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Showing posts from 2011

Christmas Lunch

Friday we had a delicious lunch created by Brenda, the champion cook.  So wonderful to have someone make all that fabulous food!  A huge lasagna, salad and homemade (still warm!) bread….a feast. We ate to being stuffed and enjoyed every bite.  Dessert was a gorgeous fruit tart.  A lovely way to celebrate our last day of work before Christmas.  We had to get in practice for stuffing ourselves at the holiday table!   My dining table doesn’t get enough use so our little party was fun to decorate for.  Merry Christmas to Everyone!

More “Photo Shoot” from the house

I was getting carried away yesterday snapping photos of stuff!  Here is a lovely fimo clay Santa doll perched on a sweet mini kids chair.  This guy has a vintage quilt suit with old buttons plus old sewing goodies in his arms.  I don’t want to count how man little ironing boards are in my bunch of collectibles.  Here is one plus another one painted in red folded up behind it.   I have a “thing” for little chairs too! Enough of my photography for today.  Hope all of you are enjoying getting ready for Christmas and are not too stressed!  Try for some treasured stitching time – you deserve it. Robin

Christmas Around the Studio

I was walking around my house today getting into the Christmas spirit and snapped some photos of some of my favorite goodies.  I love collecting Santa stuff and have a few around my house.   All the Santa’s are out to enjoy all year – such happy guys. This soft Santa with a velvet suit has been around since Jeffrey, our smart Bird Brain Design tech support and website designer, sat in the chair!  No one is counting though.  This cabinet is one of the end tables next to my couch. This rag doll Santa with a vintage wool and velvet crazy quilt outfit sits in our father’s rocking chair.  Dad would be 111 year’s old this year!  The rocker is a wonderful treasure for me and Santa, too. Another passion for me to collect are thread cabinets from old time mercantile stores.  Both of these are from Richardson Silk Company.  I use them as the end tables next to my couch.  The beautiful display case is now filled with all kinds of collected stitching goodies.  The rag doll Santa cabinet

A Hint of Spring!

Brenda brought all of us a little surprise this week – a “breath of spring”.  She forced several little jars of Paper Whites and shared. My pretty blossoms add a spark of Spring in my kitchen among all the Christmas stuff going on these days. Nice to look forward to something new coming up – soon!  

FREE Snow People Hangings

Another FUN finish for your pair of FREE Snow People in RedWork.  Last weekend I had an urge to stitch these 2 cuties again and make a couple of mini hangings for my living room.  I Used our little hangers with clips to hang the designs.  The finishing was super simple adding Red Star Fabric around the RedWork.  I backed the RedWork top with thin batting and machine sewed on a matching star back.  The 2 are nice hanging from a toy wicker sleigh. Instead or in addition to tea towels , stitch up a pair of Snow People to decorate your home – even to hang on your Christmas tree!

Cookies For Santa

Lucky Santa, he gets all those yummy cookies all over the world!  Our Brenda made a batch today and I am sorry for Santa, but those cookies will be gone very soon. Before all the cookies were enjoyed by us, I took a picture of them with our Santa Portrait Trio picture plus the Here Comes Santa RedWork quilt.  Both are great designs featuring the favorite jolly old guy.  Embroider a Santa design for your home.  RedWork is fun and relaxing and, happily, Christmas comes every year so there is NO RUSH to get it done this month.  Enjoy the holiday spirit while you stitch and get a head start on home decorating next Christmas.

FREE Shipping on All Order All December

Just a reminder that FREE Shipping will go all through December on All orders. I didn’t put the dates on the last newsletter! Merry Christmas Shopping!

FREE Shipping on ALL Orders!

FREE Shipping on ALL orders   Our Merry Christmas Shopping Gift now until Christmas. Have a wonderful time on the website picking out all the needlework gifts for friends, family and you too. Save money while you play Santa - we will pick up the shipping charges and get everything off to you pronto. (Sorry this does not apply to International Sales.)

