It's for the Birds Blog Hop and a Giveaway

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It is finally my day to join in the fun on the It's for the Birds Blog Hop organised by the superbly efficient Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt and Mary of I Piece 2-Mary,  the cheerleading head of the flock. Thanks ladies!

If you are new to my blog, welcome, I hope you enjoy the projects I have today and feel free to wander around and explore my little patch of Blogland.

I have been itching to try my hand at Freehand Machine Embroidery for a while but hadn't plucked up the courage. So when Madame Samm announced the It's for the Birds Blog Hop I decided that the time had come. I already had the perfect bird-themed projects thanks to Helen at Bustle and Sew.

We recently spent a lovely weekend with my brother and sister-in-law at their chalet on the East Coast of Scotland. Amazingly the weather was kind to us so we were able to enjoy these glorious views.

I wanted to make a special present to thank them for their great hospitality and Bustle and Sew's Seagull Cushion fitted the bill perfectly.

Having never tried Freehand Machine Embroidery before I was a bit wary but it couldn't have been more enjoyable, thanks to Helen's lovely pattern and great instructions.The embroidered seagull was really straightforward to put together, even for a complete beginner like me.

Having tackled the first challenge of this cushion, the second was to try printing on fabric for the first time. I used this Transfer Artist Paper.

I printed the lyrics out in reverse and then ironed the image onto a piece of plain blue cotton. The text transferred perfectly.

I hadn't realised just how stiff the fabric would be as a result of the image transfer, which meant that any needle/pin holes remained after the pins were removed as you can see below.

I might try another method of image transfer next time, and there will be a next time as I was so thrilled with how this cushion turned out that I plan to make one for myself.

In the meantime though I can enjoy the second bird project made for the Blog Hop, which was from another pattern by Bustle and Sew

Emboldened by the success of the Freehand Machine Embroidery on the Seagull Cushion I decided to have a go at "Birds on a Wire".

These were so much fun to make. As regular readers will know I love to upcycle fabric, usually from my husband and sons' shirts, so you can guess where the check fabric came from for the birds! Just for a change this time I also raided my own wardrobe; the aqua fabric was originally the pocket of one of my old dressing gowns!

The body fabric pieces were backed with fusible web and then ironed to felt and then the outline of each bird was traced on with an air-erasable marker.

You can just see the outline in the photo above.

The wing fabrics were backed with fusible web and then attached to the body fabric. The machine embroidered outline was completed and then the bird shapes were cut out. This was such an easy way to manage the potentially fiddly bird tails.

Glued to wooden clothes pegs and they are all ready to perch. Don't they look like they are having a good gossip on the line?

These will be so handy in my sewing room, but I think they would look great in a girly bedroom too.

Thanks to the lovely Helen, they could be decorating your sewing room or bedroom too. Helen has generously donated three Bustle and Sew  PDF patterns for one lucky winner.

The winner will receive a copy of the Birds on a Wire pattern, Seagull Cushion Cover pattern and, in keeping with the It's for the Birds Blog Hop theme a copy of this Summer Birdie Bag pattern too!

So what do you have to do to win these great patterns?

Simply fly over to the Bustle and Sew website and check out Helen's patterns then fly back to leave a comment telling me which Bustle and Sew pattern you would like to tackle. If you are a follower tell me that in a second comment for an extra chance to win.The winner will be drawn randomly on Monday, May 19th at 18.00 GMT.

Please leave your email address in the form commenteratgmaildotcom in your comment if you are a no-reply blogger. In the event that the winner is a no-reply commenter and I cannot find a way to contact you I will redraw, sorry!

If you try something new this month don't forget to come back and link up to my monthly New to Me in 2013 link party on May 25th!

Check out these other Blog Hoppers posting more great bird-themed projects today too.

http://cariboucrossingchronicles.blogspot.ca

www.notionnanny.blogspot.com

http://crookedgulleyartquilts.blogspot.com

http://Karamino.blogspot.com

http://celticthistlestitches.blogspot.com (that's here!)

www.sewmolliesue.com

http://devotedquilter.blogspot.com

http://mystitchin-n-stuff.blogspot.com

www.quiltscapesqs.com

http://kocanquilt.blogspot.com

http://createinthesticks.blogspot.com

http://terrysquiltingtime.blogspot.co.uk/

http://Sewwequilt.com

Good luck!

Do you think I have enough now?

Regular readers will probably have guessed by now that I do love a bargain, especially a fabric bargain!

So when I decided to take my car out for a spin yesterday and just happened to find myself outside a quilt shop that I sometimes frequent, well it would have been daft not to go in :) When I then discovered that said quilt shop had had an Open Day last month, which I had missed, but still had some of the Open Day reductions available well it would have been rude not to at least have a look at them, wouldn't it?

Which is why the bundle of Grand Tour fabrics in my stash that used to look like this

Now looks like this!

At £2 per metre, I just couldn't bring myself to pass it up and even although there was over 6 metres of the top pink birds fabric up for grabs, I  could still justify lunch in the coffee shop next door!

A couple of other items might also have found their way into my basket whilst I was browsing :)

The graduated fabric in the back was also in the sale alas at £5 per metre rather than £2, but I have plans for it for one of my overdue Star of Africa Bee blocks, so it was more of a necessity than an indulgence.

The wavy stripe fabric and text FQ's are also planned for and had only been put out on the shelf the day before so was obviously meant to be. 

My car seems to have overcome its' tendency to cut out at random moments too, which was the original purpose of the exercise so, all in all, a successful day out ! 

Linking up to 

All the nice girls

We had a couple of long car journeys in the last week or so, which meant that I was looking for something to keep me occupied when the map reading consists of keep straight ahead for the next couple of hundred miles!

As you know from previous posts we have been redecorating our eldest son's now vacated bedroom with a seaside theme. So when the April issue of the Bustle and Sew magazine popped up in my inbox with a pattern for a cushion based on the song " All the nice girls love a sailor" well my travelling project was found :)

I used a piece of calico for the embroidery and then raided my son's wardrobe for the cushion fabric.

I should just say that I checked with him first before I ripped his shirts apart!

The embroidery was bordered with 2.5" strips top and bottom.

All the nice girls cushion 

I used more shirt strips for the back of the cushion and was also able to use the front placket from one of the shirts to make a button closure. I love it when that works out :)

So not only do I have another element of my seaside decoration, but it cost me next to nothing to make too. That's my kind of project!

And if you haven't come across the song before you can listen to it here. Needless to say since starting the embroidery I have been humming this ever since :)

Linking up this finish to 

Crazy Mom Quilts