Busy Birds

Another busy week is almost over and for my sins I am full of cold.
I have decided to stay at home today. After some initial house chores I will disappear into my work room and carry on with the little pin cushions and needle cases I have been mulling over in the evenings in preparation for the Landmark Arts Textiles Fair that begins next Friday the 13th March.
My room overlooks the garden and I hope very much in between stitching to glance up and hopefully catch a little garden bird being busy in preparation of nest building.
I watched a female blackbird yesterday in the garden of the Colour Factory Studio building her nest. I was mesmerised, and when I thought it was safe to nip out and observe her labours without causing her distress I peered into the hedge to witness her incredible nest building skills. Her hard work had certainly paid off, it was beautiful, made of old grass and small light weight twigs. I cant wait to see her eggs, that lovely light blue speckled wonder of delight.
At present this blackbird and her nest are in my head and I wonder if she will fly out and into one of my embroideries.

I love the wood cut prints of Thomas Bewick. He captured the world around him so delightfully in his prints. The contemporary scenes of everyday life he recorded we know now that those life styles were so hard and demanding on body and soul. The little prints are like visual poems and some of my favorite prints are his interpretation of birds.

One of the students last Tuesday at the one day workshop with the Marlborough Embroiderers' Guild stitched delightful studies of a tin toy bird. Her composition was simple and well placed on the 'fabric page' that she was working on and then finished off with some little french knots to represent seed.
Everybody in the class worked so hard, so much looking and observing at the still life and then recording their vision with stitch lines. I love the results so much of a hard days labour with a group of stitchers. I love to hold a 'show and tell' at the end of the class where every ones work can be seen by all the class members and cooed over with proud delight and relish in the simple pleasures of looking, recording and of course sewing.