Stella’s Birds – Stabby Bird (part 2)

I wanted to play with some really raised stitches.. The little woven picots on the crest are worked with one end off the fabric, around a pin, which meant that I could give them a twist before stitching them down. It was a bit fiddly – the pearl cotton I was using is a bit on the chunky side, so the needle was too, and the space I had for it was a bit on the small side to be in proportion.

I’m using pearl cotton and soft cotton in tandem on each of the birds – the soft cotton ended up on the wing. The pearl cotton ended up on the tail: Mountemellick Thorn stitch down the centre, Spanish Knotted Feather Stitch down the sides. That’s another stitch I really enjoy and haven’t made as much use of as I would like to.

This whole panel is full of insufficiently-often-used favourite stitches. It has felt a little like coming home. I need to find ways to do more!

Tail in place, Stabby Bird only needed beak and legs to be finished.

Oh, and the worm to stab. I used a few short lengths of soft cotton, couched in a crossing pattern. I had intended something much more substantial, but when it came to doing it, it seemed to me that that would be too much, unbalancing the piece. So there is a worm, but not a very emphatic one!

I may reconsider the legs when the whole thing is done – they look just a bit dark in this photo. We’ll see. Tweaking and rebalancing is best at the end, when the whole context gives me a chance to decide more easily and definitively.