{"id":16314,"date":"2026-03-24T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16314"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:48:20","slug":"stellas-birds-stabby-bird-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/03\/24\/stellas-birds-stabby-bird-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Stella’s Birds – Stabby Bird (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Crest<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Tail in place, Stabby Bird only needed beak and legs to be finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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… Continue Reading Stella’s Birds – Stabby Bird (part 2)<\/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-16314","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\/16314","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=16314"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16321,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions\/16321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}