2 NEW FREE Designs for Christmas

Decorate your kitchen with a pair of cheerful Snow People in RedWork on red striped tea towels. Our newest FREEBIE His & Hers designs are ready to print out and embroider for Christmas decorating. Invite the “man of the house” to have some fun helping with the holiday dinner cleanup with his very own drying towel.  I am sure he will appreciate the kind gesture!   Get your RedWork ready to embroider quickly & easily by printing your Snow People on Sticky Fabri-Solvy film. Finger press the printed Sticky Fabri-Solvy on the tea towels and begin stitching in just a minute or two…so accurate and nice. Enjoy getting ready for the busy holidays with a FREE design to print out and stitch.  We have all the materials needed to make towels like we did on our website www.BirdBrainDesigns.net

Pre-Printed Sticky Fabri-Solvy

Yesterday I showed you how great it is to embroider your designs using Sticky Fabri-Solvy .   It makes getting ready to get started so easy without the time spent tracing your designs onto fabric with your light box. Because many of our design illustrations are printed on 11” x 17” paper in your pattern, we have special Sticky Fabri-Solvy in this oversized sheet size.  It needs to be printed on a copier that accommodates the larger size. To save a trip to the copy store we have Pre-Printed the large size for you.   We have the sheets printed as an addition to your pattern to get you stitching right away.  We have had customers ask why they might need a pattern for a design if they buy the Pre-Printed sheets.  The pattern for the design will give you instructions of color and stitch placement.  Plus you will get all the instructions to complete your design.  Enjoy the speed and accuracy of your embroidery using Sticky Fabric-Solvy!!

Disolving Sticky Fabri-Solvy

We just stitched our very popular Bless Our Home BlackWork design a second time using our very wonderful Sticky Fabri-Solvy .  The printed film made getting our embroidery ready to stitch a snap and adding all those Lazy Daisy leaves easy to do. I put a generous amount of warm water in my kitchen sink and added each of the embroidered pieces separately.  The flowing water was dissolving as I watched – so fun and amazing to see!   I rinsed off each fabric piece under the flowing water and laid them flat to dry.  Next I’ll steam iron with the embroidery upside down on a bath towel adding a little spray starch to crisp up our lovely finished piece.  QUICK & EASY!! Sticky  Fabri-Solvy is so easy to use and your embroidery design is accurate – sometimes not the case with hand tracing onto the fabric using your light box.  Give it a try with your next embroidery project.

New Animal Friends in Texas

On our trip to Quilt Festival in Houston we met quite a few interesting dogs and other critters along the way. Homer, the pot bellied pig, and Abigail share popcorn in the garden of the antiques shop.  Homer was quite happy to visit us when we had our hands full of yummy popcorn.  Abigail was interested too.  Lots of Guinea hens were strutting just out of camera range too. A portrait of Homer.  He was too was rescued by his new friends at the antiques shop.  Quite an array of happy animals with another rescued pooch in the house.  A great place we will visit again next year.

Home From Houston’s Festival

We had a super trip to Houston shopping on the way and a little on the way home, too.  We want to do “our part” to improve the country’s economy!  We visited a number of our favorite antique and junque shops to enjoy browsing and sometimes making a great “find” for our collections. Unpacking some of the goodies found along the way.  Check out Hecho, Tina’s new pet horse, found in a beautiful antique shop in Texas.  Hecho is going to live outside the growing garden at the chicken house at her Twisted Wire Ranch. Heading home to the ranch in the back of the truck.  We will keep you posted as Hecho gets comfortable in his new digs.  He is a thoroughbred metal steed ‘Hecho en Mexico’…love the hooves and tail.

Snow is Already Flying!

Just watched the news and they say it is snowing like gang busters in Colorado….they may even get a couple of feet of snow so early in parts of the state. Time to head inside by the fire and embroider.  Our NEW Snow Happens BlueWork table runner is just perfect for this early storm.  Get your pattern and muslin and enjoy yourself and watch those snow flakes come down – real or just feel for those in the weather. We are still waiting for one of the nifty blue fabrics to arrive….the company sent red the first time.  As soon as that roll arrives we can offer the finishing fabric packet for you make your table runner and be ready for winter.

