Big Bird!

My ‘sew-in’ friends encouraged me to show them what I learned at a workshop last year –  how to make a bird. I was well outside my comfort zone trying to show them how to wind wire together and not really being strong enough to do it myself. Nevertheless, it worked well even if the wire armatures were a bit bendy. Adding the fabric was the bit everyone was looking forward to. One of the group used up some fabric she had screenprinted.  It was really effective, but was very hard to stitch through and her first lesson was not to do that again! Its amazing how starting out with the same template you get quite different birds. This time, mine was quite a giant! I put him on a wood block I found on the beach and made some bunting out of machine wrapped wire and fabric off cuts to finish off the base.

burst

A few of my favourite things

I thought I would support the Embroiderer’s Guild call for entries of pieces reflecting my ‘favourite things’. Looking back at my photographs, I think I’d planned to start this quite some time ago. However, I didn’t. I started with less than 2 months to complete it. For me, that leads to a sense of urgency; planning, preparing and making a 30cm x 30cm piece for public consumption.

The piece is an interpretation of 3 of my favourite things: a Chinese cockerel ornament, a Japanese friendship plant and a small painting by Susie Prangnell, a local artist. It uses my favourite techniques too; working on rug canvas with free-style hand embroidery and applique, machine-made cords and a machined patched and pieced border.

Struggling to take a nice photo in the winter gloom!