25 - 7 - '25 . . . and another bird

For us
25 - 7
is a special day :
our first grandchild was born !
And today that moment is 24 years ago, how time flies !

*

Though
Stitch Club had a fun but "dark"workshop these last two weeks
by Ruth Norbury
I kept working on a new bird-piece
(for which I started the background during a zoom session of SC)
The bird I chose this time was the song thrush

Nowadays, finding a good photo of the animal you want to portray
isn't very difficult : so many lovely pictures on the net !

I liked this one especially 
because in our small front garden there is a rowan tree
which is visited by many birds when the berries (right now !) are ripe.
 

It starts with building up the bird with tiny scraps.

Stitching in the garden in summer is such FUN !

Though I don't do that always,
I backed these very small berry-bits with "vliesofix"
to stop fraying.

VERY fiddly leaves to stitch onto the background

The last step will be folding the excess bits on the side
so it fits on a 30 x 30 cm (painted) canvas

*

(and now it is time for Ruth Norbury )

:-)

tiny owl

Last month I've added one more to my considerable list of bird-pieces.
This time I pieced together a tiny owl
The tiniest of all owls,
not much bigger than a blackbird !

I made my first bird, a robin,
in the Stitch Club workshop by Many Pattullo
in December 2020.

She often re-uses pieces of old quilts
as a background in her work, but I piece mine together
with varies pieces and leftovers in the colours that I need
that I baste to a slightly bigger cotton background.
For the bird I start to look at many photographs
and then make a sketch of the position I like best,
to have a template to build up the bird with snippets of fabric.

Then comes the job of stitching all these tiny pieces together
(hmmmm, fiddly business)

When and eyes, beak, feet and some "feather-stitches" are added
I just have to make some extra stitches in the background.

The last task is painting a 20 x 20 cm canvas
and stitch the finished piece onto it !
(ohh, that last bit still has to be done !)

Ketikoti

July 1 is the day that is celebrated in Suriname
(and also here in The Netherlands)
to remember the abolition of slavery
(in 1863)
"Ketikoti" means in Sranantongo (Suriname's main language) : "broken chains"

On many Sundays these past months
we have been busy with the community stitch project
"Draden van ONS"

 In our province Zuid-Holland are many places
where people can participate, using felt,
quilting or embroidery.
I am one of the assistants in Rotterdam ( near Schiedam)
The design, made to look like stained glass windows,
is cut in small parts and then cloth, felt or stitch are added
and when finished assembled in bigger parts to put on the big screen.

Stitching on this big scale requires two people
that stitch as a team : one in front of the big screen
and one at the back.

If you live near Rotterdam
come and work with us :

Gustoweg 83

On Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays