på fickan (bara förnamnet), och skicka fickan till Melanie för att visa ditt stöd. Lämna en kommentar på hennes blogg så kontaktar hon dig och ger dig information om vart du kan skicka fickan. Du som känner mig kan också ge eller skicka din ficka till mig, så skickar jag alla fickor jag fått in till Melanie om en vecka, dvs. fredagen den 12 oktober. Om hon får ihop 1000 fickor till den 22 oktober så kommer en ABC News-reporter att göra ett reportage om projektet. Jag återkommer senare med rapport om hur det gick.

Läs Melanies blogginlägg och en färsk artikel som hon skrivit så får du mera information om ämnet, och besök hennes Facebook-sida.

Tack! - Annika

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Why not take the opportunity to try something new while making this quick little pocket project? I've wanted to try sashiko and a pocket is the perfect place to practise:

Varför inte pröva något nytt när du gör det här snabba lilla fickprojektet? Jag har velat pröva på sashiko och fickan är ett perfekt ställe att öva:

Rooster and Ruffles

Easter is approaching fast, and with that four days of vacation, thank goodness. I sorely need it, as I've had a pretty hectic three weeks again and my vertigo has returned to my great dismay. I really should have stayed away from everything craft-related this weekend, but I was just so craft-starved after all the work I've done that I disregarded vertigo and crocheted this goofy bug-eyed rooster anyway, as therapy. It makes me laugh. (The pattern is from the spring issue of Novita magazine (Kevät 2012 [in Finnish].)

And I couldn't stay away from starting another project too. I've been planning to do this bag for months. This is as far as I got tonight. I love sashiko embroidery and decided to embellish the pockets with a flower motif I found in a book (Sashiko by French author Agnès Delage-Calvet). More information and images later.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week! - Annika

Koki toji

Jag har gått en arbiskurs i japansk bokbindning den här helgen. Jättekul! Så nu har jag lärt mig några nya ord på japanska och en ny färdighet. Rubriken är alltså namnet på ett av de sätt som finns för att sy ihop ryggen på en bok (se häftet med en trana på pärmen). Jag har också låtit mig inspireras av sasiko-broderi. I somras köpte jag en inspirerande bok om sashiko (Sashiko. Brodera på japanskt vis av Agnès Delage-Calvet), men jag har ännu inte hunnit pröva tekniken. Så jag ritade i stället sashiko-mönster med en vit gelpenna på en pärm som jag hade målat med gouache. Jag lånade också ett par andra broderimotiv ur boken till två andra pärmar. Pärmen med en ros har två lager, och jag har skurit upp det översta (röda) lagret med en skalpell så att det svarta lagret syns.


Koki toji

This weekend I've taken a Japanese bookbinding class. That was fun! So now I've learned a few new words in Japanese and a new skill. The heading above is the name of one of the differerent ways that you can sew the spine of a book (cf the booklet with a crane on the cover). I've also let myself be inspired by sashiko embroidery. Last summer I bought an inspiring book about sashiko (Sashiko by French author Agnès Delage-Calvet, 2006, Marabou, Hachette Livre), but I haven't yet found the time to try out the technique. So instead, I drew sashiko patterns with a white gel pen on a cover that I'd painted with gouache. I also borrowed a couple of other motifs from the book for another two covers. The cover with a rose is built with two layers, one of which (the red one) I have cut into with a craft knife to reveal the black layer underneith.