Helping hands

Here are little helping hands at my table. Trying to help me choosing right colors for my next project. I don´t remember, if it was really helping but I felt warmth in my heart seeing my boy fiddling with threads :) Is n`t it amazing to see others are interested in your work too? Why is that? Why is it not enough to please yourself and go on with whatever you like it? Why do we need audience, others who feel the same about you and your creations? Creating something is opening your personality, your inner most your dreams, wishes and hopes. How come we are not talking about these things, but sending messages through our creations?
Well, I don`t have answers to these questions, but already figuring out the right question can be half of your answer.
Are you wondering about these things too? Or am I alone here...

So, what I`m trying to say is - do what do you feel is right to do. For yourself, for others, for all people. Bring them your dreams and inspiration. It makes us all feel better and become better. Better people altogether.
Thank You!

a new one

She has yellow flowers, cream berries, closed green eyes and a word "sunshine" written over it. What is it? You guessed - it`s my new bird:) A bigger one this time , somehow it feels more like an "adult" bird. Yet at the same time I know, mothers call their small babies like that. Because of their sweet and sincere smile that overwhelms everything :) So it is for babies too.
It`s weird, but the more I do birds, the more I want to make them. I have so much inspiration coming in from I don`t-know-where. So many color combinations, images, words and themes! I only hope that you don`t get tired of birds and I can still positively surprise you with each one of them.
I also posted a fragment of my sketching sheet here, so , yes it`s all mine! And don`t try to read it, it`s in Estonian :) Sometimes I write in Estonian, sometimes in English, it depends on my mood...
Enjoy the Sunshine!!!

something simple

Hi !
I remember my first crafty projects - at the age of 10 something...They were big and colorful and quite advanced...in my mind! They didn`t turn out not like I dreamed though. But the fantasy was flowing, so vivid and real that I just kept going.
When I started to create again as grown-up, my first projects were quite opposite - small, simple and in very modest color choice. Yet I found the same thrive as in childhood! I felt pure joy just sitting on the couch with my fabric scraps and pins. It really means a lot to me - being to make something out of nothing, creating beautiful things and my joy is even bigger when these things turn out to be practical too! It does n`t matter if they are most beautiful things that I have ever seen.. It`s enough to know - I made it!
I hope that you too find simple joy in creating something. May it be small or something totally useless, made just for having nice things around you, or made only because you love the feel at your fingertips when you touch interesting fabric or paper. These things carry a little piece of you in them and maybe, just maybe from the best part of YOU!

The picture above show the work from my "beginner" phase. I wanted to make my son`s shirt a bit more interesting , so I chose little birds. I did n`t want them to turn out too girlie though so I took gray fabric ( old t-shirt) and stitched it with blue and green thread.
It makes me smile when I see him wearing it - without question its my favorite shirt now!

"- Where is Estonia? - Who cares?! "

(That was a line in some advertising spot in early 90`s.)

Well, I do and probably there are more people who are interested now.
I´m pretty bad in "official" text, meaning - lots of facts about given issue.
Therefore I´m going to "loan" someone else`s words.

With an area of 45 000 sq. km, Estonia is larger for example than Holland, Denmark
or Switzerland; a little smaller, in other words, than New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined. Estonia stretches 350 km from east to west and 240 km from north to south.
Conversely, Estonia's population ranks amongst the smallest in the world:
an estimated 1 361 242 people live in Estonia — a density of only 30.2 people per sq. km.

Estonia, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, is at the same latitude in Europe as central Sweden
and the northern tip of Scotland. In North America, the middle latitude of Estonia
passes through the Labrador peninsula and southern coast of Alaska. However, due to the influence of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream, the weather in Estonia is considerably milder.

Some useless funny stuff, just to help you to figure out who is Estonian :)

What do the Estonian names mean?

