Helen arrived with a wonderful array of embroidered birds, [ see above] that she had embroidered and brought to inspire us. She loves birds and spends a lot of time watching them and you could see from her embroideries that each one has a character of its own from her close observations.
Most of our members had already chosen the bird they wanted to embroider and had brought a picture. For those who wanted to change their mind or choose a different picture Helen has a wide choice of birds as templates.
After choosing our background material Helen demonstrated how to transfer the bird outline and a few salient lines onto the material. We could draw by hand, use the lightbox or trace through the material.
We then coloured in by using crayons for fabric. This would provide colour under our stitches and provide colour where we wanted to do light stitching.
Once the bird had been coloured we were ready to add stitch and Helen suggested a few stitches but said it was up to us but she would offer suggestions if needed. So we chose our coloured threads and began to embroider. Feather stitch, straight stitch and blanket stitch were some of the favourites.
Helen suggested we built up layers of stitch to provide depth, colour and texture on our birds. As stitching progressed beautifully coloured birds began to appear.
We took our birds home to finish and we are looking forward to seeing them when complete.
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| Photograph courtesy of Helen Walsh |
It was a good fun-filled day and we had great enjoyment as our birds started to appear. Our thanks go to Helen for inspiring us, sharing her knowledge and encouraging us to have fun with our stitching.
Thank You Helen for a good day.
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