Two NEW Wool Applique Pillows

We have 2 new Wool Applique pillows coming along for holiday decorating.  Today I should be able to finish the fringed edges and put the back on.  Instructions are at the printer and I need to complete these 2 cuties and take their pictures. Watch for them soon in your Newsletter and at the show in Houston! Happy Winter and Christmas coming….Robin

Happy Birthday, Tina, 10% OFF Sale

A present for everyone on Tina’s birthday. Take 10% off EVERYTHING on our website and celebrate with Tina. Visit our website and select all the things you have been wanting and save 10% on EVERYTHING. Have some fun shopping.

PIQF was BUSY!

We ran out of a number of patterns because they turned out to be the popular choices at this show…we never know what designs will be favorites! Silly me forgot to pack this fun little Autumn Scarecrow in his wheelbarrow pattern so, of course, lots of you gals were in the mood to embroider a new design for fall decorating.  This guy with his 3 crow friends is in stock here at the studio.  We also have the very convenient pre-printed Sticky Fabri-Solvy to use instead of tracing him with your light box…a wonderful time saver and your design will be perfectly accurate on the fabric. The hotel finally found the patterns for our new Winter Partners Pillows after we returned home.  Never a dull moment. We now them them ready to mail out too! The studio is on high speed getting things ready to take to Houston International Quilt Festival November 3 – 6.  We checked the show floor map and Bird Brain Designs is right up front as you come in the door – WOW!  Booth spaces 1802 – 1806. 

Special Quilt In Portland

When we were in Portland at the Northwest Quilt Expo our friend Brenda helped us in our busy booth.  Brenda also had 2 quilts displayed at the show….both great! Proud Brenda is shows off her Sewing theme applique quilt.  The applique and added embroidery was wonderful.  Brenda searched out specialty fabrics that she used where the print was perfect…congratulations! I really love the pieced sampler border too.

Northwest Quilt Expo Photos

It has already been a couple of weeks since we returned from Portland and the Northwest Quilt Expo.  All of us  – customers and vendors alike – had a great time.  The weather was so beautiful and the show fun. We also headed out to dinner a couple of evenings after the show instead of making some “gourmet" meal in Lucy, our motor home.  Dinner in a beer vat at CJ’s in Portland.  Yummy dinner in a fun place. Getting ready to leave in just a few days for Santa Clara and the Pacific International Quilt Festival.  I don’t know of any Brew Pubs and Restaurants we can visit there.

NEW Fall FREEBIE Design for You

We have just added a FREE design for you on our website.  Our NEW fall tea towel design features a nice plump Pumpkin ‘n twisty Bittersweet Vines. Just print out your pattern and have a nice time relaxing while you embroider your new fall tea towel.  The design will also look beautiful on muslin and framed for fall decorating. I printed the pumpkin on Sticky Fabri-Solvy to stitch.  So quick and easy….I talk about this all the time…give it a try and see how nice it makes getting ready.  MUCH quicker than tracing the design on the towel using your light box! Enjoy your new FREEBIE design.  We have the Terra Cotta Tea Towel and all the DMC #8 Perle Cotton in the studio ready and waiting for you.

Bright Fall Fun

Something NEW to brighten the evenings from Fall into Winter. Lighted Willow Branches! Clever tiny lights attached to Willow Branches .  Tuck the willow branch stem into a tall bobbin like our Elegant Silk Bobbin or other handy container.  Enjoy the soft lights in your home – especially your sewing area. Both Tina and I are enjoying ours.  The cord is quite long so you can place your perky lights where ever you want.  Sort of like a unique night light in your home!

