Beach House Birds

Here are just a few bird-themed tidbits from our week at the beach.

I had another shot at stamp-carving, using Chantal's excellent tutorial, and made a Superb blue wren.I also carved some hooded plovers, and will do some more sea birds when I find some more rubber blocks. I'm going to make my mum some note paper.

A Satin bower bird built its bower in the garden. The male builds a bower of twigs, decorates it with blue objects it finds, then dances in the bower to impress the ladies. This one had collected several blue clothes pegs, and it gathered the ribbons we left out for it. The males are elusive but we saw some female bower birds who have nested near the bower.

And finally, my Advent calendar. I was keeping up with the date by making a bird a day until the holiday, but once we got there I prioritised, and only completed twenty birds. We used a few birds twice and had a special dove of peace for the top of the tree on Christmas day.

Enjoy your holidays, everyone!

Tutorial: Single-colour Freezer Paper Stencil

I originally wrote this tutorial for Become.com, and now I'm putting it on my blog to make it easier for our friend Mahin to find it. Hi Mahin!
Want to cheer up a plain t-shirt, bag or tea towel? Freezer paper stencils are simple, cheap and fun. They’re a great way to make your mark on clothing, accessories and gifts.  This tutorial shows you how to make a single color stencil.

You will need:

• Stencil brush: available at craft stores 
• Craft knife (or small scissors): available at craft stores 
• Fabric paint: available at craft stores. I use Jo Sonja hobby paints and add a Jo Sonja Textile Medium
• Freezer paper (or adhesive book covering) : Freezer paper is the paper with a waxed coating on one side only. It is readily available in the US and can be found in quilting stores elsewhere. If you can’t find freezer paper, you can use adhesive book covering- just don’t iron it!
• T-shirt or fabric to stencil: Pure cotton is usually best, but check the directions on your paint packaging for which fabrics are suitable.

1. Draw your design on scrap paper. You can do your own design, as I did, or search online: for example, search Google images for “dinosaur silhouette” (These images may be copyrighted, so they are for personal use only). To keep it simple, choose a solid design with no gaps or ‘islands’ in it.

2. Trace your design onto the unwaxed side of the freezer paper (or to the shiny side of the book covering, using a permanent pen).  Keep a large border around the design, to prevent paint from going over the outer edges of your stencil.

3. Cut out your design with your craft knife or scissors.

4. Cut out an extra piece of freezer paper slightly larger than your stencil, and place it on the underside of your fabric, with the shiny, waxed side in contact with the fabric. With a dry iron (steam setting off), lightly iron the paper for about 30 seconds to fuse it to the fabric. (Please note: if you are using adhesive book covering, don’t iron it- it will melt!). This will stop your fabric from shifting when you paint it, and will prevent paint from seeping through.

5. Now, iron your stencil onto the right side of your fabric. Remember to put the shiny, waxed  side down, in contact with your fabric. With a dry iron, press down for about 30 seconds to fuse the stencil to the fabric.

6. Mix up your fabric paint on a palette or saucer. Take a dry stencil brush and dip it into just a little paint- you don’t want too much. Have a practise on some paper, dabbing the flat tip of the brush downwards to make spots of color. When you’re ready, apply the paint to your stencil. If the paint cover is too light, build it up gradually in layers.

 

7.Now, wait for your paint to dry. This will take 4-6 hours, but overnight is best. If you’re impatient you can help it along with a hair dryer.

 

8. When your paint is completely dry, carefully peel away the stencil and the freezer paper on the reverse of the fabric. Ta-daa!

9. Finally, heat-set your paint according to the manufacturer’s directions. I usually cover my painted image with a cloth and iron for about 2 minutes, or iron on the reverse side of the fabric.

Now, go and strut your stuff! Once you’ve tried a single color stencil, you can try my tutorials for a two color and three  color stencil.

Mini-Swap: Handmade Christmas International!

Did I mention that I love a Mini-Swap? Here's a Christmas Ornament Swap that I did with my mate Ashley, a.k.a. "Little*A".

Ashley came to my rescue back in June, when I ran out of fabric for a quilt I was making (now known as the Little*A quilt!). That was our first swap, and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to do another. Christmas was the perfect opportunity.

