Just Another Hang Up: Birdie Pillow

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Birdie Pillow

The other day I flung open my window and heard the first sign of spring. Little birdies chirping. Squirrels skittering across the still brown grass and birds chirping on leafless branches are our first signs of spring in Colorado. They show up long before the daffodils, tulips, or dandelions. Gratefully, they let us know that spring is just around the corner!

Today I put away my Easter decorations. It felt good. I also mowed the lawn, fertilized it, and swept the walks in preparation for the snowfall tonight. Colorado is like that -- as unpredictable as a menopausal woman. (Not that I would know. Ahem.)

Anywho ... I did a little sewing today in honor of those birdies that I heard the other day. Last fall I made a few pillows for our family room from placemats. You can check them out here and here. They served us well through the fall and winter, but I definitely wanted to bring a little spring into the room. Our family room is predominately neutral colors (dark chocolate brown, milk chocolate and caramel) with splashes of warmer colors, like pumpkin orange, pomegranate red, golden wheat and moss green, so bringing in spring shades of pastel colors is not an attractive option. Instead of decorating by incorporating spring colors, I choose to bring spring in with spring-like themes. That's where my little birdie came in...

I started by finding a pattern for a bird that appealed to me. This would be the start of a stencil. I made a copy of the bird on regular copy paper...

I then cut out the bird and branch and my paper became a stencil. Then I taped the "stencil" onto my fabric...

Here are the supplies needed to stencil. Not exactly an extensive list...

The trick to stenciling is to not get much paint on your sponge. Wet your sponge with water and then wring dry in a paper towel. You want the sponge pliable, not wet. Dip your sponge into the paint. Then pat the sponge a number of times on a piece of paper to distribute the paint evenly on the sponge. If you have too much paint on your sponge, the paint will go under the stencil, thus ruining the image. Practice makes perfect. Just practice on a few pieces of cloth before you go for the big bucks. Don't feel as if you need to get the image all the same color -- variances in color make the image look more textured and realistic. This is what the image looked like when I was finished...

This is what the stencil looked like when I was finished. Totally wasted. When you use regular printer paper as a stencil, you won't be able to use the stencil a second time...

I designed another pattern for this pillow. It's the reverse of what I did for the pillow shams last week. This time I gathered the top and bottom and created a smooth panel in the middle for the birdie image.