Tast 2012 Week 30

You know the expression 24/7 (and I am not thinking of July 24th) when something goes on for the whole day every day of the week. Well, I would like to say that I have been busy 25/7 but that is an exaggeration so let's be truthful. I've been fully occupied 23/7.
Family members, whose middle name must be SUPER-ACTIVE-BUSY-WANT-TO-SEE-AND-DO-ALL-THERE-IS-TO-SEE-AND-DO are here to visit, and it has been great fun, but tiring. Naturally I have had VERY little time to stitch so this week's entry of the Oyster Stitch is a work done in haste:

Also I find I have a lack of thread. I brought very little with me and am shocked at the cost of DMC in Sweden. In Japan I can buy the same for a fraction of the price. Why?

To all my blogging friends, please forgive me for not having had the time to read and comment recently. I strongly recommend you to head over to Pintangle and follow the links in the Comments there to see what the others have made. Great stuff to behold, I am sure!

Work In Progress Wednesday

Slowly I am adding stitches to my CQ block. Here I made three arches of Basque stitch with seed stitches inside.

More 'sloyd' - mer slöjd

The embroidered birthday cake I made was to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Swedish Folk Craft Movement. Slöjd, or Sloyd in 'Swenglish', has become very popular again after having been considered a dusty old hobby of elderly folk for a very long time.

There are three special exhibition here in Stockholm and I have already reported on my visit to the first, the one on weaving and craft as a school subject.

Now it is time to tell you about the second exhibition I went to. It is held at Liljevalchs and you can read about it here in English.

There are three things worth seeing; the leaves, the modern craft and the open workshop.

The Leaves have been decorated in may different ways by 2000 'ordinary' people. Some leaves were quite unique. Here are a few photos:

This one by Åsa Westman was my favourite. Isn't it beautiful?!

Among the modern craft there was this folk costume with a funky twist. Please note the sleeves with tattoos!

Finally the open workshop where anyone can try out anything. Yours truly is putting in a few TAST stitches in the table cloth!

It was a day of great fun!

I want to add just one more photo for Carolyn Foley at Caro-Rose-Creations who is interested in and knowledgeable about Swedish folk costumes (among all her other interests) and blogged about a postcard with a lady dressed in a Dala Floda dress. There was this jacket at the exhibition:

TAST2012 Week 29

This week the name of the game is Basque Stitch, a form of the lovely twisted chain stitch. I have seen lots of wonderful interpretations of it on Sharon's blog Pintangle.

Right now my stitching must be done in short and sweet sessions and I came up with the idea of making a birthday cake with burning candles.
Let's celebrate the 100th anniversary of HEMSLÖJDEN! Long live FOLK CRAFT!