The last day of #marchmeetthemaker Day 13: Where To Find Me.
If you want to know where I will be selling and demonstrating in person, then give me a follow on my socials to find out more!
#bookbinding #reenactment #craft #artisan
🪡 Hey #stitchsky, ask me anything!
If there's anything you've ever wanted to ask about Echo and Mine #crossstitch patterns, my process, or the person behind it all, I'm answering questions today 💙⤵️
#marchmeetthemaker
Two little teddy bears, one white with a patterned kerchief and the other brown with a red ribbon and a bag charm clasp, next to a simple paper teddy bear pattern all on top of a green cutting mat. Both teddies have little buttons for bellybuttons.
Yesterday’s #marchmeetthemaker prompt, which I seem to be getting to a day late every time, was ”Revisit”.
I think this is maybe more a reinterpretation than a revisit?
(Thread 1/3)
A cross stitch design of a blue shark surrounded by a wave and the text blahaj fan club
Today’s #MarchMeetTheMaker is ‘Revisit.’
This was one of my first cross stitch designs. I worked on it with my eldest son - he’s now at uni studying fine art, so he always has a lot to teach me about shape and colour!
It’s still one of my best sellers and one of my favourites too.
The ubiquitous striped paper bag! A staple for so many sellers of physical items 😄 I decided to revisit my packaging at the end of 2025, as stocks were running low, so it was a good time to consider before just reordering same again.
What do you think of the differences?
#marchmeetthemaker
Yesterday's #marchmeetthemaker prompt was "How it's made".
This totally true video genuinely shows how a Bear Bear is really made. 😄
(Thread 1/3)
I’m not usually a big batch maker. Does it count when making two each of three designs, and then four colour ways of another?
#marchmeetthemaker #mhhsbd
Today's ‘March meet the maker’ is ‘How it’s made!’
So here is a little bit of video of me drawing (and re-drawing!) the cat's face for one of my cross stitch patterns.
#marchmeetthemaker2026 #marchmeetthemaker
#crossstitch #behindthescenes
#marchmeetthemaker Day 9: Challenges and Wins.
The biggest book I've bound so far, and only the second one I had bound 16th century style at the time.
#bookbinding #historical #marchmeetthemaker2026
A little mint green teddy bear on a dark brown wooden shop counter, with a cup of tea, a spool of thread and a pair of scissors, and some scraps of paper on it too. There's a table with some teddybears and a lacy tablecloth visible in the background.
Today's prompt for #marchmeetthemaker is "Challenges and wins".
My biggest challenge is trying to find not only a work-life balance, but a balance between work and bear making as well.
(1/5, thread)
As each new year passes with Echo and Mine, what I'm most thankful for is the chance to keep growing, working on new challenges, and experimenting with new things...
(Challenges & Wins, #marchmeetthemaker 1/4)
Cross stitch of a demon with red skin and flame coloured wings and horns, close up on her face
My favourite design detail in #crossstitch lately is varying strands of backstitch. Look at how the thicker lines in darker areas elevate the pieces and make these aerialists look more alive!
(Design is the Demon Aerialist I'm working on finishing.)
Design Details #marchmeetthemaker #stitchsky
Hands adding grey plastic pellet stuffing into a brown teddy bear with a spoon, next to a plastic bag with a lable reading "Poli Plastic Pellets" on it, all on top of a green cutting mat.
The 18th #marchmeetthemaker prompt was ”Design detail”, so here's something you don’t really see when you look at a Bear Bear, but that you feel when you hold one; their stuffing!
Poli Plastic's recycled pellets are spendy (thanks Brexit!), but they're my favourite stuffing material to splurge on.
#marchmeetthemaker Day 8: Design Details
Honestly though, this punch is one of my best purchases.
#bookbinding #notebook
A brown teddy bear in white a T-shirt with the Bear Bears logo on it being held in the arms of a person wearing a yellow cardigan and a navy blue floral blouse and a navy blue checkered skirt. The bear has a button for a bellybutton.
Yesterday’s #marchmeetthemaker prompt was ”Who is it for”
Simply put, I make Bear Bears first and foremost for myself. They’re exactly what I like in a teddy bear, very much in my own aesthetic.
I love my simple little teddy bears, and I hope that others will love them too. ❤️
A cross stitch design of a cute white cat sitting in front of a rainbow with the text ‘I’m glad that you exist written’ around it. The design is framed in a circular pink embroidery hoop and is sat on strings of pom-poms.
