I am so happy to be part of Kajsa Wikman’s blog tour for her new book Scandinavian Stitches
You have 48 hours. closed now – winner will be contacted via email.
Kajsa answered a few questions about her inspiration and designs for the book:
1. Your designs have a wonderful childlike intensity, I know you get a lot of inspiration from your children – can you tell me more about how being a mother informs your work?
Kajsa: Not only do my two little E’s inspire me, they also help me to be much more organised! I think it is very good to have a family when you have a creative job, my children keep my feet on the ground and help me not to spend all my time working. I also think having kids made me more efficient, I know I have to finish projects before they come home from school! I love having a job that I can involve my children in, or just inspire them to create for themselves.
2. You use a lot of vintage and found linens and fabrics, why do you like working with these so much? Can you tell me more about how and where you collect fabric and what sorts of fabric attract you the most?
Kajsa:The world is filled with stuff and sometimes I have a hard time explaining to myself why I should be making even more things! Using materials that have had a previous life is good for my ecological conscience, but I also believe that we have to go back to small scale production if we want to save the world! The challenge of turning a piece of textile someone has abandoned into something new and beautiful inspires me a lot! I recommend going to thrift stores or yard sales in small towns to find vintage linen to a reasonable price! Cotton from 30-50 years back tend to be of much better quality than many of the fabrics you find for sale today. Stick to natural fibres!
3. Your design style seems to sit somewhere in between whimsy, folk and naive art. Can you tell me more about your art background and your influences? Who are your favourite artists and art movements? And can you tell us a little bit about your process – how do you translate your ideas from inspiration to the finished product?
Kajsa: Your definition sounds very nice :) I have no formal art education and feel more comfortable with calling myself a crafter than an artist. I studied Ethnology at the university and this is where I feel I have my roots, I always go back to traditional crafts and with all the international contacts I have I am getting even more interested in digging into my Finnish heritage. Many things inspire me: things I see around me, in books, museums, magazines and on-line. It can be a shape, a person or a beautiful colour. Sometimes my customers and blog readers come up with new ideas for me. Whenever a new idea pops up I scratch it down in one of my many sketch books. One of the motifs for my new yule postcards, the tulip and bird that is now on my blog banner, was found in a painted ceiling in and old manor and museum last Summer. The colours were quite different of course! My favourite art can be found in picture books for children, here are some of my favourites: Tove Jansson, Stina Wirsén, Ilon Wikland, Lena Andersson, Elsa Beskow, and Lauren Child
Find out more about the book and Kajsa on the rest of the blog tour:
November 15th – Fat Quarterly
November 16th – I heart Linen
November 17th – Tall Grass Prairie Studio
November 18th – The Sometimes Crafter
November 19th – Pikaland
November 22nd – LucyKate Crafts
November 23rd – Whip Up (thats me)
November 24th – PeikonPoika
November 25th – Patchwork Pottery
November 26th – All Sorts
Leave a comment here for your chance to win a copy of this book and a set of Kajsa Christmas cards. Tell us your crafty influences. You have 48 hours. closed – winner wil be contacted via email
{ 143 comments }
My crafty influences are books and magazines, and of course blogs, in many different areas and directions. I hardly ever follow a pattern from a to z, directly but use what I’ve learned and seen to make it mine. Of course, having a grand mother and mother who always had knitting in their lap, or were crotcheting or doing needlework, and my dad being creative outside, left an impression in me.
Thanks for the interview and a chance to win a copy of Kajsa’s book. I love her work.
I was inspired a lot by my grandparents, who were both very creative people. I’m a graphic designer which makes me like graphic quilt designs, but there’s also a romanticist in me that loves whimsical and folk. I’m quilting and sewing for a few years again and although I love all the so-called modern stuff I recently discovered my love for ancient techniques. It’s great to learn more about how our ancestors worked with cloth and fibres.
I would love a copy of that book, it’s not availible (yet) in the Netherlands so yes please!
early influences – mum, dad, grandma. Influences now – definitely dominated by blogs (especially yours – always enjoying being taken in different directions!).
My crafty influes are quite wide, from fashion through to food. I love textiles and get pulled from lovely calm linens in neutral colours to fantastic pattern. My grandma taught me to embroider when I was very young and I have since given my 4 year old son an embroidery hoop to use too. I am slightly(very!) addicted to crafty blogs and my guilty pleasure is Yes Asia for japanese craft books!
