Roses & Bird Applique

Three weeks of applique.

I'm making progress with this applique.  I'm excited that it's taking shape & actually looking like what I imagined it might look like.

A closer look.
 Since my last hand applique quilt, I've come to the realization that some embroidery, here & there, adds a lot of interest to applique.  Below, I've drawn a light white circle around the area where I will embroider part of the bird's eye.  Some people are quite skilled when working with teeny, tiny circles.   I'm going to keep it simple.  Applique-ing tiny shapes is a skill I might tackle some other time.  I usually wait to embroider after the entire applique is done on a block.  However, I'm too anxious to see how this bird will look with embroidery.   This is one way that I work to keep from getting tired of my project.  It's sometimes a challenge to stay with the same project for weeks at a time for me.

                             

I've embroidered the eye with a stem stitch all the way around.  First white floss around the eye then, a beige color around the outside.  Two stab stitches for the eye highlight.  I also thought I would soften the black fabric by making small straight stitches with black floss around the area.   Notice the white/gray fabric for the wing.  This is the same fabric I used for the beak.  I did use some fabric markers to darken the beak with a little gray & black.  I then used a not quite black floss to embroider the beak.  This didn't take too long to do.  

A close up of the small flower.
Straight stitching around the flower with a cluster of french knots in the center.  I also used simple straight stitches around the petals.

This photo below is what I've completed so far.
I'm not yet done with this side.  I still need to embroider veins onto the leaves & a few vines.
I think I'm going to applique a different bird on the opposite side of this table runner.  I don't want to applique the same bird all over again.

Today is the beginning of week four.   I might be able to embroidery a vine or two.  

Stay tuned.....I'll post my progress in two weeks!