Behind the blog giveaway

Hello there!

I hope you are having a lovely June... It's hard to believe we are nearly half way through the month already. I've missed blogging the past couple of weeks, but things have been pretty hectic over here with lots of family comings & goings, a quick hop, skip & a jump across the pond to Kansas, school exams for the kids, running sewing workshops & (drum roll please!!!) OPENING MY ETSY SHOP.... Yes, I've finally plucked up the courage, taken the plunge & BirdsongStitches is now finally trading!!

I'll be stocking things in the shop that I love to make, like this bunting

Or this cushion cover

To celebrate, I thought we could have a giveaway... So, here is what you could win...

A lovely stash of 10 fat eighths of Denyse Schmidt fabrics which I bought on my last wee visit to America. I don't think they are available over here & they really are very pretty. They are from her new Piccadilly, and Bakersfield and Union Station collections

To enter the giveaway I would love for you to have a wee look at the shop by clicking here & telling me what you like, or what you think I should stock, or any tips or advice you have for selling on etsy. If you are a follower of the blog, or you follow me on Pinterest or Instagram, do please let me know for another chance to win. The giveaway will close on Friday 13th June at midnight & I'll announce the winner on Saturday 14th..

So good luck & I hope you all have a lovely, creative weekend
Karen x

Giveaway Day.... Vintage Style!

Hello there!

You may have already caught the giveaway fever...but if not, to-day is Giveaway Day with Sew Mama Sew

This is an incredible event where you can visit lots of wonderful blogs & have a chance to win lots of incredible gifts - handmade bags, accessories, supplies, patterns....the list is endless! For more information just click here. If you have just dropped in via the Sew Mama Sew Blog you are very welcome! My name is Karen & I am so delighted to have you visiting to-day!

This year I will be entering in all the fun with this bundle of gorgeous fat quarters which came from a limited collection produced by Liberty & the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

They really are beautiful & have the usual Liberty soft drape.  I will also be enclosing a lovely vintage booklet which the V&A also produced

If you would like a chance to win these all you have to do is simply leave me a comment if you are or become a follower....  If you follow me on facebook or pinterest do please leave me another comment for another chance to win

That's it, its that simple :)

The giveaway will be open until 25th May 12MN (GMT) & I'll announce the winner through random.org on 26th. Please make sure you are not a "no-reply" blogger, so I can get in touch with you... I am happy to post this internationally

Good luck & hope you have lots of fun in all the other amazing Sew Mama Sew Giveways
Take care
Karen

Texting.....On Fabric

Hello there!

I hope you have had a good week (despite the incessant rain if you live in the UK). Here on the Causeway Coast we are bracing ourselves for exam time with our eldest two teenagers about to sit their A levels & GCSEs. So my daily routine has evolved into bedroom patrols to make sure they are studying, cooking nice snacks to keep them going, phone confiscations and lots of encouraging wee chats... ah, the joys of motherhood!

In between all that I have been having a lot of fun with stamps & stencils.....

I'm in the RATZ (rapid & tiny zakka) swap & made this wee snappy pouch for my partner. I used some of the stamped words in the patchwork

I've also used them in a secret swap for someone in our do. Good Stitches bee.... she will be reading this, so I can't say too much more at the moment.....

I'm sort of stuck in text mode (I blame the exam cloud we're living under!!) & so I thought I would show you how to text on fabric another way to-day, this time using your printer & freezer paper. Its really easy to do, but you MUST have an inkjet, not a laser printer ....

• What you will need: a piece of fabric approx 9 X 11.5" (fine cotton works really well like a Kona, linen is a bit more tricky because of the bumps), freezer paper, starch, computer & INKJET printer
• Pre-wash & dry your fabric (it helps absorb the ink), cut it to slightly larger than 8.5" X 11"
• While it is drying, decide on what you wold like to print - there are some lovely images freely available from places like the graphics fairy. Simply open Word or any other word processing programme & copy & paste your images onto your document. I also like to add words in nice font... Just make sure everything is well spaced out by approx 1" so you have room to cut the words/images out.
• Print your page out once on ordinary paper to make sure you like it etc.... I have found the best images are those in black and white with no colour in the background...
• Meanwhile, back to your fabric.... When it is dry, spray it with starch & iron carefully - do this for both sides....it should be as smooth as possible
• Cut a piece of freezer paper 8.5" X 11"
• Place your fabric onto the shiny side of the freezer paper & iron it on carefully with a medium/hot iron to make sure you have no wee airbubbles....it helps if you are ironing on a very flat surface, like a towel on your kitchen worktop, rather than your ironing board which is a wee bit spongey...
• Trim the fabric down to the freezer paper size (8.5" X 11"). Make sure there are no wee strands or threads hanging loose as these will get caught in your printer & make a terrible mess:(
• Place the fabric/freezer paper page into your printer as you normally would, paying attention to wether your printer likes the pages face down or up & simply print your page of images/text... the freezer paper simply gives the printer something firm to print on
• Once your images are dry, peel off the freezer paper (you can re-use this, so don't throw it out!) Place a piece of parchment paper over the fabric & iron with a hot iron to set the ink.
• My printer uses water resistant ink - so images & text will not run in the wash. Double check on your cartridge to see what sort of ink you use... If you use regular (non-water-resistant) ink, after heat-setting the images, soak the fabric in a bowl of vinegar for approx 5 mins & then rinse thoroughly. This should set your images for future washes