Long may handmade craft reign!!
well, my grandma was a seamstress, my granddad a tailor, so I was always playing in their studios with fabrics. my other grandma did everything crafty from knitting to sewing and crocheting and other things. with such a background I was destined to do handcarfts myself too :-) I love books, blogs, and visits to crafty friends to inspire me. I sew, quilt, knit. And I would love to win this book! :-)
Kristina
My first influences probably arose from all the crafting my mother did in the 70′s – the bold colours and designs were evident in our house, and curtains later did duty for years as library bags, floor cushions, and lego mats/sacks. I then inherited many of her old crafting books, fabrics and patterns, and ‘retro’ probably best described my main ifluences. However, more recent influences include the lovely shapes and motifs of the art nouveau and art deco periods combined with the trend back to fine materials of natural fibres.
My influences are mainly blogs and magazines, there is so much eyecandy out there to inspire. Oohh and flickr too, full of gorgeous photos to get the creative juices flowing.
I love colours and simple lines. I get my inspiration from children’s books and nature.
When I was little I used to live in a house full (literally full) of things: my mum is fond of piling and stashing and I think that’s why I’ve grown to love minimalism. I find it really relaxing.
Thanks for this fantastic giveaway.
it depends on the day for my crafty influences, i love books, magazines, quilty influences i try to use my brain, and be creative. i would love to win a copy of this.
Influenced by textures and colours, by craft my mum does, by the sun shining around me, by my fella’s Finnish heritage and the restraint yet joy of Finnish designed products, by kitch and pop culture, by old fashioned loveliness! Gosh! That was great to reflect on. Thanks for this opportunity and also for sharing this new book. I will be hunting for it at the shops.
I am influenced by the small details in the world around me. In nature, design, and old photos. There are some details that I remember for years before working in to a project. I love the Scandinavian design sense both modern from blogs and vintage. Right now my current obsession is knitting mitten and vintage scandinavian knitting designs are a big influence on that!
My early influence was my mum who was a tailor working day and night to make a living. However, she doesn’t like the idea of me spending time on crafts, because she thinks there’re better things for me to do.
I have little time at the moment, but finding creative ideas are just so compelling for me. I like reading books, magazines and blogs about crafts, especially about sewing and quilting. I wish there’s 36 hours in a day!
Hello
I would love to be included in the draw for this wonderful book and cards please!
My crafty influences are varied, I think my daughter and her own drawings inspire my own deeply – and I was also influenced by my crocheting Grandmother from whom a deep love affair with yarn was finally born a few years back when I taught myself to crochet too.
The coast inspires me and my work hugely, as do animals and woodland. The work of other artists continue to delight and guide me, such as Tove’s Moomins, Mabel Lucie Attwell and Mackenzie Thorpe to mention just a few.
Thanks for the opportunity to enter, keeping my fingers crossed!
Julia x
My number one influence and source of inspiration is functionality. I rarely have time to make something just for the purpose of “pretty”, it’s always something that can be used in everyday life. Other than that, I’m very much inspired by blogs and also old books. I live in Latvia, in Eastern Europe, and the iron curtain had also its advantages – the vast majority of women here know how to knit, sew, crochet etc., and there are huge resources of old books on crafts and DIY here. Those books inspire me a lot, and the older, the better.
My crafty influences are mostly blogs! But also books, colours, my grandma and nature!
My crafty influence came from my loved grandmother, she shared a life of experince. She made dolls, birds, flowers …. a lot in fabric. She gave me the love to fabric and sewing/ crafty
My big stash of crafty books, my daily blog fix, the desire to repurpose things and my loved ones :)
I get influenced by everything around me, very similar to Kajsa actually. By norwegian culture and art, by spanish culture and art. By things I read, see. By texture, by fabrics and photos. By fellow crafters!
And of course by Whip Up!
Like others, I am constantly inspired by craft books, the online craft movement but ultimately by the past generations. My grandmother-in-law had such an easy handmade style that used re-used fabrics so that each quilt/project has a story behind it…
My influences are illustration, children books, comics, nature…
And blogs of course!
Looks very nice- I want to see what the mouse pattern looks like made up!
