Birds and butterflies

No, you're not seeing double. I made a second owl, following (with a few minor variations) the pattern from Corinne Lapierre's 'Folk Embroidered Felt Birds' Then I had a go at a blue tit. Unlike the owl where the embroidery's only on the front facing part, the blue tit's got embroidered wings on back and front.

This design was a little trickier than the owl, though the actual piecing together of the bird is easy enough. It's the details on the head that I wasn't so good at.

Here's the image from the book of what my bird ought to look like. The black lines on the head aren't made of black felt, but dense stitching with black thread.

I'm not entirely sure I got the placement of the eye right, and my black stitching's a mite clumsy. But at least my blue tit's recognisable!

Note how my fly stitch is going in the opposite direction to that in the book's image. I put that down to me being left handed, it's just easier to form the stitches in that way for me. I'm deciding what bird to try sewing next. I haven't all the colours of felt needed to sew a pheasant or a pigeon - they'll have to wait till I've made my next visit to Hobbycraft - but I've a square of white felt so maybe I'll try making a swan or a goose.

There's another idea for a project I've got, but it's being put to one side until my embroidery skills are a lot better. I picked up this handsome hardback book today, a 50p bargain from a charity shop. Originally retailing for a penny short of twenty quid. It's full of the most beautiful butterflies.

Wouldn't they be great to recreate in a piece of textile art?

That blue one's a beauty, as is the green butterfly underneath it.

I'll have to watch closely 'Marion's World' videos on YouTube as she did a series on embroidering moths which, after all, are simply nocturnal butterflies and often just as pretty.

That's all for now. I'm going to read a few more chapters of 'The Rebel Daughter' and see how the Cromwell family are coping with Civil War England.

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