Here are a couple of projects I've used printed images for:

This was a 50th birthday present for a friend. We all thought of two words to describe Eugene & I printed them on white fabric & added a lovely frame....

This is a stamp I cut out from a set of vintage spool stamps from here 

And this is it on a vintage-style clutch for Nova's Liberty Scrap Challenge

I hope this has inspired you to try out some fabric texting... do have a go - it really is great fun!

Hope you have a lovely weekend

Karen

Fabric, Stamps & Stencils

Hello there!
I hope you have had a good week. Mine was good, but so busy & I must admit, I'm falling a wee bit behind with some great bloggy adventures which are on the go at the moment... like the Zakka Style Sew Along

Its a sewalong/ blog hop which each week covers a project from the book... like this tote

Source: s.o.t.a.k handmade

Or this pouch

Source: Elnora

Or this sewing kit

Source: Jeannie

For more inspiration just click here

Meanwhile I've been experimenting with ways to print on fabric & I thought I would share with you a few tips & trips about stamping & stencilling on fabric....

If you have any stamps of cute images, or alphabets, or text these are a great way to add another dimension to your sewing projects. All you need are stamps, a permanent ink pad (either stayzon or versacraft I have found work best), baby wipes, a piece of kitchen roll & your fabric... 

Try to stamp on a larger piece of fabric which you will cut & stitch into your project, rather than stamping directly on a finished piece in case you ruin your stitchy masterpiece :)
When you stamp, bring the inkpad to the stamp so that you don't get too much ink on your stamp. Check before you stamp onto the fabric to make sure there is no excess ink on the stamp around the shape - if there is, just give it a wee wipe with the tip of your kitchen roll

Be sure to clean the stamps after every stamp with your baby wipes to keep them nice :)

You can also use stencils & sharpie pens for text if you like

This is a really inexpensive & creative way to incorporate words into your projects.
To set the stamps (or stencils) press for approx 3 seconds on the REVERSE side of the fabric that you have stamped using a hot iron & then press again on the RIGHT side for 3 seconds.

These are a few tips, but I would recommend that you first use a scrap of material & practice a wee bit so you get used to it (& not ruin any of your lovely material!)

These are some of my experiments with inkpads & you will see how some maintained their colour, while others faded.
I hope this will give you a wee incentive to get stamping - it really can be a lot of fun...If you call back in a day or two I'll show you some of the bits & pieces I've made with some stamps

In the meantime I hope you all have a great week &, if you live in the UK, have a relaxing bank holiday Monday

Take care
Karen

An Irish Road Trip: Giveaway greetings!

Hello there!

I hope you are having a good week...
Here on the Causeway Coast we've had a week of sun, wind, rain, snow... you name it, we've had it! Of course, the day & hour the children got off school for Easter holidays the wonderful sunshine disappeared - only to be replaced by wind & rain :( But not to worry, we've had some great games of monopoly....and cluedo... in between walks along the beach....

At the beginning of the year I made a resolution to bring you a giveaway each month &, to conclude our Irish Road Trip I have a wonderful pot of gold (well actually its mostly fabric, but you know what I mean!)

Would you like to see what's inside the pot?

They say when you look over Irish fields, you see forty shades of green, so in the pot there are 40 green fabrics - some fat quarters, some fat eighths... and even some lovely Melody Miller teacup fabric (courtesy of the lovely Eva & Ger) at Pippablue
In the pot there's also an Irish recipe book from the super talented folk at Avoca (which is away down in County Wicklow)

There are lots of recipes for yummy cakes

Delicious delights

And beautiful photography

So....the big question...what do you have to do to win this crock of gold? Well, actually nothing really... This giveaway is only for you if you follow me either here on this blog, or on pinterest, or on facebook... so, if you are one of the long-suffering, very nice followers, I just would love for you to leave me a wee comment & let me know .. thats it... The giveaway will be open until 12th April & I'll announce the winner on 13th.... so good luck everyone. If you are a follower, please just do a wee check before you leave me a comment to make sure you are not a "no-reply" blogger, otherwise I might have a bit of difficulty contacting you.
In the meantime I'll leave you with another view from our Irish Road Trip... this is Mussenden Temple at Benone beach...

I hope you have a great week!
Take care
Karen