A comment from my sister

My sister left a comment on the last post with sort of a clue in it.. She knows the answer and because of that I will translate it to English so not only Swedish speaking people can read it.

She wrote something like "Do you remember the one I had with a hinge on it, we "used" it during Christmas time, and that he was afraid of it when he was a very little child". Mum keeps it know.

Let it snow!

The snowman stitchery is finished. I will just add some fabric borders and then he´s ready for the wall...
I hope it will change the weather, from rain to snow.....it´s so boring outside these days with clouds, rain and not much daylight, makes me tired....need more light...
But it´s only three weeks left, then we will have the darkest day of the year and turn against spring and summer again! And December is a better month with all candles, love it!

I will give you another clue for the guess-what´s-on-the-quilt competition. Started 28/11, welcome to participate! Thank you for your first comments, interesting to read your suggestions, how you are thinking.... What I´m searching for is one specific word.
Well, he had a couple of them made of plastic to play with when he was a child. If he will get a real one, don´t think so even if it´s not totaly impossible, but very unusual... But he has some items in his apartment which are decorated with pictures....maybe he also has a book or two....

I´m looking forward to read your suggestions, maybe someone already has given the right answer, but I will keep it secret until Christmas....

More clues next time, take care until then,

Helena

What about a competition?

Yesterday there was a parcel in my mailbox, filled with wonderful fabrics.....
I will use them for a quilt, a Christmas gift for my son. Can´t tell you much, must keep it secret, if he reads my blog.....
....but if he does, why not make him a bit curious....a clue in every post until Christmas Eve arrives and he can open the parcel? Good idea!!

And why not make it to be a competition for all my blog readers? Another good idea, I hope you agree with me.

OK , here are the rules:

I want you to find out what´s on this quilt.

It´s something that interested him when he was a little child and still do even now when he´s 20.

I will give you a clue in each post until Christmas Eve and you have to guess until then, because I can´t tell you the right answer before.
But the first one who gives me the right answer will win a little Christmas gift, a secret one....
So let´s go, who will be the winner?

Good Luck!

Helena

I have had my first class...

....I don´t know if it was "first class"....but very fun...and very creative!


I made a pattern of these make-up bags and tried to show my friends how to make them.
And there was a creative mess, a very creative mess. But we had a lot of fun and some of the girls will come back next week and finish their creations. Must remember my camera then....

Yesterday it wasn´t my friend, only one picture was okey (or not), but the only I can show....


Three of the girls, there are three more somewhere....thank you everybody for a nice evening...

Later today I will post about a competition....starts today and ends on Christmas Eve...welcome back!

Helena

My decision.....

.....is that I will keep my name "Syverkstan" (The sewing studio). Thank you for all your nice comments, they helped me through this and I feel satisfied.

Yesterday I stitched and stitched and stitched and finally there she was,

My Christmas Angel.

A closer look.

Today I bought some new thread for her quilting, I will do it by machine this time, faster.....

Now I will go on stitching on my snow man, it´s a perfect day for him because we have got some snow here, not much but it´s white.... much nicer outside....

Thank you for all the "Love" that I´ve got but I still want more!
(see my previous post)

Have a nice week, see you,
Helena

I need your "love"

Thank you for all your nice comments on my last post. I will make my decision and tell you later.

These days the angel-patterns will be finished, I have some problems with the photos, I´m not satisfied yet.
My home page including a small internet shop is on its way, my daugther is busy working...then the patterns will be available there and in another internet shop too if it goes my way....hope so.

While waiting for this to happen I will introduce you to my next project. It´s a quite big one, can´t tell you so much yet, because the design is still in my head. Only a few drawings are made.
There will be a heart and love theme in this project, and of course my angels will appear now and then. There will be stitcheries, of course, and some applique. I´ve decided to use very light pastels, pink, green, turquoise, white....
I will start working on this in the beginning of next year, but couldn´t resist making a logo for the project, as a preview:
I have noticed that there is not so many posts left untill I reach 100, and then there will be a give away, of course. Preparing for that, also with the love and heart theme, I need some more help.
I know that I have visitors from more than 40 countries every month and now I´m asking you who speak another language than English or Swedish for help:

I need your "love"

The English word is LOVE, the Swedish one is KÄRLEK, but what do you say in other countries? Please let me know! I will use the words in a stitchery for the give away, so please help me.... Thank you!

Here is a little sneak peek, for the give away I will use this fabrics, a little love stitchery and, I hope, your words....

Take care and have a nice weekend,

Helena

I have a question...

Too many days since last post...I haven´t disappeared from Blogland, just busy working, many secrets these days, can´t show you yet.....
I´m also working on my patterns. The three first angels are finished and I´m now working on the pattern design. When I took a walk earlier today a question popped up in my head, why do I use the name Syverkstan? That´s the name I chose when I started my little company 10 years ago, as a seamstress in a little village in Sweden. It´s Swedish and means "the sewing studio", but if you don´t speak Swedish, what do you think about it? Can you pronounce it?
There must be a better name, and now the time has come to change...or?

I think I will ask my brain for a more beautiful name, a name that´s more me, more like what I´m doing today.... I hope it will come to me, maybe another walk will help....the brain works better with fresh air....

But before I put on my shoes there will be a picture of my last finished angel,

My Sewing Angel....

....and her sister My Gardening Angel....

....and #3, My Kitchen Angel.

OK....but just a sneak peek....here are pictures from my little secret project.....

Soon finished, only the binding left.

Now I will take my brain, and the rest of my body, out for a walk and try to create a new name, if you have any ideas, please tell me.....

