Bluebird and roses

...but not whiskers on kittens. Soon it will be Winter in Australia, stitchy friends, and I'm starting to feel it...I'm bolstering myself with lashings of craft books, cups of tea and the comfort of the couch. So my apologies for my absence of late. But you know what always cheers me up? Wee birdies! So here's some more.
These little birds originally came from a mail order advertisement in a newspaper, and happily, whoever originally ordered the pattern kept the newspaper clipping:

" Simple embroidery" from "our new and exciting Needlework book for 1956!"
"So simple, a child could do these embroidery stitches!" "Dozens of other designs to order, all easy, fascinating hand-work!"
You know, I'm willing to part with my 25 cents for my copy of "this wonderful book" right now!

Alas, I think I'd get a "Dear Crazy Person" reply to my letter, if indeed The Daily Review is still at that address in New York. In the meantime, let's enjoy the birdies and rosies and whiskers on kittens...

[click on the picture for a printable size]

What cheers you up, by the way? Leave me a comment on this post by the end of the week (Friday that is), and I'll pick someone at random for a stitchy pressie suprise!

Friday: little birdies

This one is a detail from a larger picture that won't fit on my scanner, so until I sort that, enjoy some wee birdie cuteness! [I don't know the maker, it looks like single use blue ink on tissue paper and I'd guess from the 30's.]

PS. Yes Claire, this one's for you!

They're so tweet!

It's been a busy week in Stitchy world, what with Brown Owls to keep me out of mischief, attempting to bring order to my craft room, and the tiresome chore of keeping two very amourous dogs apart, hence the lack of stitchy posts. Oh, and work.

But today's pattern is a super-tweet birdie design, ordered from The American Weekly of the late 60's. I found this one on e-bay and had to buy it, as I can't go past a wee birdie! They're doing the usual things, washing on Monday, shopping on Thursday, and as you know, my favourite, baking on Saturday.
Here's some tasty pie coveting:

And of course, birdies doing my favourite pasttime...being stitchy!

By request : for the birds

A veritable deluge of stitching delights here for you this week on the Stitchy Britches! Mostly because my carpal tunnel is giving me grief, so no stitching for me. (The operation is looking more appealing every day.) As birdie love is strong out there, here's some extra birdie designs for you. I'm always happy to check the collection for motifs you'd like to see, but make sure you let me know and show me if you stitch it up!

First one, from the aforeblogged Vogart 703, especially for Claire:

And here are a couple of modern ones that I found at the op-shop on Monday - scanned for Steph:

A little wee bird:
If you drop by, be sure to vote in my sidebar poll - so far "people" are leading! It also lets me know what you'd like to see more of. I seem to be the only punter who voted for "kitties" ...and I didn't dare put "chickens" as an option!

Baby pillowcase

Birdies pillow case, originally uploaded by Playingwithbrushes.

Speaking of pillowcases, the ever-lovely LucyEllen pointed me to Renee's Embroidery Patterns photoset, and I found this design. Isn't it so sweet? I'll have to stitch this up on a baby quilt or pillowcase, I think it's adorable. Check out the rest of Renee's pics for some very cute patterns to stitch. Hooray for sharing!

Birdie love

Over at Sweetbee's Vintage Finds, B was wondering why there's so many embroidery designs with birds on them. Maybe they're popular for pillowcase designs as they're a bit more lively than flowers, and are always sweet and cute. The only answer I can come up with is that everyone loves wee birds...well, I know I do. So to add to the birdie love, here's a pattern from an unknown maker. I suspect this was originally a Laura Wheeler design, as the style and typeface are identical. I'm guessing this one is from the 60's or later, and came out after Laura Wheeler Designs were no more? If anyone knows, please update me.

In the meantime, here's some birdies for "towels, scarves, pillowcases or other household linen." Click on the pic for the full size, and then save, resize, print and stitch away!

Budgies budgies budgies!

I think everyone knows what a budgie is? In the USA I think people refer to them as "parakeets" or "lovebirds". This English Needlework magazine thought everyone should sew budgies on everything in 1958.








Click on the image for a giant photo to read text. I've also left the transfers really big, so if you'd like to sew them, I'd recommend clicking for the bigger picture, and then saving the image to your computer, then use your photo editing or graphics program to tinker with it until it's the size you like.

Sorry if the images are a bit crappy, I'm using my camera until I can sort a scanner out.