In a recent post on her wonderful blog, Layers of Meaning, Serena Fenton mentioned that a bird sitting on a branch seems to be the image of the moment and is getting to be a bit of a cliche. She's right, but I have loved bird images for a long time. Really, I'm not following a trend. (Really!) I may get sick of looking at them, too, but not yet. So I did another bird piece. This was, of course, inspired by watching the birds in my yard during the past week's snows. This guy is an Oregon Junco, which are such sweet, feisty little birds. They seem to hang around all winter
This is another small piece—9" square. The white snowflakes are embroidered, which was an exceedingly tedious final step, and something I don't normally do. In fact I nearly gave up on it as the initial flakes looked odd and out of character. I just had to trust that it would all come together, and I think it did. That piece of background fabric, with tiny stars and dots was wondrous. It was a freebie, compliments of my friend June Underwood and her front porch fabric giveaway last summer.
Love your little junco--he looks like he has his feathers all floofed out to keep himself warm. For a couple of years I had a little one-legged junco that visited my deck. I loved watching that scrappy little guy getting most of the seeds in my feeder!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I love reading your blog. I love popping in once a day to see how things are in your neck of the woods. Thanks for keeping touch in this way.
Terry, I love your bird. That snowy fabric is so perfect, and this piece evokes such a wintry feeling! I have the same attraction to birds and nests, despite their current trendiness.
ReplyDeleteI like your bird too, and think that the snowflakes are worth every minute it took to embroider them. The image wouldn't be nearly as nice without them.
ReplyDeleteI like you bird a lot and I don't find it cliche at all. I can imagine that it took a lot of courage to keep doing all those snowflakes.
ReplyDeleteYour work is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering what those little birds were. Beautiful piece.
ReplyDeletehave you noticed that blog roll has totally disappeared. HELP!!
Just stunning.
ReplyDeleteTerry,
ReplyDeleteDid you notice that the colors of your bird piece precisely echo the colors of the photographs you posted immediately before that? What fun.
Terry,
ReplyDeleteI don't think your bird is cliche at all. It is very nice and the snow stitches were worth it.
-Lisa
I keep coming back to your blog to take another look at that sweet bird.
ReplyDeleteThe embroidery for the snow was perfect.
It's a perfect little piece, Terry. Juncos are regular visitors to our backyard feeder; there's something so elegant about them.
ReplyDeleteis this the piece you referred to on my blog? If so, this is beautiful and I will take your advice and trust it will all come out alright!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great little bird! It really feels like a cold wintry day in that image. How can we ever get tired of pictures of lovely little creatures like that one!
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