Ashley and her family live in North Carolina, so I sent them some little Australian creature ornaments for a taste of a summer Christmas. Here are a cockatoo, echidna and kangaroo, all holding some tiny jingle bells which I found at Darn Cheap Fabrics.

I might whip up a cockatoo for our Advent Calendar- I'm just managing to keep a day ahead!

Mini-Swap: A Mouse in my House!

I've had some great fun this year with swaps and mini-swaps. I'm a big fan of the 'mini-swap', which is what I call it when two people swap a little something with each other.

Megan from Mousehouse is New Zealand's biggest Snoopy fan, so when she admired my Snoopy truncated icosahedron, I thought I'd send her some Snoopy hexy sewing accessories. Megan said she'd send me one of her fabulous waterproof zip purses, and thus a mini-swap was born! This pic shows my very nifty Mousehouse zippy, along with some NZ sweets (now eaten). Thanks Megan!

If there's a blog you love reading, why not ask if they'd like to do a mini-swap with you?

Christmas Stocking Swap: Make Mine Modern!

Leslie and Miranda of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild hosted a Modern Christmas Stocking Swap, with these guidelines:

• Stockings should be Modern and use Patchwork/Quilting
• Now, you can’t have empty stockings so along with the stocking, include up to $10 worth of goodies!
  This could include: sewing supplies (thread, needles), chocolates (yum!), ribbons, rick rack, fat quarter, or buttons, anything fun you can think of.

My secret partner Margaret has received the stocking I made, so now I can reveal all! When working out the design, I thought about my partner, who is a skilled quilter. I also thought about what inspires me about modern quilting, and well as the inspiration I find in traditional patchwork.

One of the things I find most inspiring about traditional quilts is the way they are shaped by necessity and the availability of materials. I'm finding my scrap bag is my biggest source of inspiration, so that's where I started.

To make it modern, I decided to use a non-traditional colour sceme of red and aqua, combined with natural linen. These fabric come from three quilts I have worked on this year: Big Red; Finn's Sailor Suit quilt; and the Little*A quilt. The cuff is machine-pieced and the star uses the English paper piecing technique.

Marg is a talented quilter and needleworker, so I wanted to include something she could use and might not already have. This handbag-sized sewing kit is based on Rashida Coleman-Hale's pattern in her book I Love  Patchwork. My version has mini embroidery scissors, spools for embroidery floss, a seam ripper, pincushion and needle keep.

Happy Christmas Marg and all the Modern Quilters, and special thanks Leslie and Miranda for organising this great swap!

A Present A Week: the Grand Finale!

This is the final week of  Deb's challenge: A Present A Week {Till Christmas}. Thanks to Deb's inspiring example, I've now got a sackful of gifts ready to be wrapped for the tree, and several in the mail to far-flung locations. I'm so glad they were done early, because now I've got a little bird a day to sew for the Advent calendar, not to mention some Christmas party cocktail frocks for me, wheeee!

So here's my last instalment, a pair of comfy shorts for the Bug. They are made with scraps given to me by my friend Jacquie, and match the elephant t-shirt I made a few weeks ago.

You can see my full list of Present A Week posts here. Now I need to start wrapping! Thanks Deb for being such an inspiration! I'm looking forward to starting A Present A Month next year!

My Creative Space: Just in Time!

Our Advent calender is in working order, if not quilte finished! It still has the tacking threads in, and the backing is not attached, but the buttons were ready and one bird completed by the morning of December 1st.
ach night until Christmas I will be sitting on the couch, heavy-eyed, sewing a bird before the morning's deadline!

The felt for the birds was a lovely gift from Lynne, and the Bug and I chose the buttons at our favorite fabric shop, Darn Cheap Fabrics. The pattern is by Melbourne folks AK Traditions, and there is a kit available here.

For more creative spaces visit host Kirsty here!

Fabulous Friends and Fabric!

It's time for some special thank yous- to Mandy at Fell4U, who sent me this lovely hoard of funky vintage sheet fabrics for my forthcoming rainbow-coloured triangle quilt. Check out that groovy orange one on top! I'll be putting these to work in the new year, thanks Mandy!

And to Amy at Badskirt, who sent me her 'scrap' of Heather Ross dogs fabric-with scraps this size, who needs yardage? I'm thinking this is destined for a puppy peek-a-boo quilt.

Amy also did a Bellgirl in blocks, which is going on my sidebar. Thanks Amy!