See you later,
Helena

I´m a winner!

When I came home yesterday this one was in my mail box, from Leanne. I was a winner, first time, can´t believe it. I´m gonna make this bag for my mum as a Christmas present. (She doesn´t read this, I know...) She visits the library quite often, think she needs it. And then there will be one for myself too, I´m sure....

When I started checking internet for information and inspiration in the beginning of this year Leanne´s House was the first blog I found. I didn´t know much about blogging before and when I read this blog I thought: Yes, this is for me. And I loved all I saw, Leanne´s work is fantastic.

Thank you Leanne!!!

This is what I´m gonna do tonight, but first dinner and then a trip to town....hope there will be some minutes left....

Take care,

Helena

Back from Stockholm

I´m back home again after a wonderful weekend in Stockholm. It´s fun to visit our capital, five years since last time I was there. The town is beautiful but best of all, The Sewing Festival. We (me and my daugther) spend the whole Saturday among fabrics and beads.

I met a lot of nice people, some of them bloggers, and all so kind to me....

Thank you everybody, you made my day!

Of course I bought a lot of fabric, a surprise?

These blue and white, cold and icy, are for my winter bag, #3 in my season bag family.

Together with these scraps I think it will be ok, maybe some more dark blue...

A quilt with some applique....

.....together with these, already in my stash.

Some more fabrics for my heart and love quilt.

I´m searching for fabrics with roses and rosebuds on real white, difficult to find.

At last some secret ones, can´t tell you yet....

Today I´ve used these secret fabrics, can´t show you, soon it is Christmas....

...but tomorrow I will show you what was in my mailbox today, have to take a picture...

See you,

Helena

Finished in time!

Here it is, my autumn bag, finished, ready to go with me to Stockholm tomorrow. My hubby, my daugther and her boyfriend will go there too. We (not the "boys") will visit a Sewing Festival on Saturday, looking forward....

This is the front side with a pocket....

....and the back side.

A closer look.

Hexagons, how fun, can´t stop...

Two more log cabin blocks were made yesterday. Now they are 13.

Do you remember the snow man I wrote about a while ago? No, he hasn´t melted. During the 6h car trip tomorrow he will be stitched.

Hi everybody, see you soon!

We will be back home again on Sunday evening, then there will be a report from our Stockholm weekend.

Take care until then, see you,

Helena

Christmas cards and some stitching

Good morning! I wrote this post yesterday but my internet wasn´t my best friend then. But now it´s kind to me again, so here it comes, yesterday´s post.

When I came down to my studio this morning I made a decision, my autumn bag will follow me to Stockholm and the Sewing Festival next weekend. Three days left, I´m in a hurry!

Two stitcheries were finished today and the quilting is done. No picture yet of the quilting, will show you that one tomorrow.

Berries....

....and a leaf.

Tomorrow I will do the stitchery for the front side pocket, make the bottom part and the handle and....depends on time....but I hope I will make it before Friday!

Couldn´t keep my fingers away from my log cabins, now they are eleven. I need about 80....

This evening was a crafting evening in my studio. We were five friends who made Christmas cards.

Here are Eva, Karin and Birgitta....

....and Brita.

Take a look at the table, a creative mess.

Later we needed a break and ordered pizza.

A lot of creativity and stuff, who will clean up....?

What do you think?

Here are some of the cards I made. "God Jul", that´s "Merry Christmas" in Swedish.

We had a lot of fun and couldn´t stop.....quite late back home....need some sleep.....

Take care,

Helena

Wow! What an angel!

I´m feeling so happy and surprised. What an angel, today is my lucky, lucky day!

When I opened the parcel I found this letter, written on angel paper....

My angel is Cheryl from Australia.

This is the first one I found in that parcel, how beautiful, really love it, and need it...

.... and look at that perfect stitchery, and the colours and.....wow!

Here is the second one, a needle case with that cute angel stitchery, wonderful!

Number three, this cute little bag with lovely stitchery and lovely fabrics!

I didn´t stop with that, here comes number four, a big one, what a pin cushion, so gorgeous!

This little cat was number five, he´s very cute, do you see the button?

I also got these fabrics, lovely......

......and buttons, I love buttons!

Can you understand that I think I must be the luckiest girl in the world.... what an angel!

Thank you very, very very........much, Cheryl!!!!!

In my last post I promised a picture of my Christmas angel, this is how she looks today:

Still some stitchery left!

She has golden hair.......

Enough for today, now I have to go back to my beutiful gifts and just enjoy them. Once again, thank you!

Hugs from a lucky one,

Helena

Cough, snuffle and a red nose....

The worst cold in world history, I´m sure, has visited me last week. Today I´m feeling a little bit better, I can breath again and I can use my hands for other things than blowing my nose. Blogging for example, and stitching....

Before that cold hit me I finished the projects for Stitcher´s Angel swap. The parcel was put in the mailbox the last day, but that´s me. Last minute but not too late....

These four things were wraped and sent away, far away... where to is still a secret... will tell you when it has arrived by....

A close up, this bag is my own design.



This basket is from Pink Penguin, fun and easy to make....

And this last one is my own design.....an angel stitched on front....

.....hearts on the back side.....

....and pockets, a pin cushion and a little stitchery inside.

Tonight I´m stitching on the Christmas Angel, I will take a picture tomorrow.

She will become beautiful, I think, golden hair.....

Before I go back to my angel I will show you my pumpkin pie from last week.

It was yummy!

Stitching time! My angel is waiting for me!

Take care, out there, and watch out for colds....

Helena