A Little Wool Chickadee

     

Yesterday afternoon I pieced together this sweet little chickadee. I love chickadees and watching them on my birdfeeders. They are sweet little birds and seeing them, reminds me of my dad. He loved watching and feeding the birds. I find working with wool to be both relaxing and challenging. Since I don't work with wool often, it's a fun challenge. I like the feel and weight of the wool fabric in my hands. Making this design, I pondered stitching little snowflakes but decided against it and stitched more pine boughs and add a more decorative border to the design. The finished size is 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is a perfect companion to the Woodland Deer ornament. I've got a few more to do to make a nice ornament set! These are also a great size for a coaster or just a little something to decorate with. This is just a perfect size to tuck in a Christmas Card to give to your friends and neighbors. Let me show you how I put this together...

I went thru my wool stash and picked out the colors and threads that I thought would work best for this design. I made copies of the ornament out shape, the circle and the petal circle to use as a template to cut those shapes out. After you cut the circle and petal circle out, do not fuse or sew them together yet! Set them aside until you are ready to use them.

To start out, download the pattern and trace the deer pieces onto the paper side of fusible web. I like to use Flexifuse, but heat n bond will also work. I also traced the circle shape for the ornament.

Rough cut your fusible shapes out and pair them with the different wool colors. Iron the fusible shapes onto the wool using the manufacturer's directions. and then cut them out using a pair of applique scissors.

Following the instructions, place the shapes onto the wool circle base and press in place following the manufacturer's instructions. Now your piece is ready to be appliqued! You can stitch this by hand using 3 strands of DMC floss, or a single strand of perle cotton. I am going to cheat a little bit and sew it by machine. Let me show you....

I am using a larger eyed machine needle... I'm using a 35 weight variegated cotton thread from Valdani.

I'm using a blanket stitch on my machine and I played around with it to get a sizing that I thought would work nicely with the design. I'm starting with a cream thread to stitch around the white on the chickadee.

Here you can see my stitching by machine, I used a brown thread to go around the branch and pinecone, and a dark variegated thread to go around the gray pieces.

Using a dark gray Perle cotton, I stitch details onto the bird's wing and tail using a backstitch. I stitch the bird's eye using a French knot.

With your fusible circle you cut out earlier, iron that onto the back of your blue stitched ornament piece.

 Peel off the paper and then fuse onto the green scalloped piece. I did most of my pressing from the backside of the ornament.

Then stitch around the edge of the circle. I handstitched a lazy daisy design around the edge of the circle using a cream variegated Perle cotton. It was well worth the effort! If desired, you can also hand stitch around the scalloped edge. To finish your ornament, attach a piece of baker's twine for the hanger.

~ Woodland Chickadee Ornament ~

I'm just tickled with how the ornament turned out. I'm looking forward to making some more! Working with wool was very satisfying, a delight to work with. Even though I did most of ornament with machine stitching, these would be beautiful handstitched too. You can use a blanket stitch or a whip stitch to stitch the edges. The finished size is 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". I'm hanging mine as ornaments, but the size is perfect for a coaster! 

The pattern is available as a PDF download or as a packaged pattern. Both versions can be found in the Etsy shop or in the Quilt Doodle Designs website.

We sure had a healthy dump of snow; we've been staying close to home and hibernating. The snow is very pretty, it looks like a Christmas card outside. Very pretty... great weather for watching TV and stitching. Josephine is not a fan of the wet damp snow, she hates getting her feet wet! She's also hibernating.

Happy stitching!

Cindy and Josephine