Springtime felt birds

Spring has finally arrived and with the sun shining at the weekend I made the most of the opportunity to get some bright sunlit photos of a newly finished project - some springtime felt birds.

I love working with felt - it's probably my favourite material because it's so versatile and easy to work with. These little birds are a great opportunity to mix together different colours, patterns and embellishments. The combination possibilities are endless.

The purple flowery material is part of a fat quarter bundle I bought at Hobbycraft a while ago. I think the fabric adds a simple hint of springtime to the birds when combined with the blue and purple felt,whilst the yellow ribbon and sequins provide a good splash of contrast.

The birds are so light that they easily fluttered around in the breeze whilst they hung in the tree.

A little bit of embroidery

At the end of last week I saw a post on the Glee and cakes blog of a lovely piece of embroidery. This reminded me how much I enjoyed embroidery when I finished a couple of small individual motifs a while ago. So I raided the fabric stash for a piece of plain material, some threads and a needle and got going.

You can draw the design straight on to the fabric using washable fabric pencils. Once the design was drawn out it was time to start sewing - picking difference stitch types as I went. I decided I wanted quite a simple look so I chose to use only three colours of thread throughout - blue, white and purple. I also only used four types of stitch - lazy daisy, chain stitch, couching, and french knots.

I really like the finished design and the process of making it. Now just to decide what design to do next...