I’ve been away from my sewing room for a couple of days. After taking care of business this morning, I was able to start working on some fun stuff.
One of my sons lives on the Texas coast and he took this fantastic photo of a Great Blue Heron. This is one of my favorite birds, and I appreciated the photo. I decided to make a thread sketch of the bird. I thread sketched the body of the bird on grey polka-dot fabric that was backed with a fusible batting. Then I cut the bird out. The background scene was made with two blue fabrics and a beige one. I hand stitched these pieces and then I glued the body of the bird. I then thread sketched on the outer edge of the bird and sketched some detail, such as the feather on top of the head, the wing, and the eye. I also thread sketched the legs.

The gypsy wife quilt has been on hold for a bit. Today, I made seventeen of the 23 square in a square block. A few days ago, I had pre-cut the pieces, so it didn’t take long to piece the seventeen blocks.

On my last visit to Las Colchas, my friend, Francine, and I were talking about embroidery and hand-sewing. She showed me this book, The Geometry of Hand-Sewing by Natalie Chanin. I am enjoying learning from this book. Before I bought the book, I had started working on a piece of recycled denim and scraps. I tried out some of the stitches, using the templates that are provided in the book. The uneven hand-sewing on the block, was done before I had the book. It is going to be fun to keep trying things out. Natalie Chanin hand sews designs on clothing, and her work is beautiful.