Red, Red Robin Panel 9: When the Red, Red, Robin

The final panel in my Robins quilt began as a cluster of fairly generic birds. I cornered the market on robin panels and was short one panel. I figured I could adapt this one to suit my purposes. The plan is to turn these birds into a group of robins in a nest.





A bit of research told me that Scarlet Robins build cup-shaped nests in the forks of trees. They make the nests from twigs and leaves, bound together with spider web and plugged up with moss. I found a couple of stock images from Getty Images.



I began by sketching in an outline of the nest and branches and tweeking the shape of the birds.


I found it a bit hard to get the cup-shape around the group of birds without making it look huge.










A couple of days before I left for London, I paid a visit to Create in Stitch to find a range of threads that might serve as spider web and moss. I wanted to work on this while away and needed to take enough thread to keep me working and improvising - but not weighing me down.







I worked the birds first to help me define the area left for the nest, and to give me a colour-fix. I began to fill in the right side tree branch using Bokhara stitch to get a bit of texture. I finished working this on the plane from Sydney to Dubai, but didn't like the result. My tension was too tight - a product of not using a hoop, but also, I think, the length of the area I was working. Bokhara, I suspect, only works well on shorter distances.

I am not big on unpicking. but decided this one had to go.








Instead. I tried out the stitching we had used on the Phoebe Anne Trequair piece with Meredith Hahn Willett on the Scottish trip in 2015. I laid thread down on a diagonal angle and couched it down with back stitch. This enabled me to provide not only texture, but some notion of bark and markings on the tree.

Much happier.

















I decided to shorten the side of the nest to get the shape more cup-like.








Anxious (and curious! about how I would manage to get the nest as complex as the real thing, I worked a small area on one side.





I worked a series of straight lines (sticks) across, then filled in the spaces with a variety of threads, colours and stitches. I overlayed this with some rough needle-lace to create the spiderweb binding.


It seemed to work









so I set to work on the whole nest.













This kept me occupied for quite a while! I used a lot of stem stitch, some of it whipped, some chain stitch, double chain stitch (some of these also whipped) some fly stitch, Bokhara, feather, weaving, couching and a few French knots. Most photographs showed the nests as greyish.  Grey also helped me to keep the nest distinct from the birds.

As I neared the end, I decided the nest was better expanded to the original right-hand boundary, so I added that in again.


When I had finished the basic nest I worked the spiderweb needle lace in sections rather than covering the whole thing. I figured this is what birds would do - gather bits of spider web and attach it, rather than coercing a spider to spin web over the nest!

The silk I had used on my little test section was a flat grey. I decided that a slightly variegated light brown would work better, so I reworked that section as well. The web effect does not show up well in photographs, but looks quite good in reality. The wide grey band in the front would be better broken up - but I'm not going back!

The final stage of embroidery was to surround the nest with leaves - since they are built in the tops of trees. I only had three useful shades of green with me. I had managed to supplement my greys from a thread shop in Keswick, the greens were more elusive. I used the three shades I had, and a little brown. It isn't hugely varied, but works, I think, well enough for a Eucalypt.


By now I was concerned that the amount of embroidery on the nest - worked without a hoop - had severely distorted the fabric in a couple of places. I thought I would be able to block it back into shape, but was anxious to try it.

I was by now staying in a hotel near Hampton Court and had almost a week before I would be home.
















I improvised with what I had to hand and blocked the piece overnight.





To my relief it straightened up. There is still a bit of slack in it and I will block it again when I get home - but I know I have a usable block. It isn't perfect - but I have learned so much from this block alone. I am discovering, amongst other things, that I like narrative embroidery (not surprising, I guess - I like narrative!). I wonder where that is going to take me? (Not, methinks, into serious quilting!)



































I will probably stitch over the wording on this one with black thread, maybe in the next couple of days. My eyes needed a bit of a rest before I tackle it.

When I get home I can back this one and quilt the edges. Then I need to MEASURE, trim and cut the joining strips. Can't wait to see it all together!

Red, Red, Robin Panel 8: Singin' a Song

Panel 8 is one of few words. I decided  'singin' a song' deserved its own panel. While the last panel  seeks to capture many of the activities I enjoyed as a child, I felt that singing deserved a panel of its own. My childhood was full of singing - both my parents sang as they went about their work, we sang around my grandparents' pianola, we sang at school and church. Even on those lunchtimes at Primary School when it rained and we were confined to eat in a classroom, we entertained ourselves by singing popular songs. My mother had two Hawaiian guitars she sometimes played and my father joined in with a paper and comb. This panel is a tribute to those times.