My biggest crafty influence is color. I see something in a color or combination that appeals and I take it from there, choosing how to use it, how to project it for others to enjoy.
i’m influenced by beauty and wanting the beauty around us to be
hand & home made. but am subscribed to a LOT of crafting blogs. :)
My Aunt Marie is my crafty influence – I love when she declares that it is a homemade Christmas ’cause then the presents are always wonderful.
it all started with my mum, who owned her own yarn store when i was a wee girl, now i am mostly influenced by my own children & the many amazing crafty blogs out there!
My crafty influences are blogs and few books. It would be great to win this one ;)
I can’t draw – and so I love shapes and patterns from nature – Seed heads, snow flakes, pebbles, trees etc I use these to influence my stiching and fabric choices.
Love the style of the folksy little people :o)
my grandma was my biggest influence
My mom is definitely my crafty influence. I remember wandering around the craft store with her as a child and starting my crafty life with some DMC floss and making those wrap bracelets. The sickness continued from there… :)
My first crafty influence was my mum who seemed to me to be a wizard on the sewing machine and with a hand needle. Now most of my inspiration comes from blogs, and my rapidy growing craft book collection!
What a great book. I love that quilt! I’m influenced by everything around me, but learning to actually “see” these things around me I must give credit to many artist blogs I read.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Crafty influences? Books, blogs, songs, recipients of the crafty thing I’m making, daydreams. Thanks for the inspiration and the chance to win!
my grandmother was my craft influence, she used to sew on her old (and i mean OLD) singer machine while i watched. i still have dresses she made me when i was a little girl! thanks for the chance to win!
my mom was a painter and she was a great influence to me. Love her designs and her book! thanks!
Most of my influences come from seeing quilt patterns and color schemes on blogs! I’d love to win the book.
I jump around making all kinds of things! Love to sew small projects and work with felt! I especially love making little felt ornies for Christmas! Also…aprons and bags! Thanks for a chance to win! I’m a BIG fan! ♥
I come from a family where everything, literally everything was handmade! My father made the furniture himself, my mother sewed our dresses, curtains and unpholstery, she knitted our sweaters (which I did not like!). The jam was homemade from garden strawberries, bread and cakes were homemade too. So to me it’s the most natural thing to make things myself or at least try the make them. Some things I am happy to buy!And I would love to take part in the giveaway!
My crafty influence was my paternal grandmother. She would look at something in a store and would say, “I can make that.” And she did. It used to drive my mother, who didn’t learn to sew until after she was married and had children, crazy!
Crafty blogs, crafty books, crafty friends, my clever mother in law, my grandma, my brain…
my influences come from nature, my children, the amazing crafty mothers out there in blogland.
My crafty influences are from many of the fiber artists there are out there! So much talent! I love browsing through pictures of other people’s work and that sometimes sparks an idea in my head for a project.
I am mostly influenced by fabric! Of course I love craft books and blogs and I am constantly searching for inspiration on what to turn the beautiful fabric into. This looks like an awesome book.
My crafty influences are books, magazines, blogs, a trip to the quilt store, the fabric in my stash…
Thanks for the chance to win Kajsa’s beautiful book
Crafty influences: definitely the library (new and old books all at your fingertips!), the marvelous crafting blogs out there and listening to my children’s ideas. ~H
My daughter, crafty bloggers and the world around me are all my creative influences. Thanks for the chance to win this cute looking book!
My grandma was my earliest influence. She taught me how to crochet and start to sew. Now I read WAY too many blogs and have WAY too many ideas and plans! I have enough projects planned to last the rest of my life!
I love anything Scandinavian! Thanks for the chance to win!
Crafty influences came I think as a young girl when I was involved with Girl Scouts and 4H with the different projects we did. My Mom was my Girl Scouts leader from the time I first joined as a Brownie and she was always coming up with fun projects for us girls to make as gifts for others. Then when I had my own 3 children I changed my crafting ideas from those type of things to learning to sew for my own children and teaching them fun crafts as they got old enough to do them. I guess now that my own children are grown and out of the house, I’ve turned to reading blogs and finding tons of ideas with each sounding as good as the last making me wish my day was much longer because I want to do them all. My husband bought me a fabulous embroidery sewing machine a few years back and that was when I got back into crafting and sewing and, of course machine embroidery so I’ve been having a lot of fun since I became disabled and cannot work any longer.
This book is definitely one I think is a must have and one on my wish list so hopefully, one way or another I will get my own copy.
Blogs I follow and books like this one! Thanks for the giveaway!
ap_lemos at yahoo dot com
Crafty influences: my mother, blogs I follow and nature. Thanks for the giveaway.
