Skip to main content

Anatomy of a Bird Stitchery

Some of you may have already seen the beginnings of my latest project.  Woohoo - I've finished the stitching!  Next step is to make it the centre of a pillow for the bed - I've picked out the fabrics, but yet to decide what I'm doing with them.  So then...... my little bird...... How has he turned out?...


The inspiration  - Matthew Williamson bedding
 



Initial sketch - the Sharpies crept blinking into the light gasping for breath, so long is it since they've been allowed freedom.
 


Simple outline drawn lightly onto fabric using a very hard (4H) sharp pencil.
Not much added at this point, as don't want to risk the pencil lines smudging the fabric.
 


Threads and fabric palette chosen :
The fabrics aren't a range, they're all picked at random from my stash.
The thread used throughout are colours in Perle 12 - love stitching with this thread, so much easier than fiddling about with 2 strands of embroidery skein tangliness.
 


 
First tentative stitches - looking rubbish at this point.
 

 
As colours are added - it's starting to take shape:
Confirming - you don't have to have embroidery skills to do a thread picture -
lots of little random stitches come together just fine.



Okay - so the finished effort is nowhere near exact - but close enough that I'm happy with it.
 

 
Ta-dah!
In real life the colours are brighter than shown here.  The lime, teal and coral threads really zing.
 
Oo-er - best get deciding what to do with the fabric now.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Oh - go on! It's so lovely to receive messages, and I really do appreciate it.

I always do my best to reply to messages - both here on the blog and personally (as long as I can see an email address)

Popular posts from this blog

Autumn Giveaway Time

I'm more than a trifle ticked off with Blogger. My post of yesterday has vanished into thin air during the day - and I haven't been near a computer. It was the first time I'd entered a post using the new interface, and I was liking the way it worked. Shame I didn't try a short post first, but no...... dibble decided to do a long article didn't she! Sniff. Back to the old Blogger me thinks. Anyways... I was thinking that it's been such a dismal few days - why not think of something to brighten the mood. Why not have a little giveaway? Trying to be a little different - I've come up with a little competition. It's quite simple....... How many buttons in the jar? I've no idea myself, so it will be interesting to find out. To give you something on which to base your guess, I can tell you I am able to hold the little jar comfortably in one hand. Also I have used a few of the buttons so the jar isn't quite full. So.... What do y
16 comments
Read more

Shabby Chic? Definitely Shabby!

I did say I'd share my DIY disaster with you...... Brace yourselves - you may need sunglasses: Snort!  When I started the makeover I can assure you this wasn't my intention.  I had a 70's dressing table that was a nice shape, but a vile wood.  I thought I would transform it by painting it fuchsia to match my bedroom.  10 hours later (2 coats undercoat, 3 topcoat) it was looking good.  Until the top coat starting to flake off before my eyes.  I could have cried - indeed I think I did. Since then it's been sitting in the bedroom annoying me.  It's too heavy to lift out on my own, and anyways I've nothing else to replace it with.  The thought of starting to paint it again doesn't bear thinking about.  So in a DIY frenzy, I attacked it with wire wool. I think I got a bit carried away!  The result is something that gives a whole new meaning to shabby chic.  However, at least it looks intentional and boldly scruffy.  Anyone that dares to question my
13 comments
Read more

Don't get Shirty!

My blog posts have been lacking the last few weeks.  This is due to moving home and trying to sort out the chaos.  One of the things required was that hubby thin down his clothing, or there would be no room for any of mine in the fitted wardrobes.  At the last count he had well over a hundred shirts.  Ridiculous.  Under strict instructions to free up half the wardrobe space for me, he set to with bin bags, to turf some out for the charity shops. With a large selection of shirts ousted, I started looking at the fabrics and wondered if I could make use of them myself.  There's a surprising amount of fabric in a mans shirt, particularly an XL one. After cherry picking the ones that were all cotton and nice fabrics, I sat down and scratched my head for inspiration. My first of two makes is this pillow.  When I began I had no real vision of what it was going to look like.  I just knew that I wanted to use some of the front pockets, and make a feature of a cuff or two. After
12 comments
Read more