..... and real ones too! The fantasy bird will (hopefully) appear on Saturday, during the workshop with Sheena Norquay, which I am really looking forward too. We will be printing on plain fabric with fabric paints, then machine embroidering/quilting a fantasy bird with our printed fabric. Before that, Sheena is giving a talk tomorrow evening about her work and the influence that Orkney, where she is originally from, has had on her quilts. Do click on the link and look at the various sections on the left-hand sidebar - I have been a great fan of her work for many years, ever since I saw her stunning quilt 'The Three Norns'. Fingers crossed that I will be able to take photos to share with you.
The real birds are,of course, the ones that frequent our feeders in the front garden ....... starting with the irresistible robin
Just one of the (at least) two dozen sparrows, which rule the garden and bully all the other birds!
This great tit's head is slightly blurred, as it moved its head, but you can see the detail of its feathers and feet
Look at the size of it on the fatball feeder ........
..... and compare it to the tiny coal tit (sorry, it's a little bit blurred).......
If those two are little and large (or should that be large and little) then the blue tit is medium!
I have mentioned that I was inspired to do the Farmer's Wife blocks after seeing Krystine's beautiful blocks. I love the fabrics she has been using, and have finally managed to track some down - these eight delicious fat quarters arrived in the post on Tuesday
I have continued to do mine using up the left overs from the row quilt - I have now finished all the main outline quilting ...... can you see the many ends I have still to sew in? (click on the phpoto to enlarge it)
When I cut out the pieces of the first block, I laid them out ready to stitch, but something wasn't right.....
...... having turned round the two triangles on the right , I was ready to stitch ....
....... but I was concentrating so hard on matching up my seams, I forgot to insert the edges of the basket handle!
Having finally got that one right, it was on to the second block.
As I was putting the blocks on the design wall, I remembered that they are actually set on point in the quilt (the handle of the basket is pinned - I ran of of time to stitch it!)