Reginald voting - come and join in

Hi there

A couple of months ago I told you all about a project I'm co-ordinating called Reginald - the CAE Portrait Prize for Softies. Take a look at the original post here if you'd like to be reminded.

So far it has been an amazing success. I've been completely overwhelmed by the response and the skill and thought that the 63 makers have displayed in their entries.

Our wonderful Pip Lincolne, one of the Reginald judges, assisted in selecting twelve finalists which represent pure crafting excellence.

Head over to the Reginald website to see the work of the twelve finalists, I'd encourage you to vote for your favourite finalist and help select the People's Prize winner. One randomly chosen voter will win a special Reginald prize pack, including a signed copy of one of Pip's books and a frankie magazine subscription. Yippee!

If you're in Melbourne you can come and see the Reginald Exhibition at the CAE Info Shop, 44 Degraves Street (cnr Flinders Lane), until 14 April. More info here.

Thanks for listening.

Happy Reginald!

Warm Regards

Sue (former Conveynor of Brown Owls Melbourne 3000 CBD group)

Reginald - the CAE Portrait Prize for Softies

It's Sue here - hi!

I used to be the conveynor for the Brown Owls Melbourne 3000 CBD group, which the lovely Lee Turnley now takes very good care of. We still meet at Madame Brussels with the next date being the 28th January, do hope we'll see you there.

The reason for me dropping by is this.

When I'm not Brown Owl'ing and naturopathing I work at CAE, organising the arts and crafts short courses. This all came about because of Brown Owls actually, but that's a story for another day!

This year at CAE we are holding a very fabulous competition 'Reginald - the CAE Portrait prize for Softies'.

Reginald is a competition in which we are inviting participants to make a Softie Portrait of someone they admire/appreciate and want to replicate in soft toy form. Once its made, they'll send us a photo of their Softie Portrait, together with a photo of the person/pet that the portrait represents. We are expecting to receive entries from professional makers (several amazing people and my creative heroes have indicated they will - brilliant!) as well as complete Softie making novices.

I am very excited to say that one of the judges is our very own Pip Lincolne - yippee! Along with Cat Rabbit, nationally and internationally revered soft sculpture/textile artist, they will select 10 finalists who will then send us their actual softie portraits for a fabulous exhibition, to be held in the CAE info shop in central Melbourne.

In honour of the bestest judges ever, I immortalised them in Softie Portrait form - look! that's lil pip and lil cat up there at the top there. They were SO much fun to make.

The competition is supported by frankie magazine and brother and there are some rather wonderful prizes to be won. There'll also be a prize voted by the general public, the peoples prize and a special frankie magazine prize voted for by frankie's creative director, Lara Burke.

Deadline for entries is 7th March 2014 and you can find out more information here and download full details of entry (including entry form) here. If Instagram is your thing you could follow us @reginald_cae and we're encouraging uploads of 'reggies-in-the-making' via #reginald and #makingareggie

I'm so excited about it I just had to share it with you. Maybe you'd like to make Softie Portraits in your Brown Owls groups. That would be great! I can't wait to see what everyone makes.

And I'm really really proud that Pip agreed to be part of Reginald - she's one top lady, yes indeed!

Happy Softie making wonderful Owls!

sue x

Perth (Como) Brown Owls - Plushies, Softies, Toys of a Squishy Nature!

Do you wanna make a narwhale?

The Perth (Como) Brown Owls Group are having another craft day! Yay! 

We'll be meeting at Lisa's Place in Como, Perth on Sunday April 10 from 12 - 3 (ish, we're happy if people stay later ^_^) and we'll be making soft toys!

We can choose whatever toy you would like to make! I think that I might make an awesome narwhale or maybe a squishy zombie ^_^

We have many sewing machines, so if you don't have one of your own, you are welcome to share; but you will need to bring your own pattern and material. There are lots of great toy patterns on the internet! Craftster have a lot of good free tutorials, or you could buy a pattern from Etsy. 

