A Little Birdie Sent a Tweet . . .

I already posted this on my Facebook page earlier today, but thought you might like to be re-entertained. I wrote:

I'm sitting outside on my patio drawing designs on this beautiful sunny Oregon afternoon, and I heard a birdie making a big chirp up in a tree. I tried to track him and finally saw him. Some of his cousins showed up and they all had a great time.
     
And I thought what fun it would be to be a little bird -- nothing to do all day long except hop from one high tree branch to another, just having a good time. And what a view they must have from up there, looking down on all of... us "little people" and cats.

 
However, there are two sides. Birds have to eat with their feet, they don't have thumbs, and they also fly into windows and knock themselves silly.
 
I guess it's OK to be a people, but now and then birdies look like they are having a really good time.

So my mind left my body for a few moments there. 
          And then an idea for a new Brazilian dimensional embroidery design popped into my head. A few years ago I designed "B.E. a Tree". This year I am designing "B.E. an Owl". Must have been those birdies....

I've stitched owls before, this one reminded me of the song, "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly...":

That above design is Millefiori #959 "The Balance of Nature", named to show that life eventually balances itself. Which reminds me of this bit of humor found on the Internet (I am not sure who to credit, but it's funny anyway so I thank them.)

This is the stitched center of the design, the part that is all Brazilian embroidery:

I also stitched these owls as part of my "Wind Chimes" design (Millefiori #8005):

This was a happy family of owls just hangin' out.

 Mom and Dad above, and the little guy below.

And I designed this little Hooty Owl family for my Millefiori Design #857 "Crazy Quilt Pillow" (I still have some left if you can't wait to stitch an owl!!):



Here's the rest of the design:



I'll share the newest owl design as soon as I have it stitched. At the moment I'm planning to teach it at BDEIG Seminar 2015.

Here is my inspiration, watching every move I make in hopes that one of the motions with my hands will produce a kitty treat or two:

This is my other inspiration. I have two yellow roses in my garden. I think this one is Gold Medal. It just bloomed a couple of days ago ... hanging onto summer for as long as possible.

Now I'll get busy with my little birdies. --and a couple of other new designs that are percolating. Stay tuned!

Rosalie

 

Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery and The Balance of Nature

I have SO much stuff in my camera, but have been busy, or I'd be writing more bloggy things. At the moment, I discovered this little hooty owl among my Millefiori Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs. Many of you have probably already met this guy?  "WHooo?"

Friendly, isn't he? Not. Of course, it could be a good case of indigestion.

“The Balance of Nature” (Millefiori design #959 - available for stitching if you are feeling "sociable") is about the food chain as it relates to Brazilian embroidery and was inspired by the children’s rhyme, “There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly…” 

The magnificent owl, a bird of the night and a bird of prey, is associated with wisdom. Our owl is wise enough to capture some interesting creatures and flowers in Brazilian embroidery along with his lunch and its lunch and its lunch, etc.

Innards include another kitty cat, a bird and a mouse that already has an “x” on its eye, plus sunflowers, monarda, asclepias and zinnia. The owl’s perch is a realistic log resting on a bed of ferns.

 

Framing the owl  is a nicely plump and well-fed kitty cat which can be embroidered or a pattern used for transfer to a wooden plaque (included with the fabric print and instructions). I bought my wooden plaque at JoAnn Stores and painted it with acrylic enamel paint (I found a really pretty copper color). I think I used my black Sharpie pen to do some of the outlining. Then I used my MS Word program and printed the title onto paper, glued it to balsa wood and found a nice fat needle to poke into the side of the design. See?

The "tummy" part of this design - the owl and its dinner 'fixins'" are printed on fabric. I used some interesting stitches, some fairly simple.

 

The little sunflowers are my favorite, though, and I've used them elsewhere. They start with a drizzle (double) with a long bullion that fits around the outside of the drizzle, and next I worked a row of detached buttonhole stitches through the drizzle loops and around the bullion (for support).

 

You'll also see that I added my Ridged Blanket Stitch fern to this design. I've written about it previously on this blog.

 I have instructions for the sunflower (I give it a different name depending on where I use it...) in my book My LadyFlowers by Rosalie Wakefield. Here's a better picture:

Sorry about the blur. Maybe I will re-shoot some of these pictures.

 

Anyway, since it's springtime (almost), the idea of birds comes to mind. (I'm keeping my cats away from owls, though!) As you can see, Cuthbert and Emmy could care less.

Rosalie

Name That Bird. . . .

.....so ....this morning as I was reading the Sunday paper and having a cup of coffee, I looked up - out the kitchen window and saw ....

