Mini boho beads and a little birdie

After all the cold weather recently it's been a ridiculously mild day, though I'm not complaining. I actually managed an hour in the back garden. Clearing away dried up stalks and brown crispy looking leaves, the remains of last year's Michaelmas daisies, Cosmos, crocosmia, verbena and so on. The garden looks slightly neater, and it was pleasing to see spring bulbs popping up, as well as snowdrops that're already flowering, so pretty and delicate.

On the crafty side of things, I finished off a little collection of boho style beads as I'd wanted some to give away. Previous beads had been longer, but I reckon these dinky little uns look just as good, if not better. I love the way making these beads uses up even the tiniest scraps of fabric, pieces that'd otherwise be relegated to cushion-filling. It makes sense to squeeze every bit of value out of our fabric purchases, don't you think? By the way, the tins you can see in the photo above don't actually contain lip balm, but make ideal containers for seed beads, sequins and the like. I also use empty spice and herb jars to keeping crafty things in. Always good to find an extra use for something.

The other thing I did today was try making a little fabric bird (smaller than the previous birds I'd made into wall hangings). I'd seen some beautiful little Indian fabric birds, embroidered and embellished, and fancied making something similar.

I drew a basic bird shape and cut it out of interfacing, and ironed that on to a flimsy red & orange material, formerly a skirt. Then added plain red cotton for the backing. I stuffed the bird and added a fabric wing, a red felt beak, plus beading.

This is as far as I've got with the bird, but I want to embroider it more, and add one of the boho style beads I made too.

Once I've made this, I want to try a bird about half this size, so really teeny-tiny, and with masses of embellishment. I was listening to podcasts about politics while stitching this red bird, and handsewing is the ideal thing to distract you from the amount of nonsense coming out of a politician's mouth!

Hope you enjoyed your day, and wander by tomorrow (or the next day!) to see the finished red bird.

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