This workshop was led by Mandy Pattullo, who is well known for finding innovative ways of using up scraps of vintage quilts, clothing and other needlework, often by appliqueing on top of them. She presented a method of creating a bird with fabric scraps, which was easy to follow and very enjoyable.
Here is my Christmas Robin using this technique.
I do not have any scraps of old quilt or patchwork so I chose a plain vintage handkerchief for my background and started by pinning it to a piece of ordinary white craft felt. I had some retro looking holly fabric so added a piece of that at the bottom to provide a bit of colour. I attached these together with machine stitch for speed - I was eager to get to the bird!
Mandy had stressed the importance of finding some source images and really observing how the different colours on the bird flow together. I sourced some photos and illustrations online. We were provided a template to use so I drew round that with a Frixion pen to mark the position and shape of the robin.
I then chose scraps of red, white and brown fabric to build up the robin. The advice we were given was to start with the white belly, then layer on the red breast, then the tail and finally the back and head. I enjoyed rooting through my fabrics to find scraps to use and built up quite a few layers in each section over a base of a single colour.
I used a few pieces of satin to add some shine. The eye in this photo is just a scrap cut out of a black and white flower as I couldn't decide if it was right without putting on a temporary eye to bring it to life a bit! All these scraps were then held down with tiny stab stitches using machine thread in matching colours to hold it in place ready for the embroidery.
I used 2 strands of embroidery floss to add the feather detail in white and cream on the belly, 2 shades of red on the breast and 2 shades of brown on the back, wing and tail. The stitches on the breast and belly were just straight stitches in the direction in which the feathers would grow. I ensured the white and red stitches overlapped at the bottom of the breast to blend the two areas a bit. Around the top of the face and down the side of the breast I added some grey stitches to reflect the grey bits on a real robin. For the wing and tail I couched down the floss with the same thread to provide a stronger line.
Next came the eye, beak and legs. The eye was satin stitched in black, with a brown back-stitched outline and a tiny white french knot for the highlight. Next the beak - I thought it would look better if it was angled more upwards than the template so I started with a straight stitch down the middle of the beak, then 2 long stitches for the top and the same for the bottom. It looked a little short so I unpicked it and made it longer! Finally the legs were also stitched with long back stiches in 2 strands of brown. Mandy had shown us how to come down one side, stitch the back toe and claw, then 3 front ones and then to go back up the other side of the leg. Finally I ironed the bird to get rid of the red pen outline. This did not disappear completely where I moved the beak, but is very feint - a lesson learned for future.
Finally I had a lot of white background to add interest to. I chose a scrap of lace, which I had to fit around the bird's tail, plus a square of the holly fabric reversed. I stitched these down with cream thread in small running stitches, carefully going all around the bird's tail. I then added some curved lines of hand quilting and finally some branches of berries. These were backstitched with 3 stands of brown floss and lots of different shades of red fabric for the berries, which are just held down with small stab stitches. To complete the piece I added some brown straight stitches around the bird's feet to 'ground' him with a suggestion of a shadow.
I am very pleased with how this has turned out and would like to try sewing other garden birds on vintage handkerchiefs and maybe even a butterfly.