This is the panel on which I experimented with needle felting before I even began stitching the first panel! I happened to have some red roving, and couldn't resist temptation. So when I finally got to this panel, I thought I should keep going and needle-felt the whole bird. I'm not sure what this means for cleaning the quilt, but I figure I will  probably have it dry cleaned, so hopefully it will survive.

Of course, I had no black or white roving so set off to Spotlight and bought a bag of undyed roving in black and white and set about felting it into position.



It is a lot quicker than stitching!

The rest of the panel, however, made up for the time I saved. I began by adding a church choir.

and followed this up with a version of my high school choral group.

My mother would not be flattered by my version of her playing the guitar. My choice of variegated thread (to hand rather than carefully selected)along with my over-enthusiastic black French knots, has her resembling a clown.








The group around the pianola was a little more successful. I quilted the spaces in between with some musical notes.

I have continued to use the heavy stitching to quilt the borders and have stitched around the outside of the robin to create an outline on the back.

I really enjoyed stitching this one - it was a creative challenge and I'm pleased with the overall look.

I have been working on the last panel while I've been travelling in the UK. I hope to have it finished and the account posted before I leave for home next weekend.

Red Robin Panel 6: Rain May Glisten

I am currently in the England, in the Lakes District, to attend the Spring Residential with The Crewelwork Company. I have set up a travel blog where I will be writing about the Residential. Interested readers are welcome to visit the travel blog.

In the wake of the reverse applique work of the African Tribal Inspired workshop from the Embroiderers' Guild Summer School, I thought I'd have a go at reverse appliqueing a robin. I tried it with a male bird which has simpler whole colours rather than the varied browns of the female.
I began by adding a layer of black cotton to the back of a panel. It was already backed in white sheeting, so that became the middle layer

The red layer I inserted from the front after cutting out the whole of the basic robin shape. It required rather a lot of pins to hold the layers in place and to catch on my thread as I stitched - but it worked.














I could then embroider the bird with feathery stitches and add some greenery. This time I decided on a flowering gum.




The size of the robin, is, of course, out of proportion to the leaves. This might be a pre-historic giant ancestor of the modern Scarlet Robin.

I used Ghiordes knots for the blossom.














 
For the glistening rain I found a metallic in pale, watery colours. Here is the singer of the song, sitting under her umbrella listening 'for hours and hours'.

The metallic doesn't show up well in photographs - but it does glisten!

Here's the total panel. You can see that the central robin panel is smaller for this one than most of the others. This is just the way it came from the Guild and will make, I think, the finished quilt quite interesting.

Red, Red Robin Panel 5: What if I've been blue, still I'm walking through fields of flower

http://www.rosstours.com/wa-wildflowers/

I thought the lovely blue on this panel was most appropriate for the next line in the song. I considered a range of cottage garden options for the panel, but settled on using a photograph of Western Australian wildflowers as inspiration. The photo comes from Ross Tours.

I'm working on alternating the male and female robins from panel to panel. This one is a female. I had to go and buy more stranded thread in browns and greys - it's not a colour range I have used extensively and I need variegations for the female robin.

She really stands out against the blues.

My goal was to get the sense of the WA field of flowers without totally covering the blue background

I used a wider range of pinks than the photo and included fewer stems but kept the perspective of larger foreground and smaller background flowers.

There is a little person walking through the field.



















The orange edging really helps.

I have moved from using machine thread to hand-quilt the panel borders to using three strands of variegated stranded cotton. I rather like the effect. Its more Japanese chiku-chiku and less Kantha.

Red Robin Panel 3: Wake up, wake up you sleepy head, get up, get up, get out of bed.

I'm working at the moment on a plan to alternate the male and female Scarlet Robins on each panel. This may change as I see how they are fitting together. This one, however, is a female and I worked her in stem stitch again.

To tell the story I began with a series of little hammocks slung from trees across the top of the panel. The hammocks are worked in needle-lace.

Underneath each hammock is the shape of a tiny person. The hammock can be lifted to reveal the sleeper underneath.

The more difficult part was embroidering sleeping people inside buildings. I hesitated between a home and a dormitory - such as a camp or shearers' quarters. In the end I went for a hybrid.I tried for straight and neat - but ended more Grandma Moses! This bit is shapes only - nothing to lift and reveal the sleepers.

The birdsong in this panel is my attempt to capture the song of the Scarlet Robin itself. I am not a musician and do not read music more than knowing one note is higher or lower than another. I found some recordings of Scarlet Robin birdsong  and played them over and over, trying to gain a sense of the way the notes might flow.  This time I worked the notes and sound waves before I added the panel back!

I also stitched over the words on this panel. I'm not happy with the 'take' of the printed words.

Finally I added the back panel and quilted lines around the borders of the panel. It's a bit wonky and crude but I think the story is there.

I'm enjoying this move into what is turning out to be narrative embroidery.