A bird!  A bird! Of course, we have lots of birds here ...#212 scrub jays (which I really like because of their color), finches, chickadees, an occasional flicker, little executioner birds (black hoods on their heads -- I think they have an "official" name), hummingbirds. But this morning, the bird was RED. Not pink or burgundy or scarlet, or any other shade except #152 RED.

He wasn't alone. He brought the family ... about a half dozen more just like him, a few not quite as RED.

I live in Oregon's Willamette Valley and haven't ever seen these before, so I got out my camera, turned some knobs trying to get close....

I decided to investigate with the help of my pal, Google. We had Evening Grosbeaks a couple of years ago, either coming or going, north or south, passing through back yards, stopping to flutter their wings and have some sunflower seeds, and then flying away again. I thought this might be another grosbeak.  Here are more pictures.

I think they are related to finches and this other birdie (below, on the left) is either a finch or a female whatever....

--both posing obligingly for the camera.

And even allowing me to snap a close-up photo:

I think this might be something called a Pine Grosbeak. Google thinks so, too.
If anyone else is SURE this is a different birdie, please leave a comment or email to let me know, as I haven't ever seen one of these in person (in bird??).

Thanks. They were here for about 20 minutes, a half dozen of these pretty birds, and then they flew away. My coffee was cold, my camera battery needed re-charging, but it was worthwhile for such a colorful way to start the morning.

Rosalie

 

Mom Nature and Her Sauna

Mother Nature has been really busy here in western Oregon this past week - we have had enough rain to make puddles in the Portland area.  BIG puddles. Well, "Mom" calls it a sauna, and you can see that the little finches are really enjoying themselves.

Yes, that's a nasturtium that decided to finally take off and grow - just in time for a frost, whenever it comes - probably in January.

Cuthbert is skipping the birdie show, which he calls "Television for Cats" so that he can help me finish this mindless jigsaw puzzle.

I'm working on a freebie design for you to stitch - just need to get the photos looking reasonably nice. It will be in my next post.

Rosalie

The Rare Mirrored Finch

Just before I got my camera, this birdie feeder was covered with little finches. One of them ended up eating at the foot of the table.

Others parked up and down along the thistle feeder. The thistle seeds that fall to the ground are a special treat for the little doves that stop by every now and then.

Rosalie

I Will Now Brazilian Embroider a Teacup

Here's my project.

Each year the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc. (BDEIG) has a fundraising project for scholarships to our annual BDEIG Seminar. You can read more about it here. Our theme for the year 2013 is "Tea, Thyme and Lavender", so our Scholarship Quilt Committee is planning to make a wall hanging. Members sign up to stitch a block.

We can stitch flowers or anything else that we choose. So I went in search of pictures and templates, floss, beads and pen:

I will stitch a flower and the "anything else" will be a cat, tucked comfortably into the teacup. I've done this a time or two before:



This little kitten was inspired and adapted from a graphic I found on the Internet. I stitched the kitten and teacup as part of a gift for one of our guild's outgoing presidents. Several of us stitched our choice of designs. I knew she liked kitties, so that's why a kitten was my contribution.

One of our BDEIG Scholarship Fundraising Projects was the "Critters in a Jar" quilt and so I stitched a similar design with a kitten holding a label:

I like this kitten best and will probably use it. I'm not the best artist when it comes to drawing animals correctly, but if you think about it -- everything is just an oval or a circle or a triangle. When you look at it that way, you can draw almost anything! Cire is great for silky kitten fur and can even be brushed a bit.

Speaking of cats ...
     I wrote to our BDEIG Online Chapter the other day, asking about a remedy for those little finches that keep crashing into our window. You might have read about them here. Several people suggested window stick-ums, but I found another solution. It's temporary, and VERY moveable, but when it's in place the little finches scatter to the four winds:

Yes, it's Cuthbert.
    Not only is the view just like "Television for Cats", it also saves the finches a lot of headaches, concussions, whatever.

Oh, wait.  We were speaking of flowers, somewhere in here. I just happened to wander my Back 40 the other day and found some interesting things in bloom.
This is a hollyhock in my side yard with a bee visiting:

The hollyhocks are so tall that I just pointed my camera UP to get this picture:

The coneflowers are blooming. This year I remembered to tie them up.

And this is the seed pod:

But this is my favorite picture today. It's my polyantha rose named "The Fairy" and each batch of flowers is like an entire bouquet. It's been growing in my Oregon garden for over 30 years. 





Maybe I should go shopping for some NEW roses. But I think I will stitch my teacup first.

