{"id":16299,"date":"2026-02-24T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16299"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:01:32","slug":"bitey-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/24\/bitey-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Stella’s Birds – Bitey Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Mountmellick<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I decided that all the birds would have the variegated thread in them, and that it would be used to outline the body as a starting point. In the case of Bitey Bird, I used a single thread (“Watercolours” is separable into three plies, each of them just like a pearl cotton in behaviour) and started with Mountmellick Thorn Stitch. I did a second row to give Bitey a bib (as it were), and while it looks a little stiff as I concentrate on it, it will probably settle nicely when the whole panel is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of Bitey was worked during the MathsJam Gathering, and I took no more photos of work in progress, so cue me desperately trying to remember what I did….<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Close<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So here we go.. Hungarian Braided Chain for the bird’s head and back – see how it’s not such a thirsty stitch as the Mountmellick Thorn, so the colour changes spread out more? Vandyke stitch to separate the feathers, Cretan Stitch for the crest, Coral stitch in various other places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had specific areas I planned to make strongly raised, particularly the leading edges of the wings, so in this case I used Buttonhole Stitch, padded with chain stitch. I do love that redundant but highly ornamental spiral!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I finished Bitey – to a first approximation! – ten minutes before the formal part of the MathsJam Gathering ended, knowing, however, that various changes would be needed once I had the whole thing before me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much changed, in the end – the beak darker, and outlined rather than solid, and the legs darker too. And now he looks nicely ornamental and joyfully voracious. Just as he should!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I decided that all the birds would have the variegated thread in them, and that it would be used to outline the body as a starting point. In the case of Bitey Bird, I used a single thread (“Watercolours” is separable into three plies, each of them just like a pearl cotton in behaviour) and… Continue Reading Stella’s Birds – Bitey Bird<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[272,25,271,281,14,270,22],"class_list":["post-16299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-designing","tag-experiments","tag-gentian-hill","tag-mountmellick-work","tag-ornamental-stitches","tag-stellas-birds","tag-stitches","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16299"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16378,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16299\/revisions\/16378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}