Eha Kaja Laine Leelo Tuuli Õie Kalju Koit Lembit Meelis

- dusk - echo - wave - folk song refrain, singsong - wind - blossom - rock - dawn - beloved - agreeable, pleasant

Some Estonian proverbs:

- Beauty does not fill your tummy.
- Make fun of the man, not of his hat.
- You shall have as good as you bring.
- Man is after money, but money is after his soul.
- Don't put off today's work till tomorrow.
- The mouth is the interpreter for the heart.
- Where there's work, there's bread.

What Estonians compare things with:

- As moody as the April weather.
- As big as a horse.
- As cold as a wolf's stable.
- As fierce as the juniper's flames.
- As unexpected as a bang from the broom handle.
- As fitting as a saddle on a pig.
- To sleep like a sack.

The Cunning Keeper of a Threshing Barn

The nature of a nation is revealed in its fairy tales. They document truths and store them in crystallized form for centuries. Let us have a look at Estonian fairy tales, which nearly always have a barn-keeper and a shrewd man called Ants. We do not find brave noble heroes fighting dragons and liberating imprisoned princesses from castle towers. There are no kings and powerful wizards, beautiful elves, or legends about everlasting love. The heroes are neither rich nor famous, and will never become king. Nor are they knights swinging their battle-axes on a battlefield. In fact, they never commit heroic deeds. Moreover, they hardly bother to leave their homes! They sit by the fire, puffing at their pipe or lie down somewhere with their toes pointing towards the sunshine. They can be chums with both the Creator and Satan. Sometimes they meet Old Nick or some other evil spirit, but they do not reach for their sword or cross. Instead, they have a nice little chat together, but there's always an ulterior motive. They may even enter the service of Lucifer himself, to do nothing particularly useful. Quietly, however, they'll pinch their master's things, and rip off their superior at the first opportunity. They are also familiar with all kinds of witchcraft, and use it for the sole purpose of amassing wealth and fortune for themselves. To that end, they may conjure forth treasure-bringing goblins, or turn into a whirlwind in the shape of a fly that crawls out of someone's nose; or charge off in a trough to a neighbor's barn for grain. After walking around a grey stone they may turn into werewolves. Once in a while, an enraged neighbor or landlord appears as a whirlwind, to claim the hero's treasure instead! But not to worry - the barn-keeper knows a remedy for that too - he hits the greedy intruder with a mountain ash branch and cripples him. And life goes on. Finally, the Prince of Darkness or the Grim Reaper comes to claim his soul. He asks the visitor to take a seat on a tar-covered bench, or pours some hot pitch down his throat. The enemy flees while the barn-keeper or Ants sit in front of the fire and puffing on a pipe as if nothing had happened. For ever after. These fairy tales portray Estonians as a cunning thicket of alders under the high and mighty timber forest. They're not afraid of either storms or an ax; they are here to stay.

And now it`s time for you to come visit Tallinn right here!

Hi, my name is Eva

I´m new here and I consider myself as an amateur amongst you guys... Ahh, a rookie!
But I try to give my very best.

I guess, when you meet someone first time, you will ask - where do you come from? And we answer - from there and there or even from there!
So I`m gonna answer you politely - I come from my parents. And my grandparents. And grandgrandparents.... I have history, I belong to somewhere! My love to create, my preferences, my memories to what I turn back now and then - these all have beginning. I do have roots. Roots, that give me the feel of belonging somewhere. I know, where I begun. There is a source of ME. Geographically, mentally and culturally. It`s comforting to feel that your soul has a home :)
My grandmother has been crafter for all her life. She is 82 years old now and still crocheting and knitting. She used to do lot more - sew, embroider etc, but her eyes are too weak now. And she says that she doesn`t need any new dresses - she has a whole closet full of them! (I have seen it, it`s true! :) ).
The pictures above show details of a plaid, what my grandmother crocheted 2 years ago.When I look at these squares I´m surprised about her great sense of color. I would never come up to put those together, but she did and the result is amazing! Those subtle, soft colors, even boring, but together here, they create harmony.
I like to think that there is something in me from her. A corner of my heart that comes from her, a gift that will last as long as I . . . Thank You!

PS I will show you my geographical home some other time, yes?