I get a lot of inspiration from the internet – crafty websites, blogs, book sites (especially the ‘if you like this book, you may also like THIS one’ links). I also get inspiration from a crafty friend who seems to find fun things before I do, and from magazines and craft stores – there’s inspiration everywhere! Thank you for the chance to win this great book – I’ve seen it and my fingers are crossed that I can win my own copy :)
My crafty influences are my mom, my kids, and blogs. My mom taught me how to sew, crochet, and embroider. Without my kids I never would have started on my fantastic crafting journey, since most things are make are for them. And I draw such inspiration from all the beautiful projects out there in Blog Land.
At first a primary school teacher who took me under her wing and taught me to sew – everyone was really scared of her because she shouted a lot but with me she was a real sweetie!
Nowadays, like most, I find so much inspiration from the wonderful blogs out there!
Gill
I actually bought this book at Borders two weeks ago without knowing anything about the author’s work or blog…I just loved it’s playfulness. It is very sweet and inspiring (and if I should win the giveaway…I will give a copy away to a friend!)
Currently, my inspiration is found from blogs and the illustrations in vintage children’s books.
Blogs and books, definitely. Sometimes I browse etsy and get ideas, and I could spend all day cruising the aisles in the fabric store.
My main source of inspiration comes from magazines, blogs and other like-minded people. Sometimes the world around me sparks a new idea.
Books, blogs, and magazines for sure. Also my surroundings (walking around Chicago) and traveling. Love the book!
Oh please include me in this give away! thank you!
I always saw a crochet hook in my grandmother’s hands. I cherish her handcrafts. My mother also loves to embroider, sew, and quilt. She taught me to knit and gave me a sewing machine as a teenager, with the promise that she would buy all the fabric I wanted if I would sew my own clothes. As a result, I am drawn to textiles and love! love! love! the traditional handcrafts of women all over the world. I feel a deep connection to other women who create beautiful things with their hands for the people they love. Thank you Kajsa (and whipup for sponsoring this blog tour) for the gorgeous addition to the world of handcrafts!
I find inspiration in my surroundings – who can’t fail to be influenced by the nature that is all around us?
i think on of the greatest problems of today’s wonderful world of blogs and books is TOO much inspiration!! I need to get started rather than looking for more inspiration!
Books like these with ‘packaged’ projects are wonderful for getting down to business.
:)
Not that it stops me from reading my blog-roll everyday (including Whip-up!)
Blogs are the single most important influence on my craftiness. Free tutorials have been invaluable to me.
My initial inspiration was my family. My grandmother, my mom, my sister, my cousins,… all are crafty individuals. Now I have added so many other sources to those, from books to blogs to nature and more!
Mother and grandmothers are our biggest inspiration. Most of what we make we’ve learned with them.
Nowadays we get inspiration from almost anything we spot: a yellow bus or a red apple can be the strart of something new :-)))
This book looks great! Love the pics, love the art, love the scandinavia!
Today blogs are a big inspiration. Earlier, it was my mother and grandmothers. My mom was an art major; maternal grandmother could sew, knit, tat, crochet – anything. My other grandmother took to making and painting furniture, and was even featured in a newspaper article decades ago.
My biggest influence is my grandmother who was crafty herself. Others are books, blogs, and fabric stores. Looks like a great craft book!
My crafty influences are magazines and the internet. I think i have crafting in my genes, and regularly think about my grandmas while being crafty!
Hello! I´ve been in Helsinky last August for a european conference in the university and luckly i’ve been in a little shop with handmade things from Kajsa. I do not recall the name but it had a nice bicycle at the front door. I´d allready knew kajsa work from the internet but it´s so much better alive!! Unfortunatly I do not have many time for crafting, but in my free time i like to step out doors, go to the fields and see the litle things that pass us by in the day life. There is where i get most of my inspiration for the crafts I do… specialy in Autumn time. Thanks for the oportunity to win such a nice book. :)
Most of my crafty influences come from blogs but then so do my fears! There are so many richly talented people out there that I am continually awestruck. In addition to blogs, I find myself taking photos of architecture with the idea of fashioning it into a quilt top!
Kajsa’s book looks great! My crafty influences mainly come from blogs, books and my crafty friends :)
Wow! My great-grandmother’s embroidery skills, my grandmother’s crocheting skills, my mother’s sewing skills…all of these, plus 1970s craft books and, of course, the Internet! (Too many tutorials bookmarked to make in FIVE lifetimes!) Thanks for the giveaway!
