Helsinki - new inspirations, new experiments

We‘ve been in Helsinki the two past half-days (substracted the eight-hour road round trip ). And I got back full of inspiration in my head and in my hands. Short overview:

1. Happily plundered in Eurokangas-store (fabric stores all over Finland with children play corner and kids‘ books). I never plan to buy any more fabric and somehow I leave every single time with bags full of, well, fabric piles. Sure, it's pretty typical for any textile crafter.
2. Found some vintage shops and bought a pile of vintage napkins, lace coasters and other beautiful stuff – stitched, woven, knitted, in nicely altered colours. Gone with‘em! Discovered ceramics of Stig Lindberg and fell in love with his designs.
3. Grabbed a couple of interesting books about childred illustration from fifties-sixties-seventies, hence got in touch with works of Stig Lindberg, Ulf Löfgren and Lasse Sandberg, just to name a few. Noted the names and searched them online to find TONS of inspiration about and cross over.
4. Put my hands on Cloth-Paper-Scissors magazine for the first time in my life – yes!!!! Gone with it!
5. Spent countless and priceless minutes in Menita wool store and gone with a couple of NORO-balls. God, was it expensive, that‘s the most expensive wool, I‘ve bought so far, but I‘m sure, any knitter out there can relate to my joy – the colour blends are just a-w-e-s-o-m-e!
6. Eaten a delicious tarte-au-citron – it has been a year, since I had it last time, in France.

And that‘s what I‘ve been doing this morning – playing around with my beautiful findings from Eurokangas, vintage pieces, arranging and photo-shooting them, and later re-constructing, re-thinking, experimenting. Result is a joyful digital patchwork – I‘m trying out new ways of patchwork. I like how it feels – less rigid, more spontaneous and more vibrant, with modern touch. It has been sort of digital pattern exploring and putting my own twist on patchwork principles so far.