fuma, bebe, não pensa em trabalhar, fuma, bebe queremos é descansar (summer crafternoon in the park)

So, I've been away for a while again.
No need to explain that more than the usual total lack of creativity.

It's summer & the last week or so we've had tropical weather in Stockholm - it's too hot to do anything except eat ice cream & listen to Neurosis, Cult of Luna or ISIS. Yesterday I tried to break the vicious circle of sweat, sleep & work by gathering my craft crew for some outdoors activities.

There was food! & Emilia.

Helena was a happy crafter.

it's the Batscarf!

Cross stitch for the newborn.

Emilia is still working on what she herself calls "the Turd".

You could also be this happy if you had a new sewing machine to help you patch up your stuff.

This is cross stitch history in the making.

To the right - our newest member Jenni.

To the left - her first(?) finished cross stitch!

We are very colour coordinated, Nadja & me.

Picnic is always the best food.

The Cutest Cat Ever(tm) appeared out of nowhere & joined us.

She had a thing for cuddeling with early 20th century anarchists.

We named her Emma.

old school vs. new school

When my great aunt Karin passed away a while ago (she was 100 years old & really the aunt of my grandfather) I inherited this cross stitch from her. I really like it, even though the words sound a little bit too life loving for me:

Everyday is a wondrous gift.

But the pattern is really neat & in some way I like the thought of passing on a skill & craft that's been in my family for generations. So I decided to make my own version of it, using Karin's pattern.

I would have liked to get the text whole text there in just two lines, like the original, but there just wasn't room for it. Have no idea where I got the frase from, probably somewhere on the internet but I can't find it now. The best part is that I get to give it away as a very late birthday gift to a friend & co-worker.

patches for the masses (the kind of craft that your doctor warned you about)

Someone googled "will my eyes get bad if I do cross stitch" & ended up here. I'm not sure, but I think the answer to the question is no, not unless you do it in complete dark & why would you do that? What you might get is a hand that looks somewhat like this:

So, what do you do when extensive crafting has left you with a stupid looking hand that hurts & doesn't want to be your friend anymore? You make patches! Just make sure to ignore your doctors advice about no crafting for the next couple of weeks...

If you want to make your own patches you'll find the patterns on the new & improved DIY or die! page. Instead of a plain old boring wrist support thingy, you get one that might get people to think that you hurt your hand playing cool tunes on your guitar, or smashing the system with your bare fists.

Here is Skitystem (Sweden's finest) playing at the Obscene Extreme festival a couple of years ago. Since then they've split up, but just last Saturday they reunited to play a show in Gothenburg. Let's hope it wasn't a one hit wonder.

still don't know what I was waiting for & my time was running wild, a million dead-end streets

Hi kids! I've made a few changes here, hope you like it.

I've been thinking about making a pattern archive for a while, since one of the most common google searches that takes people to this blog is "punk cross stitch patterns". Below the banner you'll find a new link (DIY or die!) that takes you to the page with the patterns. I'll try to update it with new ones when I get the chance.

& here's a video with Cross Stitched Eyes!

219 friends on facebook, but no one that calls on a saturday night

Apparently that's what it takes to get me back on the x-stitch track again. I stitched most of this yesterday & finished it this morning. I've had an idea in my head for quite some time to make something out of this Audre Lorde quotation & when I found a picture of her on the internet that really screamed "make me into a pattern!" I just had to do it. It's not easy to see, but there is two different shades of grey (oh good band! look here) in the portrait.

Audre Lorde was a caribbean-american poet & feminist, contemporary to Adrienne RIch & Sylvia Plath. She is often quoted in today's postcolonial & afro-american feminist critique, because of her early focus on racism & sexism & above all - how the feminist movement never will be part of the lived lifes of black or colored women if it doesn't confront its own power hierarchies. Racism & sexism is often based on the same type of structures & these structures are often so imbedded in the way that we perceive the world, how we make sense of it & how we judge it (in scientific terms), that if we do not confront this & deconstruct these structures then whatever freedom we get from it will only be freedom for some, not all.

See also the portrait of bell hooks.

fuck art, let's craft

This past Saturday was the grand opening of Craftwerk 2.0, an exhibition at Jönköpings Läns Museum (Sweden):

Craftwerk 2.0 is an exhibition that explores the new “updated” textile crafts that are developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners.

I haven't been there myself yet, but you can read a report from Cross Stitch Ninja at Radical Cross Stitch. It seems too good to miss out on, as soon as me & some friend can get our hands on a car & some gas money, we're going on a road trip to see it.

all apologies (now you know what I didn't do this summer)

Once again I start this off with an apology & a promise to do better in the future when it comes to blogging. It's just that I haven't really done any cross stitching these last months, hence no updates (since I refuse to turn this blog into yet another whiny diary on the internet).

But don't think I've been totally lazy; I have a lot of projects that I've started but not finished. & now they're laying around the apartment as constant reminders of my failures & tendencies to never go through with stuff. Well, maybe not that drastic, but still - there's that little sting of I should have done better that is so annoying when you realize that something that once was joyful & fun has turned into yet another thing that makes you feel a bit... uncomfortable.

So, to get myself back on track again, I thought I'd ask you (if you're still there) which project I should concentrate on getting done? The portrait of Courtney Love? The wedding gift for swedish princess Victoria & her gym prince? The Buffy & Spike one? Or maybe the cross stitch based on the burnt down remains of Cyklopen? It's up to you now, just leave a comment.

Apart from that I've just finished one little thing this summer. It's a patch made from a stencil, but a bit modified. I did it around this years Punk Illegal festival in Munkedal - like last year it was a big success in every aspect (okay, maybe not the constant rain). Punk rock, good food, nice people & a good cause. I found it a bit funny that the festival was around the same time as the election for parliament of the european union, where words like freedom & the right to move across borders are often used. It's just that this freedom & these rights seem to be focused on capital, not people.

At the same time as we open up the borders for investments, money & exploitation, Fort Europa closes it's gates to the rest of the world, to the desperate people crossing water & desserts to get here & work for scraps from our tables. These are the people washing our dishes, cleaning our toilets & takeing care of our children & we thank them by makeing them into hunted animals, afraid to go out, to sleep, to live, to dream. All this because the much talked about freedom is only for those who can afford it.