A new logo! and some old ones

I am a member of at least 5 different Amateur Societies/Clubs which all reflects my hobbies.

Here are some of their logos, the first one is brand new, designed by me . The bug is a stinkbug, Graphosoma lineatum, which is called strimlus in Swedish. Our old logo looked like something copied on a blue-ink copiator in the basement, rather outdated.

The society Sörmlandsentomologerna. 

  The Swedish Garden Amateur Society, with linneas of course.

 The embroidery society, started in Täcklebo but now has members from all Sweden.

Södertälje ridklubb

My dear Horse Riding Club which is organizing competitions for the Swedish Horse Jumping Elit this weekend, the logo looks like this (below). I will be there all Friday and Sunday.

The Canoeing Club in Södertälje, I keep my canoes in their house.

And at last, not my club anymore, but in my heart since 1980 when I joined Fältbiologerna. We had two logos during my years in the club. I read on their web site they are discussing a name change. The first name of this old club was SFU. The club slogan is Youth Nature Environment.

This is the present logo, LS, did you vote for it back in the days??

The old logo, the scythe is added to the original image. The slogan was more down to earth then,

in the 1970´s. "Keep your boots muddy"

Emigrants from Sweden

The summer has turned over and autumn is closing in on us again here in the Northern hemisphere. Daylight is still 14 hours and 30 minutes, when the winter is here we´ll have the shortest days with 6 hours and 7 minutes. The migrating birds have started to group together already.

But, no need to ponder on that now. On the other topic now, Emigrants from Sweden to America, as it was in the 19th century. The book series about a Swedish group of people who were leaving a poor life in the rural Småland, written by the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, has been reprinted. What´s interesting are the book covers, embroidered by a Swedish needleworker, Karin Holmberg.

I think they are beautiful, and maybe very Swedish. LS, what do you think?

ATC: In the middle of April

An ATC embroidery by me.

My embroderied Artist Trading cards

Näckros Nymphaea-landskapsblomma

 I want to show you some of my ATC cards, made for trading projects on a Facebook group I´m following. Each swap has it´s own theme.

My favorite

Fairy tale

Inspired by Karin Bergöö Larson, swedish textile artist from 19th centrury.

Bortbytingen / the child of trolls

Sjörapporten, coastal weather report

Yllebroderi

Under sommaren och hösten har jag broderat två stycken kuddar efter att varit på en kurs i yllebroderi. Det har varit fantastiskt roligt och trivsamt att skapa dessa kuddar utan att använda ett färdigt mönster eller förlaga. Den övre är skapad av verkliga och fantasifulla fåglar och den undre visar mina motiv som jag upplevt den här sommaren, en upplevelse som jag delat med min dotter och hon har fått kudden. Yllegarnet som jag använt är mycket fintrådigt och lätt att arbeta med.

Translation by LS:  During the summer and fall I have embroidered two pillows after taken a course in crewel embroidery.  It has been a lot of fun and wonderful to create these without having to use a preset pattern or original to copy from.  The top pillow features real and imaginative birds, and the lower pillow shows some of the things I have experienced this summer with my daughter, and she was given that pillow as a gift.  The wool yarn I use is very thin and easy to work with. 

Spots, threads and snippets from the internet and media

From my forays and wanderings around the internet the last couple of weeks (months, maybe...):

Newsweek has an article about rich people buying modern art, more to show how rich they are more than because they like it.  One of the artists they say is overvalued and will not last is Damien Hirsts with his paintings of colored spots. The same week (= today), New York Times has a long article about Damien Hirsts and his marketing scheme and moneymaking art.  I can definitely live without a spot painting in my house, but I think they are cool.  The kind of cool that would fit in a modernly designed library or hotel foyer. If I had something like that in my living room it would b dizzifying and disturbing, and probably reminding me of ads for M&M candy or something.

A famous needlework woman just died, Erica Wilson, and I unfortunately didn't know about her until now.  Being in a family filled with embroiderers, I immediately notified he other side of the Atlantic (Sweden). Here is an example of Erica's design.  I wonder if she is related to the incredibly talented Erin Wilson, who makes the most artistic and amazing art quilts I have ever seen.  We bought a tiny sample from Erin at our visit to the Philadelphia Crafts Show, which I will write about later.  But her quilts, oh wow! But Wilson is such a common name, so probably not a relation. Example of one of her quilts (my own photo, so not that great):

Some exoplanets might be made up of lots of diamonds.  You think they sparkle like diamonds then? It must be hard to dig there, the shovels loose their edge pretty fast.

For those of us that still write and draw by hand, think and take notes, there is Moleskine.  A company that is doing better and better.  It is the backlash against the techno-stupid, I am convinced of this.  While some people follow their GPS' directions literally and take a right turn straight into a church, others are contemplating life with carefully (or sloppy, it is OK) drawn lines generated by real thoughts. It is your choice: be real, or be a automaton, copycat, and online addict.

That's all for now.

Childhood memories

valentine for Hubby
Originally uploaded by Miss Paula in Stitches

LS blogged about cars and SAAB and I thought about childhood. And then this came in my way, also a part of our childhood.

Cherry blossoms

This I made the other day, I´m embroidering napkins for the dinner table. I made out the pattern as I stitched, this is how it came out. More pictures here on Flickr

Skrattar bäst som skrattar sist- Pica pica

Picture by Anders Norrsell, Jönssonbilder AB.
Here´s an embroidery with a Swedish saying, "Laughing best is the one laughing last". Since our birds "skata" (magpies) sound like they´re laughing I thought this was a very fitting picture. More in swedish here.

Ponderings on embroidery

World pillow by Rosaechocolat on Flickr.

This is art made with love and care! I really feel for this "world pillow". Inspiring. I am following the news on various Flickr groups like the one "Embroidery" and "I Made it myself". Later on I will show you my own efforts. I will go to a weekend course in crewel (wool) embroidery in october and hopefully get some more inspiration and knowledge.

Things I would like to know...

is how to make nice embroideries like these by Elena. More of her nice work here.

Summer meadow

AnS finished this gorgeous embroidery this Christmas weekend, filled with Swedish summer flowers. The Swedish flowers here are (in Swedish and Latin and sometimes English): cikoria (Chicorium), smultron (Fragaria, wild strawberry), fibbla (Hieracium), tistlar (Cirsium, thistle), algort (Filipendula) and much more.