Thursday, 24 May 2012

Where the wild things are

People often ask me why birds appear so much in my work. I know it sounds weird but I had a recurring dream when I was little. In the dream I didn't watch birds, I was a bird. Or at least I could fly like a bird. I still have vivid memories of how it felt to fly over the house where I lived as a child. Now before you consult an analyst on my behalf I think I'm fairly sane these days but I'm still fascinated with birds, feathers and flight. I have a particular affinity with Rooks and Crows but when a fellow like this drops by while you're enjoying lunch in the garden who could resist photographing him?
In the sunshine his irridescent feathers were as gorgeous as any peacock.


By the way, please don't mention the weeds - he who gardens might take it as criticism! This is our wild bit of garden and we leave the pesky weeds because butterflies love them. We have a lot of butterflies!

I promised to show the cushion you saw me quilting a day or two ago so here it is in the garden next to the plant that inspired it.


The sun has bleached most of the pink from the leaves of the Sorbaria but the fabric print shows it in all its springtime glory.


It brightens up the rather dull colours of my sofa!


In contrast to the high tech digital print I've got this applique cushion on the other side of the room.


It took an age to stitch but it was a pleasure - those hand dyed scrims are like sewing through butter! There is a bit of machine work in there too - the scroll design is digital embroidery densely worked with a variegated Madeira Lana. In fact I used Lana for all the stitching on this.


Sorry about the shadow on that picture - my big head getting in the way again I suspect!

Hope you're having a creative time today. Making things makes you happy you know! Talk to you soon - Linda

Posted by at

8 comments:

  1. Gerda24 May 2012 at 21:56

    Hi Linda,
    I like the cushion with the Sorbaria print.

    Last year we were at Stour Head (National Trust) amd bought one. At the moment it looks lovely as well. It is still in it's pot, on our balcony and we are very pleased that it survived the winter as we had 2 very cold weeks with 24/7 frost.

    Before we bought this Sorbaria I hadn't heard of it, do you have yours long? And how big does it grow?

    Bye for now,
    Gerda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda Kemshall24 May 2012 at 22:09

    Hi Gerda. Glad you like the cushion! Our Sorbarias are also in pots which will tend to keep them smaller than if they're in the ground but I believe they grow to about 150cm tall when they are ten years old. We've only had them a year so we'll have to wait and see if that's true!

    ReplyDelete
  3. cat in tassie25 May 2012 at 09:04

    Two gorgeous cushions! If I had to choose one, it would be a difficult decision but I think I'd have the hand-stitched one. I love all that texture from the stitching.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linda Kemshall25 May 2012 at 17:15

    Thanks Cat - glad you like them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. California Fiber artist and composer26 May 2012 at 00:27

    What type of bird had the gorgeous plummage?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jeannie26 May 2012 at 05:30

    I relate to dreaming about being a bird. Both sets of grandparents had livestock and I determined at a very young age that I wanted to live in a barn in a nest. My Gram understood and would let me create "nests" in the yard. The pheasant is gorgeous. We have one check out our spot and almost gave me and the cats heart palpitations! The pillows are gorgeous. I will have to investigate the plant to see if it will grow here. I am drawn to the handstitched pillow and all of its texture. Wishing you a beautiful weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Linda Kemshall26 May 2012 at 12:00

    Hi there - the bird is a male pheasant. The females are quite dowdy but he makes up for it doesn't he?

    Hi Jeannie. Our cat was none too impressed with this visitor either. There were two of them in our vegetable garden later the same day so cats are obviously no deterrent.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Waseem29 June 2024 at 10:58

    Hello! If you write another piece similar to this one, please let me know. Pet Care Tips and Tricks

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)