Come to the Bay Area Quilt Festival

On Wednesday we set up our Bird Brain Booth at the Bay Area Quilt, Craft & Sew Festival in San Mateo, California. Show is September 15 – 17. The show is FREE this year!  All you have to do is visit www.RustyBarn.com and print our your FREE coupon. Bring the coupon and visit us.  We are right up front so you won’t miss us. See you soon everyone.

Stock Up on Beautiful Wool Roving

Stock up on our fabulous 100% Wool Roving and SAVE 25% for all your needle felting projects. Our 100% wool roving is blended shades of wool fibers giving you a fabulous result when needle felted. Each fleece color is dyed-in-the-wool to maximize brightness and color fastness. Then two, three, or sometimes four colors are blended together to create the beautiful heather mixes in the roving. The wool used is the finest imported Merino Cross wools from New Zealand with a short staple that is perfect for needle felting. Visit our Wool Roving Category and choose all the colors you love.  Build your stash with 25% off every color!  Have fun.

Clearance Sale of Roving & Needle Felting

Tina’s designing and creating of cute Needle Felted animals and other things with Wool Roving is taking a new turn.  She will still be having fun creating but will be making one-of-a-kind designs to be purchased.   SAVE 25% on ALL wool roving and needle felting supplies, patterns and materials packets for the designs.  Cash in and have some fun! Here is the charming Ghoulish Girl needle felted on wool.  Instead of a 3 dimensional design, she is felted with wool roving as if you were coloring with crayons.  A fun and kind of “addicting” thing – feeling like you just want to add just a little more before going to bed!  Give it a try and save 25% on all the supplies.

New Winter Embroidery In The Works

It is just the beginning of September but winter and the holidays are coming quickly for me!  Time to get very busy designing and stitching so Bird Brain Designs can offer you some goodies to stitch for your home.   I’m just finishing a NEW BlueWork Embroidered table runner for winter and your holiday table.  Now the search for cottons begins so I can finish the model and get it quilted!  Keep watch in your Newsletter for when this design is ready for you to stitch!

Back Home After Tacoma, Washington

We had a great drive up and back from the Pacific West Quilt show in Tacoma.  The weather couldn’t have been nicer….sunny and warm everyday!  The show was fun and we met a lot of new gals and greeted many friends we see at Sew Expo in February.  Thanks to all who came to the show. On the way up and on the way back home we stopped in Kalama, Washington for our shopping spree.  Tina found a wonderful tall metal sculpture for her yard.  I think it will probably be shown off near her fabulous chicken house.  I’ll take new photo of her garden to show you. We had 2 delicious luncheons at our favorite Antique Deli attached to a couple of antiques shops.  Dhara is the chef and chief cook and bottle washer with a couple of friends.  She makes the most wonderful soups and sandwiches.  We ate at the Deli and then took a BIG container of her chicken salad and a whole loaf of home baked bread in Lucy, the motor home for later lunches – clever. Please stop by the Deli if you are near Kalama! 

Vintage Tea Towels Back in Stock

After several months we have all four of the colorful Vintage Tea towels back in stock.  We were missing the 4 Stripe Colors and the GreenGold Stripe towels.  A replica vintage-style tea towel once found in most kitchens from the 1920's through the 1940's.  Back then, the homemaker would buy the toweling by the yard and have to cut and hem the sides.  Our  vintage look towel is hemmed on all 4 sides and is ready to add your embroidery or applique! The four multi-color stripes will complement many kitchens as well as the decorative embroidery you will be adding! The GreenGold Stripe towel will be beautiful with your choice of embroidery designs!  To make your stitching QUICK & EASY plus getting ready to stitch a snap use Sticky Fabri-Solvy to add your design to the towel.  Just print your design with your copier on the Sticky Fabri-Solvy film.  Add it to your towel and stitch right through the film.  Smooth and accurate too!  Remove with warm water…it dissolve

Sneak Preview of NEW Design

Hi all.  I just finished adding this new Fall embroidery design to the website.  This funny Scarecrow in Wheelbarrow pattern arrived in the studio from the printer today and has not been  “introduced” yet.  I stitched the design on our Heavy Weight Muslin with 10 colorful #8 DMC Perle Cottons.   When I finished I took my left over morning coffee and put it in a fine mist spray bottle and spritzed my embroidery.  I thought it added to the rustic look.  The Scarecrow and friends would be wonderful embroidered on our Tea-Dyed Cotton saving you from having to spray with coffee! This embroidered character will make a great Autumn decoration for your home.  Fall is coming up soon so you have time to get the pattern and other goodies and get stitching during August into September.  You get a head start and are the first to see our new Scarecrow design. 

