The Last Three

My three remaining pieces for the holiday quilt were all executed in embroidery but in very different styles.  For the first piece I used the Birmingham Museum's mock up of Staffordshire Hoard ornamentation as the basis for my first design. 

Birmingham Museum's reproductions from the Staffordshire Hoard

I love the intricacy and fine ornamental shapes in the top item but also wanted to incorporate the bright red garnets which featured in so many of the treasures found in the hoard.  My design quickly took shape but the stitching was not so straight forward.  The red bead 'garnets' didn't stand out against my bronze thread and the ornamental shapes in the design would also be lost.  The gold version of this thread wasn't a very attractive colour so after some experimentation on a try-out piece I settled on a bronze outline filled in with variegated yellow to represent the reflections of shiny gold.  The red beads and red sequin eye stand out on the paler background and I was pleased with this interpretation of my design.

My Staffordshire Hoard bird

 On one of our walks we came across a large family of swans, 7 cygnets came across the canal in the hope of being fed but they were out of luck.  I pondered a design of 7 cygnets but even in very basic outline the resulting square would have been out of proportion to the rest of the quilt.  I settled for just one cygnet sewn in long and short stitch in various greys and I have to admit it gave me some trouble.  Luckily the fabric stood some unpicking when I inadvertently used a green-grey on the body and then again in my attempts to complete the bill within the outline.  And after all that I am not really happy with the result so there might well be a rethink and another version of the cygnet at a later date!

The cygnet which may be replaced

I may not have saved the best to last but it certainly was the easiest, a little mouse from the vesta box. 

The mice on the vesta box in the Jewellery Museum

The mice on the box were carved with little detail beyond the outline so I've represented this with a simple outline sewn in stem stitch, my favourite stitch.  The black bead eye was attached with the not so popular invisible thread.  

The little mouse sewn on calico

So now my animal squares are complete my creation moves into it's next stage, the patchwork canal and it will be interesting to see how that works out.