Aviarius: Red, Red Robin: from one extreme to the other.

I've been incubating this project for about 3 weeks. As it will take up a bit of  2017 stitching time, a New Year's Eve introduction seems appropriate.
Each August the Embroiderers' Guild of SA participates in the SALA (South Australian Living Arts) Festival. In 2017 our theme is Aviarius - birds. The Guild has prepared some fabric blocks that members can buy, embroider, and submit for our SALA Exhibition. The fabric blocks are hand-dyed and feature either a seagull, a wren, a robin or a group of bird shapes.

At the time I bought my blocks there were only seagulls and robins available. I chose one of each. I could immediately see what I would do with the seagull, but the robin had me stumped. I could only see Christmas cards. I'd have preferred a cockatoo, magpie, kookaburra or galah.                                                                                                                                                  

Eventually I began to think of other contexts for robins and hit upon songs, which led me to When the red, red, robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along. The more I considered it, the more excited I became.  It is still, or course, not Australian. It does, however, have a history, is well known, open to interpretation and above all, optimistic. I could see possibilities for telling a story.

The next day I went to the Guild and bought 7 more robin blocks - all that were available - and one group block.

I backed each of these with wadding and a piece of old, soft sheeting. I couldn't resist experimenting with one of them using some wool roving and felting needles.

In the meantime, I went back to Batik Fabrics Online and ordered some amazing striped batik that was at that time available in 270cm widths. I figured I could use the different stripes to mount each of my blocks.


When the fabric arrived it was breathtaking - I couldn't wait to get started.

Within two days I had cut and stitched the borders.

I then had nine blocks, ready to be embroidered with the story of the song. I was also playing around with embroidering the music and words on each block.








At this point I saw the Authentic Adelaide Exhibition at the Adelaide Town Hall. Amongst the exhibits was a quilt with a significant section of words printed on it. I came home and searched for products that would enable me to print on to fabric with transparency between the letters. This was not easy - but I found a product on eBay which sounded promising. I paid for express post.

It worked a treat. It comes with either gloss or matte sheets. The matte sheets were indeed transparent and did not leave the surface shine that the gloss ones produced.


I had to juggle the position to avoid the darker parts of the fabric.


I now have nine panels to embroider. Each one will illustrate the words on its border. At this stage I intend to back each  block with the batik fabric, quilt the borders with Kantha-style running stitch and join them with long stripes from the same fabric. This could, however, change as I progress.

I rushed to finish my knitted shawl so that I could start stitching a robin panel. It called to me! The seagull might  have to wait.

I can at least laugh at my own about-turn. One day I was grumbling about stitching one panel, 24 hours later I had 9 panels, and three and a half metres of batik fabric on the way.

Two more days and I am experimenting with printing on the fabric.

I'm in the grip of an idea.


This is a great place to be on New Year's Eve.It looks as if  that large Exhibition bag I made will be put to use in 2017!