Creative Christmas Scrappy Tutorial

Hello There!

I hope you've all had a great weekend &, if you're living in the UK, that you've enjoyed your extra hour in bed this morning!

I'm so pleased to bring to you the next Creative Christmas project....

This is a lovely, quick wee project which you can whip up from scraps with your children on a misty Autumn night, sitting round the fire, watching an old movie....

I've posted the tut in the Creative Christmas page... so to get to it just click here
The great thing about these is that you can be as creative as you like..

I hope you get a chance to make a couple of these lovelies!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Karen

Another Sunny Day (almost!)

To-day has been another sunny day... apart from about half an hour ago when it suddenly started to pour down & all my washing got soaked! But not to worry.. at least the tumble dryer works!

Anyway, it was bright enough for me to take photos of the latest two finished quilts for Kind Stitches.

Thank you again to those of you who have sent me blocks for these lovely quilts for Kind Stitches. Thank you also to Terri who sent me this wonderful package to-day... I can't wait to put these gorgeous blocks together!

In case you aren't too sure what Kind Stitches is - in 3 weeks time my husband & I will be going out to Thailand to provide some medical care in some shelters & orphanages who rescue children from sex trafficking. I will be taking out with me non-wadded quilts for the shelters which many of you have helped to make. If you would like to be part of Kind Stitches, you can make any type of blocks either 6.5" or 12.5"... they just need to have a white border... If you click here you will see some of the lovely blocks which have been sent in so far.

If you have sent me some blocks I've made a new Kind Stitches Button for you to post on your blog:

If you like, just copy & paste the code over there on the right....

I'm off now to finish the next fun Creative Christmas project which I'll post for you tomorrow.... Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Karen
PS If you live in the UK don't forget to put your clocks back tonight... we've all got an extra hour in bed, WONDERFUL!

It isn't always raining....

Surprise, surprise! To-day it actually stopped raining long enough for me to get lots of washing dried outside & walk McGinty without us both getting soaked... and I even took some photos as proof!
The river was so peaceful

 And McGinty explored all the wee paths

The autumn colours were wonderful

Especially the sunlight on the ferns

Even McGinty enjoyed it!

When we got back home this was waiting for me

These travelled safely all the way across the Atlantic

And so did this lot of loveliness:

They are from Karen (nybird) & Leanne (shecanquilt).... Thanks very, very much. Hopefully by the end of the week you will see them featured in the new Kind Stitches quilts
Hope you have enjoyed a wee glimpse of life here in the North of Northern Ireland &, if its sunny with you, enjoy your sunshine!!
Take care
Karen

Creative Christmas Printables Part Two

Hello There!
Its been a wild, wet & windy day here on the North Coast... perfect weather for sitting by the fire , laptop on my knee looking for more Christmas printables for you. This time I've come up with some great gift tags...
Some are whimsical:

Some are elegant & refined:

Some are just cute, cute, cute!

If you would like to download & print these, or any of the other Christmas Printables, just pop over to Creative Christmas & click on the link which will take you to any of the goodies there. If you like what you see, I'd love for you to grab the Creative Christmas button over on the right there.
Hope you all have a wonderfully creative week ahead & take care.
Karen

Gifts & giving from the 4 corners of the UK

Hello There!

Hope you have had a great Saturday. Despite the incessant rain, things over here on the North Coast of Northern Ireland were great! I guess that had something to do with this lot of lovelies which arrived from the North, the South, the East & the West:

First up are these wonderful blocks which came all the way from Glasgow:

Thanks very, very much Katy (thelittlestthistle) 

But it doesn't stop there.... Another parcel came from the west from Cindy (fluffysheepquilting) in Galway... Thanks very, very much Cindy! [Check out her hilarious adventures in free motion quilting!] 

The very lovely & very funny Hadley (flyingblindonarocketcycle) sent these wee wonders:

Aren't those wee squirrels gorgeous!
But it didn't stop there! McGinty's (our tibetian terrier) best bloggy friend Archie (archiethewonderdog) sent a wonderful package which contained all these goodies:

Helen & I decided to make 12.5" blocks so that those cute wee dinos will be seen - they look great!

If you get a moment, stop by & say hello to Archie... he's feeling a wee bit under the weather at the moment...
Thank you so much to you ladies & the rest of you who have/ are in the process of making blocks. If you are interested in the Kind Stiches Bee, do please check us out on flickr here or email me.... I'd love to hear from you! I'm off to Thailand on 18th November, so we've still got time to make some more quilts!
With all these gifts being sent to me, I decided to make a few gifts for friends myself. Here's some of the notebook covers I finished:

I also found loads of lovely FREE gift tag printables... so if you have a moment tomorrow, do stop by & I'll show you what I've found....
Hope you have a great evening!
Karen

Work In Progress

Hello There!
Just wondering if you are taking part in any of the wonderful swaps going on at the moment?
I love swaps... they're a great fun way to make friendships & be inspired by the amazing creativity of others. I'm in the SHG Table runner/ Wall hanging swap & Pretty {little} pouch swap & here are a few of the wonderful things swapees have made:

1. PLPSRnd 3 (16), 2. Finished PLPS, 3. Brit Swap Pillow 1..., 4. MCTR progress, 5. Tablerunner Progress, 6. closed, 7. Patchwork Pouch, 8. Christmas table runner top pieced..., 9. Getting started on P{l}P 3

Aren't they fantastic!
For my SHG Table Runner/Wall Hanging Swap partner I wanted to try something new & found inspiration in my calender:

so, after numerous drawings

I've come up with this... its a reversible table runner (or maybe table topper might be a better description)...