My influences are my kids,books,blogs,fabrics,colors,etc.
This book looks great.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Since I can remember I have sat at the knee of someone stitching or quilting! First Grandmother+Aunts,then Mom,my love for fabric+all things “stitchy” comes naturally. Thanks for sharing about this neat writer+book!
Trees, birds, mountains, sun, clouds, animals, rivers… nature! Nature and children world are my inspiration.
I’ve been following this blog tour everyday – it’s so much fun! My influences come from all of the wonderful craft sites out there, but also just from brief flashes of ideas that my brain will occasionally send me (my brain and I need to work on our communication skills). I am in awe of artistic crafters like Kajsa who just seem to have ideas pouring out of them!
My grandma taught me how to knit, sew and quilt. My mom taught me to embroider when I was 6 years old, it was a very cold winter and mom was trying to keep me entertained. I love to make anything with my hands. The Internet has provided me with so many new methods, inspiring ideas with new designs shared everyday. So exciting for me to check the blogs everyday and there is never have enough time to create. Thanks , would love to win the book. Love whipup, you share so my different crafty ideas, all my favorites .
I’m just discovering all these fabulous craft blogs which are so inspiring! I often get ideas from magazines and books – Kajsa’s book looks wonderful, and it’s on top of my wish list ;)
I’m influenced whenever I see something I want, and realize I could make it for much less money. I’ve been crocheting and making paper crafts since I was a kid, I’ve expanded into knitting and embroidery recently. I also think handmade things are much more valuable. I love finding things I think are pretty and trying to figure out how I can make it on my shoestring budget.
My early influences came from belonging to a quilt group….these days I am so into the sewing blogs…heaps and heaps of inspirations from all over the world at your fingertips….love, love this book…fingers crossed.
Blogs are my absolute favorite place to look for inspiration. I’ve been tempted by different styles that I never would have seen otherwise. I can hardly remember when there weren’t blogs to browse! Happy Thanksgiving!
My influences are very varied! From Enid Blyton books, birds singing in the trees, finger puppets and street graffiti! :)
My inspiration comes from things I need or want, I love making useful stuff. And from the many, many crafty books and blogs I read.
This is such a clever idea, this blog tour, I love it. Not only fidning out about this lovely book, but aslo meeting a bunch of new bloggers (to me) that love the crafty side of life. :)
So…Amanda Soule is a big influence to me. following her blog for several years…has brought me back into knitting (I have made four elf hats from a post on her blog) and sewing. I love the warmth and hominess her blog and projects have.
Love Kajsa’s work!
And I’ve actually met her last year when I bought her cards in a trade fair =)
Blogs and books are my source of inspiration!
Love Kajsa’s work!
And I’ve actually met her last year when I bought her cards in a trade fair =)
This is a beautiful book! My inspiration comes from my grandmother who grew up during the Great Depression and has always crafted like it. Not a single scrap of yarn was wasted in her house! I loved all the quilts and afghans she made us as children and only later realized how much she could make from so little. Now, I am the one with baskets of scrap everything lying around just waiting for the inspiration to make a tiny gnome or enough of one weight of yarn to knit something with it.
To begin with my influences were what the local shops had up and what they offered in kits. As I got more comfortable, and expanded my interests further I started with magazines like Quilting Arts, various quilting/sewing mags, and mixed media, doll making. For the past year, or less I have become a “Blog Reader/Follower” the level and vast array of talent that we have access to immediately is amazing. I now purchase from online sources as well as local. It’s hard to stay off the computer these days.
My influences include the natural world (color, form, line, pattern, texture), the human-made world (particularly textiles, rusty items like bottlecaps and small pieces of found metal, in addition to the qualities described above found in nature), the amazing body art and design ethics (housing, household objects, textiles, ritual/sacred objects, art, etc.) practiced by thousands of communities/groups around the world, and the inspiring world of the Internet…
Love Kajsa´s work! Thanks for the giveaway!
my nana and my mum definately. My Nana taught me how to cross stitch and embroider at a young age which taught me lots of crafty patience and that if you take your time it comes out better and my mum taught me to sew and pattern make which trained me to thing logistically as well as creatively about what I am making. Two very special ladies ;) I also read LOTS of blogs and wonderful tutorials.