Today’s #MarchMeetTheMaker prompt is ‘Who is it for?’
I design cross stitch patterns for people who love stitching and want projects that feel a bit more personal and reflect who they are.
Whoever my customers are, I’m glad that you exist!
#CrossStitch #StitchSky #CraftSky
A hand holding a little toy coathanger with a little toy sized dress in a blue and white map print hanging from it. In the background there's a beige sewing machine and part of a blue fuzzy bear visible on top of a green cutting mat.
Yesterday's prompt for #marchmeetthemaker was "Currently working on".
I'm currently working on a collection of travel themed bears for the Teddy Bear Total fair next month. I'm having great fun making a little travel wardrobe for them, and I've got some ideas for travel themed accessories as well!
The magnet in the picture is from Lightning Laser, who are sponsoring #MarchMeetTheMaker, so thank you for the happy post!
"Why we make”. To keep it short, we genuinely love what we do. Designing new jewellery, finding out about new exciting artefacts and making them how they’d look before being worn away by time, researching how it all fits together in a historical context… The list goes on! #marchmeetthemaker
Making is a joy and satisfaction in itself for me, but really what drives and delights me is problem solving.
After all, I started making jewellery because I myself wanted items I couldn’t find in shops…
#marchmeetthemaker #mhhsbd #craftbizparty
A furry blue mohair fabric with a woven lable held on by pins, being held under the foot of a beige sewing machine.There's a green cutting mat on a dark brown wood table visible under the machine.
Today's prompt for #marchmeetthemaker is "Why you make".
Simply put, I make things because I don't know what I'd do with myself if I didn't! I fear my head would explode from the pressure of all the ideas teeming in there if I didn't make them real!
A pile of very simple teddy bears in various shades of blue and green and fuzziness laying on top of each other, all with a woven lable on their behinds. There's a couple of said lables on the table in front of the bear pile too.
Monday's #marchmeetthemaker prompt, that I only got around to today, was "What you make".
I make little bear friends for you to befriend!
They're full of plastic granules & lots of love, and they're perfect for hugging and holding when you need something soft and calming in this hard, hectic world.
What I Make.
#Marchmeetthemaker #bookbinding #craft #artisan #journal
Hands unpicking a seam in blue and white map patterned fabric, on top of a green cutting mat.
Today's #marchmeetthemaker prompt is "Trial & error".
For me making things is constant undoing and redoing, and learning new skills and ways of doing things. I'm very familiar with my seam ripper, and always prepare to use up more time and materials than expected just in case.
In today’s #marchmeetthemaker post, we’d like to show you a wee example of trial and error. A wax carving of a statue broke while getting molded, so Nicholas made a new pewter master using a luckily unbroken mold before casting it in bronze. Do you recognise the statue?
Thought it may be fun to give you a look at where I make your lovely stuff. Including “it’s in a pile, close enough to tidy…”
I work with everything jewellery making within reach. The magnetic desk is great for art, quotes, odd things, notes and plans. And, cat
#marchmeetthemaker #ukgiftam #mhhsbd
Behind the Scenes: here you find me editing a 16th century pamphlet. I spend several hours 'cleaning' the scanned original and removing the background so that I can reproduce it to the highest quality I can.
I do this for each pamphlet I reprint.
#bookbinding #marchmeetthemaker #history
A picture of hands holding a needle to sew up a light blue teddy bear's arm. The bear is laying on blue and white fabric with a map print, on top of a beige sewing machine and green cutting mat. There's a spool of thread and scissors on the machine too.
Today's #marchmeetthemaker prompt is "Behind the scenes", so here's a little peek behind the scenes of not only a bit of my teddy bear making, but also of one of the teddy bears I'm making for my this year's Teddy Bear Total festival collection.
A short white haired woman with glasses holds a little brown teddy bear in a T-shirt up to the camera. The teddy's white T-shirt has the outline of a bear's head with the thext "bear bears" in it.
I'm doing #marchmeetthemaker again, and the first prompt (that I'm a little late with) was "About you/brand".
So, hi hello, I'm Eerika, the lady behind the Bear Bears! By day I split my time between running a teddy bear shop here in Helsinki and Bear Bear making, by night I'm asleep.
