Happy Birthday Mom!

My beautiful and wonderful mother is celebrating her birthday today and thank goodness! I have been desperate to show you the present that I made for her... a happy little winter bird in a tiny vintage frame. 

I started with the tiny frame (I had picked a few up at a thrift store- at 40 cents, they seemed to good to pass up) and the sketch.  My mom has a great collection of bird figurines from special places that she has visited, which was the initial inspiration. I have been feeling the need to embroider for awhile, and I thought that the embroidery and applique would be more special than 2d drawing. 

I use iron-on stabilizer for the bird's body, tail, and wing and used a blanket stitch to applique them onto a natural silk ground. I stuffed the bird's body with a tiny bit of felt to make him a bit fatter. Then I added a beaded branch for him to stand on and a little stitched heart so my Mom knows that I love her! I used the patterned fabric (a freebie from the lobby of my apartment-SCORE) to back it and used dark blue velvet ribbon so she can hang it anywhere.

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!