It all started by growing up in a ‘DIY’home – we were always told to try to do/make/repair it ourselves first before running to the shops. Nowadays it’s mostly scandinavian influences – hence my love for Kajsa’s work.
I love this artist!! I get influence especially from other blogs and magazines. Thank you for this giveaway!
All my family is crafty, Mother, Grandmother, Aunt, even my Dad who taught me to knit! So, couldn’t help it, its in my blood!
all of my art and craft pursuits are inspired and influenced by everything I come into contact with… other people’s art, nature and human environment … its all fair game
Books , online classes ,and all the nice people who share their craty experiences on line !
Kajsa ‘s book looks great !
I’m a busy-body, so crafts help keep me busy. I am mostly inspired by the Internet these days. Thanks for hosting the give-away!
My creative inspirations?! It is a tie between my Grandma, my mother in law, my amazing friends and the overwhelming goodness on the blogosphere.
thanks for sharing
Early in my life I was influenced by my grandmothers and mother. Now I get a lot of inspiration from the internet. So much talent out there.
I’m influenced by a lot of other crafters work. I love browsing through craft books to get ideas as well as keeping up with all the crafty blogs that I follow.
My creative influences are: memories of what my Mum used to make me when I was small – I can still recall fondly the kangaroo, clown and Humpty that I sucked into disintegration; my children, wanting to give them the same sort of special memories; and my dear friends from university who happen to all end up loving craft and use craft to make special things for our and each other’s families – the most special gifts for my kids have come from these women.
My creative counter-influences are: wanting to create something tangible after being an office worker all day; and wanting to make something unique and long lasting given all the junk you can buy.
I love the look of Kajsas work – its so inspiring. Getting hold of a copy of her book will hopefully get me to try something for myself and do my own bit of recycling!
Pretty book indeed! I AM influenced by vintage embroidery right now, old swedish stuff that is still so beautiful and gorgeous to look at both pattern and colourwise. :-)
I find a lot of inspiration in blogs, books and vintage linens. Oh how I love vintage linens!
In my family, everyone makes things – art and/or craft – so I grew up thinking that was normal. Now, I love to browse books, museums, blogs, and fabric and yarn stores. And the craft store. Thanks!
Crafty influences? Friends, blogs, the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, Lions Gate Quilters’ Guild, Flickr … Thank you for the giveaway!
most of the ideas for crafting I found on the many blogs I like to surf past, so the internet is my largest inspiration source. I can surf around for hours and hours and realize later I could also have used all that time to create! But finally I make quite some things and have tons of ideas to make more.
I find lots of visual inspiration through the craft blogs I follow. Another favorite inspiration source is to go to used bookstores and look for old craft books that have projects I can update into a more modern look. This book is really lovely…thanks for the chance to win a copy!
This looks like a fun book to have.
melodyj(at)gmail(dot)com
My crafting influences are books, magazines,blogs, my environment, and often the materials i am using suggest what i should use them for.
Ya for Elsa Beskow! My influences… Flickr!!! Ok, and nature. Fresh, new, bold…. Ikea?
My crafty influences are my children – if it’s something they want, need, or would like, I tend to work on that until I figure it out. Often that leaves me in other directions as well, and then I create things above and beyond what I had even intended. :)
My crafty influences started with my Mom and now just about everything, nature, friends, blogs, books, magazines, and all the great new fabrics coming out. Thanks for the chance.
My husband is from Sweden and I have a boy and a girl with beautiful blue eyes. My daughter wants to travel to Sweden with the family before she finishes high school. Your book really intrigued me when I first saw it because of the colors that pop and the simplicity of your designs. I too, love children and their art. As soon as I found out about your book I have been looking at your flicker photos and getting so inspired. Life is to be lived! Just a moment outside in nature and one can get some great inspiration. Thank you for your lovely fabric creations. They inspire me and motivate me to create my own and have my own “spot” to create in my home.
My crafty influences are my children! I love the freedom with which they express themselves, and the unselfconsciousness of their work. And the fact that it is work! Play is work! Something I wish I could infuse my own life with a bit more of :)
Thanks for such a fun giveaway!
My inspiration comes from all these fabulous blogs. Who would have ever guessed that I could see wonderful ideas from Finland or France or Australia! It’s really remarkable. I would love to win this book. Thanks so much for the giveaway!!
