Two Brown Birds

Out with the old, in with the new!

 Wow, Christmas was great!  Everyone at my place was spoilt!

As usual, I was up finishing off a few home-made presents while watching the carols.  My nephew Noah, loves robots, so I created a robot softie for him.  Noah LOVES him.  He has named him “George”, and has cuddled him in bed every night so far (I love that he loves him so much!) 

Now I knew I’d be in the bad books with Noah’s sister, my cute niece Ruby, if I didnt make her a present too, so I made her a “mini-me” doll.

 I’d had lovely ideas of stitching all through the Christmas break, but it just hasn’t happened.  There have been so many spring cleaning jobs to do while we have the chance – the good news is that it meant that I’ve had a chance to tidy my studio, ready for creating in 2012!  I’ve also been tidying the garden.  In spring we had a huge amount of rain, then lots of lovely warm, sunny weather, which has meant that there are lots of pretties in my garden, including these beauties:

 

2012 will see my “baby” (sorry Charlotte, I know you are really a “big girl”!!) starting school.  This should free me up for more designing and creating – bring on 2012!! Out with the old, and in with the new I say!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, full of fun, health, and creativity!

Happy stitching,

 

Christmas Wishes

  Well, as my girls keep reminding me, "It's two more sleeps til Christmas!!"

From my little family to yours, we send wishes for a wonderful Christmas, and a fun, healthy, and inspired 2012! 

 

Blythe outfits from The Stitched Bluebird

Happy stitching,

Still pinching myself.........

Yes, I’m still pinching myself, because I have a project published in a hard-cover, internationally distributed, US published book!!  I know many of you will have the amazingly successful book “One Yard Wonders”.  As it was such a hit, it was decided that there had to be a follow-up, so Storey Publishing  brings us “Fabric by Fabric one yard wonders”.

I was so thrilled when the authors of the book contacted me to tell me they’d love my Barnaby Bear design to be a part of the book.

If you read this post, you’ll know that we enjoy having holidays at Coffs Harbour.  When we visited a few years ago, I made a trip to The Hunters and Collectors Barn  (as I always do when in Coffs!)  Amongst other things, I bought some lovely pale blue chenille fabric with a wave design.  On returning from our holiday, and I decided I wanted to make a softie, and Barnaby Bear was born.

While the authors loved Barnaby, they needed more projects in corduroy, so Barnaby was remade in orange.  Here he is with the original blue Barnaby.

“Fabric by Fabric one yard wonders”, is a fantastic book!  Inside you’ll find projects for toys, clothes, bags, and home décor projects, - all made with no more than one yard of fabric (that’s 91.44cms for us metric users!)  The projects are made from a wide variety of fabrics – corduroy, wool, cotton, fleece, coated fabrics, woven fabrics, flannels and home decorating fabrics.  The book includes instructions and diagrams for making the projects, and inside the cover there is an envelope stacked with all the patterns that you’ll need – it really is an awesome book!

Barnaby as he appears in the book

“Fabric by Fabric one yard wonders” was recently released in the US.  I haven’t yet seen it in Australian book shops (has anyone else seen it in shops?), but I couldn’t wait and bought mine on Amazon. 

 

Barnaby hanging out at the book launch party!

“Fabric by Fabric one yard wonders” would make an awesome Christmas present for any crafty friends (and if you zip on over and buy it from Amazon now, you might get it just in time!)

Want to know more? Here is a list of some of the other contributors that are also hosting the  Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders Blog Tour! - check them out!:

12/12/2011 Becka's Project Journal

12/13/2011 Craft Buds

12/14/2011 Patch Work Duck Designs

12/15/2011 Patch Work Duck Designs

12/15/2011 A Spoonful of Sugar

12/15/2011 Nifty Kidstuff

12/15/2011 Becka's Project Journal

12/16/2011 Nom Nom Nom Nom

12/16/2011 Quaint and Quirky

12/17/2011 ikatbag

12/17/2011 Two Brown Birds

12/18/2011 Sharon Sews

12/19/2011 LBG Studio

12/19/2011 Carolina Fair Designs

12/19/2011 Under Construction

12/20/2011 Little Blue Cottage

12/21/2011 Craftzine

12/21/2011 Neuroses Galore

12/21/2011 Emily Steffen

12/22/2011 Jenna Lou Loves You

12/23/2011 Spincushion

12/27/2011 One Inch World

12/28/2011 Sew Sew Etc.

January ‘12 Lu Lu Carter

January ’12 Fiberosity

January ’12 Zuhause

January ’12 Obsessively Stiching

January ’12 No Bad Days

January ’12 Craft & Cackle

January ’12 AfricanKelli

 Happy stitching,

 

PS – ”One Yard Wonders” was so successful it was later released in metric measurements for us Aussies and other metric using-friends.  I’m hoping that “Fabric by Fabric one yard wonders” might eventually be published in metric measurements too!

And the winner is.............

Thank you so much for your entries into my Blog-aversary give-away.   I used a random number generator to draw the winner, and the lucky winner was Samelia’s Mum!  Congratulations Samelia’s Mum (Anorina).  If you can email me your address please, I’ll mail off your prize!

 

Thanks so much to everyone for your entries, interest, and following my little journey.

Happy stitching,

A Blog- iversary Give Away!

Wow!  This month marks the one year “Blog- iversary”  of Two Brown Birds!  Thankyou so much for joining me on my journey over the  past year. 

To celebrate, and to thankyou for joining me on my journey, I’m having a give-away!

There are two ways to enter - “Like” Two Brown Birds on Facebook and/or follow the Two Brown Birds blog.

After you have done either/both of these, leave a comment on this post, telling me how you’ve entered (one entry for Facebook, one entry for following the blog).

Entries close on 11^th December Australian DS time.  I’ll then use a random number generator to determine the winner.

So, what’s up for grabs?

image courtesy of Seed3 Photography

A copy of “Handmade” magazine Vol 29, Number 8 which features my “Pudd”, Christmas Pudding softie pattern, a copy of the book “Simplify with Camielle Roskelly”, three fat quarters of fabric, as pictured, and this yummy smelling avocado and olive oil  soap from Crabtree and Evelyn (it really smells amazing!)

Entry is open world wide.

Good luck!

Happy stitching,

Snickerdoodle Dreams

I was so honoured when I was recently contacted by Darlene at Snickerdoodle Dreams, and asked if I would be their Guest Honeypot Designer for the month of December.

Snickerdoodle Dreams Community is an online crafting community where crafters and quilters can join others in being inspired, sharing ideas,encouraging each other, and sharing friendship.  It’s easy to become a part of the community – and it's free!  And every month, there is a free stitchery or small project pattern! 

When planning my design, I thought about how much I love flowers – big blowsy dahlias, gorgeous frilly roses, big, dinner-plate sunflowers.  But I also thought of how I equally love the tiny, delicate flowers in my garden – lily-of-the-valley, violets, and little blue forget-me-nots.

This pattern is free to download when you are a member of the Snickerdoodle Dreams Community.  I hope you enjoy stitching it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

There is also a profile about me, and my plans for the future.

Happy stitching,