While Richard and I were traipsing around the western states, I needed to keep myself busy. When I get bored, I come up with ridiculous ideas, which often get me into trouble. At the very least I share my ideas. Not a good idea. |
| The original bird from Preeti |
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| Close up to see the embroidery |
Knowing this, I packed some handwork. One of the items I carried with me is the little bird quilt that I started when Preeti (Sew Preeti Quilts) sent a left over bird from her "He Tweeted She Tweeted" quilt. It was such a generous gift that immediately made me think of love birds. So I made a second bird to face the first and connected them. When I began quilting, I simply stitched in the ditch to outline the birds. Then I "finished" the edges of the quilt with a zigzag seam so it wouldn't fray.
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| My addition |
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| Close up of their heads and faces. Both have a little cap--how about the feathers in one cap? |
That's where I stopped. My idea was that I would continue the quilting, including some thread painting, while we were traveling. Luckily, I decided before we left that some embroidery thread would do the trick, and I didn't need to pack some machine embroidery thread.
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| The back using the feather fabric that Preeti included in the gift. The little white stick is actually part of a broken plastic clothes hanger. |
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The back pocket holds a cross stitch that I started many years ago. I got halfway through the piece and found myself so lost that I abandoned it. I suppose I have so much work invested that I can't toss it.
Of course, having a nice little organizer doesn't mean that you're organized. Every time I wanted to work, I had to pull every skein out to find a color. I decided enough of that. Yesterday I started cutting cardboard into mini-spools. While watching TV, I wrapped about 25 spools with thread.
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| Still a few skeins of thread to wrap |
Today I cut more spools for the embroidery thread and some longer ones for the crewel thread. Digging through my stash, I found just enough rings so that I could sort colors. Now all of the blues are on one ring. I did the same with red, yellow/orange, green, purple, and neutrals. One ring will hold all of the crewel thread and another holds empty cardboard spools.
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| Much better! |
Honestly, I don't embroider very often, but I also dislike disorder and am hopeful I'll be more likely to pick up my needle now knowing that I'll be able to get to work quickly and easily. If nothing else, the embroidery stuff looks much neater.
Do you see what you started, Preeti? Talk about inspiration and motivation! That one little bird took me from quilting to embroidery to organizing. And the best part? I enjoyed every moment! Thank you again so much~
Lots of Linkups!
Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)
7 comments:
Where do I even begin? I sent the little leftover bird, thinking you'd give it a home - someday make a wall-hanging or a quilt. But look at what you did. You embellished here with embroidery and added dimension. She has really come to life in your hands. And the backing - I had almost forgotten about that sliver. The quilting is so neat - I love it. The best part is the communication between the two birds - one is obviously talking and the other is listening, atlas it seems that the speaker has her undivided attention. The eyes - must be the eyes. I may have started it but you own it!!!
There's no surprising you, sweet friend. The beak on the second bird was too small, so I decided to enlarge it without ripping several seams. So why not make him talk? He has a rapt listener, after all. Thank you for giving me such a fun little project. I thought of you often while working on it and, as I told you before, your bird reminds me of my mom.
Looks like you were very organised on this trip.
The finished birds look lovely. These are great to take away and work on when travelling.
I love organizing too. How cool that this block evolved you forward as it did!
You really took that little bird and ran with the idea, and where you ended up has made me smile. What a cheerful little pair.
Your birds look wonderful and I'm very impressed by your organised threads :)
We do thrive on inspiration and motivation, don't we? The birds are adorable!
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