My grandmother was a quilter and my aunt sewed all her own clothes. I was inspired by their creativity!
Thank for the give away I love this book!
SheilaC
My crafty influences are all around me. Multiple generations of quilters and seamstresses(grandmothers greatgrandmothers, great aunts and aunts, mother). Crochet experts – mother, sister, grandmother. Woodturner – father. Furniture builders – father, brother-in-law. Painting and drawing – mother, aunt, nephew, me. Our home is full of wood and textile objects and furniture that we have made ourselves. And, most of it looks impressive and all is well loved. My mother and I quilt together most days. Thanks you for this giveaway. Would enjoy the book and cards.
i find inspiration in many forms. lately blogs, but i devour books, and magazines. i try to see things in nature, by opening my minds eye and using my imagination. my kids inspire me all the time. thanks for the interview, and the give away.
I was influenced by my grandmother and inherited her love of crafting in different mediums.
I am drawn to antique designs and love to reproduce them into something new.
Debbie
Crafty influences- well of course I am influenced by the brilliance of Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt. I also went through a very heavy phase of being in love with all japanese zakka. I am lucky to have some wonderfully crafty friends too. I’ve always been around art, artifacts, antiques, and artists. Most often I find the most droolworthy items on my enabler, Flickr, and as a result have a very long list of crafts I’ve just got to learn in order to make some of the beautiful things I’ve seen there. I saw this book mentioned on a friend’s blog and have had it on my wishlist for a while- and would be so ecstatic to win. Thank you for being so generous!
I’m inspired by the handicrafts that I see on my travels. Right now, I’m working in India for 2 years and see the most amazing, simple-but-beautiful crafts.
I find inspiration in color and nature – and what a pretty book!
My inspiration comes from the wonderful blogs in my reader. Love spending time browsing through the entries. Its a great way to start the day.
My grandmother jumpstarted my craftiness, now I continued to be influenced by the internet and blogs especially.
I would love, love, love to own this book and make everything in it. Both my grandmothers sewed and embroidered, My mother sewed for us and for herself. I was encouraged by all three.
My crafty inspiration comes from fabric prints, wool texture and also many books and blogs i read. I love to be inspired by the season’s colors
Most of my inspiration comes from the natural world around me. I take my dog for a long walk every morning and when I come home to my family they ask about what I’ve seen. Recently I’ve started taking pictures of things along my walk that inspire me. Now I’m putting them together in a journal that I can go to when I sit down to craft.
My influences are generally now from the internet – and all those wonderful blogs!
I have lots of influences these days … friends, blogs, VMQG, bright colours … Thank you for the giveaway!
Much of my inspiration comes from amazing blogs such as this one. Magazines, local art galleries and the teens around me are other bottomless sources for ideas. Thanks!!
I would love to win a copy , Lots of inspiration!!!
my grandma was a quilter and my aunt was a crafter. They were a great influence on me to be creative. 4-H taught me to sew and the rest is history. i would love to win this book. thanks.
My crafty influences come from all sorts of places. Nature is a big inspiration — I love birds, pine cones, acorns, leaves, and snowflakes. I also get lots of inspiration from blogs, magazines, even music. And I get some pretty fun ideas just by wandering shops and streets, seeing things that spark an idea — like when I see a stocking and I come up with a fun ornament idea. There’s just so much out there that inspires me, especially this time of year.
My crafty influences include blogs (of course!), magazines, and crafty books. I also love looking through fashion magazines to get ideas to translate into crafty projects.
My Mom taught me to sew and to knit. but there are so many great insprirations out there with all the blogs there are to read.
The natural world, especially the woods behind our house, the 60s (deco, games, fashion, etc), and the variety of color and texture in food. Certainly craft bloggers as well, which will be the end of me some day via carpel tunnel from sitting in front of the computer more than I should.
I only started making crafts after I married. So most of my influences were from books and patterns. More lately I’ve been inspired by blogs and the internet.
I’m influenced by all things cute and lovely :). I particularly love Japanese illustrators!
And am loving Kajsa’s book!
I get inspired by all of you, really, read about the passion forr your creations, the amazing pictures! I could be reading Blogs every day and wishing it was winter to be able to create mroe stuff while im not melting :D
I spent a year in Finland as a foreign exchange student. It’s amazing how influential that home-stay was. I enjoy remembering.
I tend to gravitate towards swedish and finnish influences when I am crafting.
Comments on this entry are closed.