I’ve got a bit behind in my posting this week, I seem to have a few projects on which are not necessarily that interesting in the half way stage, like the white blouse I’ve been making. Hopefully this coming week there will be a bit more to share.

A couple of months ago I came up with the idea that on the Sunday without a SAL post I would post my progress on one of my Raggedy Ruff designs. I have rather a large collection of kits waiting to be sewn and at least this way I will slowly make my way through them, though it doesn’t help when I buy even more kits in the meantime! Three weeks ago I had just finished the gorgeous hare…

I waited until last night to start the pheasant! It’s smaller than other blocks I’ve stitched, it’s about 6″ by 12″, it’s part of the Highland Quilt, though I think it’s nice as a stand alone block. This is Andrea Walpole’s version, Andrea is the designer of Raggedy Ruff Designs.

The first thing to stitch is the background. Andrea does gorgeous backgrounds, with a mix of batiks, Essex linen and the occasional metallic fabric. This one has a four point star design, my blocks didn’t match up particularly well for some reason but as most of it is behind the pheasant I didn’t fuss.

The next task was to trace round the pattern image of the pheasant onto freezer paper so I could then accurately cut the various shapes out of the batik fabric. I then laid them out on the background to check it all looked OK…

When I looked at it I thought the head might be a bit dark – it was darker than it looks in the photo, I had a rummage in my batik scraps and found another to try, but that was too bright, I then remembered the dark blue batik collection I had in a drawer and one of those was a perfect dark teal, just that little bit lighter than the one provided, third time lucky…

Next comes the scary bit, the free motion embroidery! First job is to stitch all round the edges to hold everything in place, the main bit I struggled with was the tail as the narrow feather ends kept trying to move! I’m getting better at remembering to breathe at the same time!

I embroidered the legs outline next, I sketched those lightly with a silver gel pen first which did help.

The hardest bit with all these blocks is the eyes, the eyes really do make it, deciding whether your creation is going to be a happy one or a cross one! This time we got it over and done with at the start, so I’ve just stitched the eye and the beak. I then filled the legs in too.

There’s still lots of stitching to do on the feathers, but I’ve made a good start.