Birdies Set Two

Well, there you have it.  After a day doing nothing, there was a day of prodigious output.  First the epic post about stitch dictionaries and then, completion of set two of the towels.

Little birdies all complete with wings and decoration inside as on the pattern.  I may yet add some tummy decor on the singing birdie.  She seems to be missing something.  But, all in all, pleased with it. 

I finally got the second towel finished as well.  That took a lot of planning, first to find the repeat and then to decide exactly what I wanted to show.  And yes, this part did feel a little like art.   Each set of towels is reflective of my families.  The first set's red balloons was something from their wedding photos and the second, the little birdies, mom and little ones, reminds me of my daughter in law's mum and how she is always looking cheerfully forward, family close to her, and how she radiates this through her family.  Warmest heart on the planet.

This sets birdies are singing symbols of nations both dear to that family's international heart.  The second towel is inspired by a photo from one of Olga's visits to her mom's home in Kyiv.  The photo comes from a trip they took to her grandmother's house in Rivne (spelling this phonetically) of the flowers and things growing in the ditches and edges of fields.  There was a shot of cornflowers poking their clear blue tops through heads of wheat and grasses.  It was just such a beautiful composition.

A teatowel is not the place for a representation except in the simplest form.  But I tried to include the grassy edge, golden heads of wheat and tiny bright blue buds. It is really quite striking and the colours are much much stronger than you can really tell here and for a winged it design, I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

I am so pleased to have these embroidery projects done.  I have been planning them for years, right from the time Olga brought me this lovely linen back from Kyiv.  There is plenty of linen left for but I want them just as plain linen.  I have some cotton tea towels for more embroidered ones for me.  And then there is a whole long roll of a natural coloured linen that I would like to do some hardanger and some blackwork embroidery on. 

That is for another day.  For today, I am putting down my needles and threads for a bit and am going straight to work on pants.  Lots and lots of pants, with knitting in between.