For the second panel of my Robins quilt (chronological not stitching order) I tried appliqueing the bird. Having seen the Tentmakers of Cairo documentary late last year, I wanted to try adapting their appliqué method. Mine is called 'Tentmakers with pins'.I used, as the tentmakers do, a rough-cut piece of fabric, but kept it small and used pins to hold it roughly in place, adjusting as I went. It worked quite well.
Once I had appliqued the four pieces in place I embroidered the edges and wing. I am very pleased with the result. It will only work, I think, for the male bird. The complex browns of the female bird would only work if I found a fabric that matched the subtlety of the bird.
I had decided from the beginning to try to tell this line of the story using emojis - moving from sad, to 'wow' to happy.
It proved harder than I anticipated. The sad emoji gave me no trouble.
I struck trouble, however with 'wow'.
Getting that open mouth and eye look was not easy. I tried outline only, black fill, black fill with white inside then back to all black. I couldn't get the exact shape I wanted.
In the end, I went on to add the sound waves and notes that complete the story and voila! it lifted the emoji to the message I was after.
The effect is exactly what I wanted. The mistake I made was to add the backing and quilt the sound waves through all layers. I'd have been better to have kept the back consistently stitched around the bird shape and border only. I do, however, have a Plan B.
I hand-quilted straight lines around the borders and am well satisfied with the result. Since completing it I have realised that reverse applique might have worked better for the emojis. Next time! 