What do you think? The fabric is Heather Bailey's Hop Dot from her Nicey Jane collection purchased here. I have machine quilted the back (or front if you like)

I will hand quilt the front & was thinking of binding it with Hugs and Kisses in wine from Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi collection...

I'd love to know what you all think.... I'm really enjoying making this, but if you have any thoughts on how to finish it I'd love to hear them..
Hope you all get lots of sewing done to-day & have a lovely day!
Karen

Creative Christmas Printables

Hello There!
I hope you are all having a nice Sunday!
This is just a wee blog post to-day just to let you all know I have updated the Creative Christmas page to include links to lovely free recipe card printables like this:

and gift lists like this:

I hope you enjoy them! Next week I'll have some calenders & gift tags for you!

I've managed to fix the Creative Christmas button thingy... so here is the code if you want to link up on your blog (fingers crossed it works!):

<a border="0" href=" http://listentothebirdssing.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z427/listentothebirdssing/CreativeChristmasLogo.jpg</p><p>"/></a>

Hope you all have a wonderfully creative week!

Karen

Kind Stitches Bee Block Party

Hello There!
To-day was a wonderful day.. The lovely Judith & Sarah drove for over an hour in the pouring rain up to the North Coast for our first Kind Stitches block party.
There was a lot of baking:

Careful planning:

 and pondering:

Loads of sewing (Annabelle & Dianne do you recognise anything in these pics????):

More pondering:

Some snoozing (Archie this one's for you!):

And lots of coffee and buns later, this was the result:

And here we are:

So thank you to the lovely Sarah & Judith, I hope you enjoy your gifts (I'm about to enjoy yours!)

Thank you also to:
Sarah
Ros
Terri
Dianne 
Susan
Cindy
And those of you who are in the process of making blocks.... I really appreciate it!
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.... I'm off to look at my gorgeous gifts from Sarah & Judith (& watch the X Factor!)
Karen
PS I'm so sorry I forgot in all the Kind Stitches excitement to post the next installment of Creative Christmas I'll be back tomorrow with lots of lovely printables, I promise!

Kind Stitches Block Party

Hello There!

To-day was a beautiful day here in Northern Ireland...the sun shone, the birds were singing, not a cloud in sight (very unusual for us here!) & I got loads of laundry done!! I hope it was a nice day with you too.

I'm really excited to be posting this invite for you:

I know you probably won't be able to make it, but so many of you have or are in the process of making blocks for Kind Stitches I don't want you to feel left out! If you are in the area, we would love to have you round! 

I'm just off to look now for recipes for some lovely food to make... if you have a favourite recipe, I'd love to try it!

Hope you all have a great evening
Take care
Karen
PS Could some kind soul please put me out of my misery & tell me how to fix the Creative Christmas grab button thingy??

Thank You!

Hello There!
Hope you are all having a lovely day (despite the weather if you live in rainy Ireland!)

Thank you so much to those of you who sent me such lovely comments about Creative Christmas I will be back on Friday with some wonderful printables for your planner!

Thank you also to the very kind Ros who sent me these wonderful blocks for the Kind Stitches Bee

Ros has some lovely photos of what an English garden should look like in the autumn (unlike our rain-soaked field!!) - check it out here

Thank you again to those of you who have already or are the process of making some blocks. 

For those of you who have missed previous posts about the Kind Stitches Bee this is a bee which I have set up to make non-wadded quilts for children in a shelter in Thailand who have been rescued from sex-trafficking. My husband & I will be going at the end of November to provide some medical help for the children in the shelter & I would love to take your kindness & love with me for these wee souls. So, if you are able, it would be wonderful if you would consider making some blocks for the quilts. They can be of any design you like & finished size either 6.5" or 12.5". The only key thing is that they have a white border. If you would like any more information about the work we will be doing, or how you can help make these very special quilts I would love to hear from you!

So may I just say, once again:

Karen

PS I have just found out that my Scrappy Christmas Planner was featured to-day in Craft Gossip!! This is a fantastic site with loads of tutorial links. If you've never been, check it out here

Creative Christmas Planner

Hello There!
I hope you have had a good week. Mine has been busy, busy, busy. I've been working away getting something special organised for you.... but before I reveal all, let me explain a wee thing....

The main reason I started blogging & also the reason this blog is called "Listen to the birds sing" is because I have been so inspired by the creativity of you all out there & I guess this is my way of, in some small way, giving back. Although I have only been blogging for a couple of months now, I really want to help encourage & inspire you all in your creative efforts. With Christmas starting to approach & all the wonderful creativity out there I thought this would be a perfect time to do this......

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to: Creative Christmas For the next couple of months I will be posting tutorials for printables, sewing & cooking projects for the festive season. Now I know that there are lots of tutorials out there... but the focus of these will be different... I want to show you how to be wonderfully creative with MAXIMUM LOVE, but MINIMAL COST.... What do you think? I'd love for you to be part of Creative Christmas so if you have a tutorial or project that you think would be good to share, I'd love for you to email me & I'll be happy to post it. I've also created a button over there on the right hand side for you to grab if you would like to share the festive spirit....

To get the ball rolling, here is the first Creative Christmas project: A Scrappy Christmas Planner... all you need is scraps of fabric, wadding, card & ribbons

To view or download & print the tutorial, just click here on: Scrappy Christmas Planner Tutorial
I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email me

Do call back in a day or two to see some fantastic printables you can download to put into your planner
Hope you all have a lovely weekend & get a chance to listen to the birds sing!
Take Care
Karen