Well I’ve made a slight boob with my butterfly alphabet, three weeks ago I was just four letters off a finish…

As several of you predicted I cracked on and by the following weekend it was finished, happy times! I popped it in the washing machine on a gentle wash seen as it had been around when all the building work was going on. I pressed it carefully and then I was so pleased with the finish that last weekend I took it down to Otley market where there is a picture framing stall. Usually he has pictures back the following week but he was on holiday yesterday, so I won’t get it back til next weekend…

…my mistake was that I didn’t take any photos beforehand so I can’t share my finished embroidery just yet!! In the meantime…

I have started a new project called Postcards from the Hedgerow, it’s by Rebecca of Featherstitch House. I fell for it at the spring quilt show. Rebecca releases a design every single week of a postcard sized embroidery with a hedgerow / nature theme. There’s a pattern to download, a detailed video on how to make and embroider it and you can also get another video of poetry and nature. There are three levels of membership, I went for the middle one which gives me the pattern template and the instructions video. You get all this, a new design every week, for a grand total of £6 a month! An absolute bargain!

As it started in January, I’ve got a lot to catch up on if I do them all, but I’m concentrating on the ones I like best first. I started with the week 2 design, the one that caught my eye at the show, it’s a little wren.

First of all I had to make a scrappy background, like Rebecca I used icy blue fabrics as it was a January design. I rather liked the idea of including the two birds on the print. This is my postcard once it was pressed down and stitched with tiny stitches. It was laid on some iron-on interfacing so it is firmly attached.

Having traced round the area that would be covered with the wren the next task was to embroider the background. Rebecca kept hers fairly abstract with running stitch and cross-stitch. I decided to try and incorporate more nature themed stitching. I started off with an allium seed head, I did a few smaller ones for background plants. I stitched grasses and used feather stitch for a shrub like plant on the right hand side. Above the birds I just did little star shapes. I’m pretty pleased with how the background came out.

The wren is cut out from a whole piece, then the tail, wing and breast are overlaid. I actually chose the wing fabric first, then the body, tail and breast. I did wonder part way through embroidering if there was enough contrast between the wing and the body as it tones in a lot more now it’s stitched, but then I thought, well in reality it’s a little brown bird!

I embroidered the breast first, taking the straight stitches into the brown area to merge the edges. I think Rebecca mainly used straight stitch but I decided to go a little off piste with fly stitch on the tail which was later whipped with a darker thread to accentuate the long tail feathers, The wing has chain stitch, herringbone and split stitch. I then decided to start adding sequins and beads, I have some that are more matt than shiny and I quite like them for adding a bit of variety. I added some tiny darker beads along the wing and then up the tail feathers too.

The eye is stitched with satin stitch and a tiny white stitch to add a bit of life. I felt the breast area needed a little more so I added some tiny gold beads. With hindsight I should have used tiny fly stitch on this bit with a bead on the ‘v’.

I’ve still to embroider the ground/branch, I’ll probably do a mixture of running stitch, French knots and a few long fly stitches.

I like my little wren and I’m already thinking about which one to do next. I was planning to put them into a book, but Rebecca puts a backing on with the date and title and is keeping them in a box. I think it would be rather nice to make a fabric box to put them in, it can always sit with my row of fabric books.

This SAL is organised by Avis, please follow the links and see what everyone else has been stitching.

Avis, Claire, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen