Channelling Sue Spargo

I've been watching the updates come from Sue Spargo's blog as she works her way through Australia doing amazing folk art workshops with her sister, and loving the absolutely gorgeous embellishments that she and her students are creating. I've also been looking for new, small projects that I can whip up for the Holly Bazaar, (I think the ones I have been doing to date are more appropriate for the silent auction and I don't think that there will be one this year) so I guess it's no big surprise that the two thoughts have come together.

Little birds seemed like a good idea but they needed to be fairly fast to make and I wanted something a little graphic, rather than literal. So, a search landed me on the Pilgram blog and these sweet little birds that she made in December 2009. I liked the fact that they were three dimensional but they also seemed really open to interpretation, and, you know me, I can never do it exactly as presented so I started to play. The fact that she graciously included the pattern in her blog made things that much easier.

I have a really limited selection of felt available to me but I do have tons of red, white and cream that I bought last year for another project so that's where I started. And, as luck would have it, I had gotten a great deal on this gingham ribbon (buy 1 metre get 4! free). Now that I have a purpose for it I think I might need more...

Anyway, this was the result of my first effort. Isn't he cute? Indeed!

But a little traditional if we're channelling Sue...

so...I tried a different ribbon and I like it too so I will make both.

But when I was buying the ribbon I had also picked up a selection of beads, because Sue was playing around in my head (AND they were a great deal too - buy 1 get 2 free - it was my day!). So I moved to the white felt and a few scraps of brights that I had to see what I could do.

The embroidery took me back to one of the 4H courses that we did when we were growing up - I remember embroidering a dresser scarf with a huge selection of stitches. My first attempt for this deco I ripped out because the green stems weren't deep enough, and I doubt that I have created the stitch correctly, but it turned out well in the end.

I still need to decide what to do about the eyes and I'm thinking I'll hang this one with a very simple white cord so I've got a few more details to work out, but I'm really happy with them so far so it's time to cut out a few more and try new colour combos for the white. The cream might be a little more romantic because I've got tiny silk roses that I could use...M