Rosalie



 



If I Wanted To Embroider A Finch

It's not like I don't have enough material:

These little critters are always flying into our picture window and knocking themselves silly.  I can tell by the "BONK!"

 

My kitty Emmy can always tell, too. But I raced outside just as Emmy was on her way to explore that interesting sound, and I found this little birdie, almost with "+'s" on its eyes.

So I rescued him.  (All together now, say, "aaaaaaw!") I placed him on top of our barbeque, out of Emmy's reach, and ran to get my camera. He wasn't planning to go anywhere any time soon.

 

And I promised myself I wouldn't post any pictures if he toppled over on his side, feet in the air, a real goner.



 

But he re-grouped and flew off after a while. Emmy slept in the lounge chair the entire time, oblivious to the fact that her "wannabe dessert" was within a short hop.

 

And I was lucky enough to end up with some pretty close-up photos ... just in case I ever decide I want to embroider a finch.

Rosalie



 

What? Two Whole Weeks??

Well, I've been away ... busy at our BDEIG Seminar, teaching, learning, visiting with some of the nicest people ever.  Thanks to you who mentioned this blog. I hope you'll sign up ... that little space over there on the left side will bring these messages into your email box each time I write.

I'm planning to write about a new flower I just thought up, will include instructions and a photo, and I'm also going to do a picture tutorial on our detached buttonhole stitch -- something most of us avoid with great enthusiasm. I guarantee you will like it when I've finished showing you some tips and tricks.

Meanwhile, I've taken the days since I've been home decomposing, or de-compressing, or whatever it is you do when you've been playing at working for a fun-filled week. I've been catching up in my garden -- the weeds were enthusiastically having their way with my yard while I was gone.

You all know I have a chickadee tree. If you look at that cloud of subjects over there on the right, you can read all about them. Well, we have lots of little chickadees hanging out. I know they are babies because they are busy dive-bombing Emmy. Silly Emmy, thought she might catch one, but I outsmarted her and lured her into the house and shut the door.

There were so many baby chickadees that I just pointed the camera and snapped pictures. Of course, I deleted several that were just leaves. But that's one of the babies up there!

Next to the chickadee tree I have a cherry tree:

It's a three-way graft - Van, Royal Anne, Lambert. This year it was LOADED with cherries, so I pulled out the stepladder and the pruning shears. I prune a high branch, pull the cherries off and go on to the next branch. While I was up there, I looked over and saw one of the baby chickadees happily munching on a cherry. (There are enough for all. I picked 2 gallons from this one tree.)

Usually the bluejays telegraph their friends and family that the cherries are ripe, but this year, I put up the Bluejay Discourager:

They never came.

Again, thanks to all of you who come to visit this blog. I'll do Brazilian embroidery next ... unless the cats do something silly.

Rosalie

A Towhee, A Cat and Water, aka Rain

It is raining today in western Oregon -- actually, it's Oregon Mist and I think people missed it after a week of sunshine when we all planted our flowers.

About the rain:

This is a Towhee testing the bathtub waters, and it is raining here.  I will never understand why birds feel the need to take a bath when it is raining.

But he seems happy as a clam, so I'm glad he's here.

Speaking of water ...
This is a picture of one of my cats, Cuthbert, at the ole' watering hole:

Requesting privacy so he can enjoy his drink. Or just ignoring the photographer.

About this time, Rich came out to the kitchen and asked, "Don't you think you have enough pictures of that cat?"

I ignored him and snapped a couple more.
This one is captioned, "May I please have a straw?"

And this is a picture of Cuthbert saying grace after meals:

And because everyone has so patiently enjoyed pictures of the birds and my cats, I will now entertain you with a brand new post and pictures of my Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery. Thanks for visiting!

Rosalie

Canary, Chickadee, Cat and Brazilian Embroidery

This is one of the canaries who stop by the Canary Cafe in our back yard for lunch each day. (American goldfinch).  We also have house finches (with red caps on their heads). This little canary is having sack lunch.

The chickadees are nesting now. This one is checking with the wife for "carry-out":

And this is Cuthbert, who looks like "the cat who wishes he could eat the canary", but he will have to content himself with just being "His Massive Wonderfulness".

And since I haven't posted any embroidery in a day or two, here is my "Cloud Nine Dogwood", one of my Millefiori Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs that I'll be teaching at our BDEIG Seminar in Portland next month. That border is a stitch I developed which I call the Interlocking Stem Stitch. I use it a lot, and have written instructions in my book, Take A Stitch. I also tried a new technique for "notching" the dogwood petals, which was fun to try.

Bye for now!

Rosalie