If you want to bring another project and just craft with us - that is fine too! And you don't even have to sew if you don't want to ... why not make a knit or crochet toy, or make some cute toys by needle felting? ^_^

If you'd like to come, join the event via Brown Owls Worldwide or The Crafternoon Gals on Facebook, and we'll message you the address. Or, if you don't use Facebook, leave a message in the comments with your email and we'll send you the address through that. 

Hope to see you there!

x Lisa and Pip

Sydney Owls October Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 7 October at our usual venue: Berkelouw Books in Liechhardt.

This meeting will be BYO craft, and the beginning of our Softies for Mirabel project.

Image source: Meet Me at Mikes

Inspired by Pip's Softies for Mirabel in Melbourne the Sydney prefects think we should get on board with this worthy cause - our softies will be donated to The Mirabel Foundation in Sydney.

So for our meeting next week please bring along any softies books or patterns for inspiration and any fabric scraps to swap/share. Of course you can always knit or crochet your softie if that's more your style.

If you're going to join us please RSVP in the comments for this post.

Oh and this might be our last meeting at Berkelouw, so it would be great if you could have a think about any potential Owl venues in the city, inner west or inner east. Edit: No longer a problem! We still get to meet at Berkelouw for free!

See you next week!

Softies at Brisbane Brown Owls

Brisbane Brown Owls had a fabulous day yesterday cutting, stitching knitting, crocheting and chatting about softies.


There was loads to show and tell including these cute guys Emma made from the Softies book. The orange ant eater softie is her own design, we hope to see more of them!


We all clucked over this little family Sandra brought along, their beautiful little faces were created with teeny tiny embroidery stitches.


Amy got straight to work on Miss Buttons, loving the choice of fabric!


Sam powered through a pile of Bloomin' Buttonhead Brooches.


Thanks ladies for the monthly fix of crafty fun!


*** For our August or September meeting Katy has offered (ok, we talked her into it) to give a Yudu Screen Printing demonstration. If you are interested in seeing how the Yudu works leave a comment to let us know. To read more about the Yudu, check out Katy's blog. ***

NSW Brown Owls - Help re-stash a crafter

Hi NSW Brown Owls,

If anyone would like to bring excess craft supplies to the first Sydney Brown Owls meeting that would be great. We will package them up into kits and organise for them to be delivered to Mike's to be shared out for "Re-stash A Crafter".

Some ideas from the Handmade Help website are:

• yarn, knitting needles, yarn needle and little scissors
• yarn, crochet hooks, yarn needle and little scissors
• fabric, threads, needles, pins, scissors
• felt, threads, needles, pins, scissors
• rovings, drop spindle, bobbins
• canvas or linen, embroidery hoop, threads, needles and little scissors

If you want to donate some handmade items to 'Handmade Help' you can also bring them to the meeting.

Some items needed include:

• Handmade quilts, bed linens, knitted and crocheted blankets, cushions
• Handmade Kitchen Linens
• Home-made Curtains
• Handmade Jewellery and Accessories
• Knitted and crocheted winter clothing
• Hot Water Bottles with Covers
• Handmade Toys
• Handmade Stationery
• Handmade Clothing

If you want to donate some craft supplies or handmade goodies but can't make it to the meeting, send me an email and we can work out an alternative drop off point.

Looking forward to meeting everyone at Centre House, Lane Cove Thursday March 5 from 7-10PM.

Thanks,
Bell (Sunny Day Owl)
bellinda(at)gmail(dot)com

Brisbane Owls - Bring your projects for VIC bushfire victims to the meet

Hi Everyone,

As you know Mike's is organising a Handmade Help Appeal for the victims of the Victorian Bushfires. There is also a collection being made by The Toy Society for Handmade Softies to be sent down to bring some cheer to the kids who have lost everything.

I have bought 2 bolts of fabric to make softies for this cause and will be bringing some "kits" cut out to our Brisbane meet (no charge) if anyone is interested in helping sew them to life. You could bring along any extra embelishments that you might like to add, like hair or ribbons etc. Also if you are working on a Softie project or Handmade help project you might like to bring along with you on the day, please do so and we can all help each other.

Can't wait to meet you all on the 22nd!

Cheers Em