NEW RedWork Design is ready for you

We just received a NEW RedWork design from the printer and it is now ready for your embroidery. Celebrate you own Home Sweet Home with this whimsical approach to 4 different home styles. I looks so cute hanging from our clever mini hangers with clips to hold your design. Fun and EASY RedWork with DMC’s Turkey Red #8 Perle Cotton is a perfect summer relaxer for you. Enjoy!

Special ONE Day SALE

Our website was down for a couple of days.  To celebrate, we are “back in business” again we have created a ONE DAY SALE! So many of our faithful shoppers were disappointed they could not order – so take advantage of this treat for you! When you order online the price of EVERYTHING will show as 15% OFF.  Enjoy the short sale announced today for our faithful blogger friends and tomorrow on our Newsletter.

Enjoy Your Summer with Embroidery

I know many of you will be having a great time stitching all the holiday goodies you bought during our Summer Santa Christmas Sale….so smart of you! The rest of you can check out some of our fun summer designs to have a project ready for vacation, hanging out at the pool or just relaxing on the back porch. Tea towels are a perfect portable project you can pop into a tote and have ready for summer embroidery.  These Fresh Picked Tea Towel designs celebrate all the yummy goodies of summer.  Decorate your home and make hostess gifts for parties you will be enjoying in August. Have some fun everyone!

Last Day of Christmas SALE

Today, Monday, is the last day of our Summer Santa SALE.   Enjoy 15% OFF our entire Christmas Category. Order your holiday patterns & other materials today and have some fun stitching during the summer.  Be ready for decorating and gift giving when the cold winds begin to blow in December! Make a colorful snowman table runner to grace your winter table – each end has it’s own pattern for lots of decorating interest.  Wool applique is so relaxing and enjoyable to create.  Enjoy yourself this summer.

Christmas Sale Ends Soon

Our handy summer “Christmas in the Summer” SALE continues through the weekend and ends at midnight on Monday.  Save 15% on everything in our Christmas Category . Cash in on lower prices for holiday patterns and kits plus other goodies.  Then you will be able to enjoy some fun stitching time this summer and get ready for Christmas EARLY!  How about that? Make up stockings for the family in RedWork or a string of colorful stockings to grace a table or honor a wall this Christmas time.  Enjoy!!

15% OFF Christmas Gifts

Santa’s elves don’t do much embroidery but you can start now and have great gifts for holiday giving .  Tea towels are fun to stitch because each one does not take much time – they are portable too – take them on all your summer jaunts! Have some summer stitching fun and make a batch of tea towels. We have all the #8 DMC Perle cotton needed plus the great colorful Dunroven House tea towels too.  Enjoy!

Christmas SALE! 15% OFF

All Christmas is 15% OFF Save now and be ready for the holidays in December! Santa and Friends are awaiting You.   Have some fun!

New Summer Santa Freebie Design

We also have a NEW Freebie Design for you!  Our Summer Santa RedWork Tea Towel pattern is ready to print and embroider.  Santa was having so much fun with his feet in the lake we had to stitch his picture on a tea towel.  Fun for summer and fun next December when it is cold outside. As always, I printed Santa on Sticky Fabri-Solvy   to get a QUICK start on my embroidery.  Just print the pattern from your computer and then copy the design onto Sticky Fabri-Solvy to finger press onto your towel.  So fast and accurate with a super surface to embroider on your cotton towel.