Two Ravens - Final

 Even though I liked the burst of colour from the yellow leaves they were drawing the eye away from the Ravens. Using a very thin blade I cut away all the 2 mm satin stitch and replaced them with a duller version.

Now the eye can see the Ravens.

 

Two Ravens - assembled

There are a number of things to be considered before I pronounce this finished. The birds need eyes. I'm considering beads? or sequins+.

I really didn't address the unquilted sky........Hmmmmmmmm

and maybe the yellow leaves are wrong. (That's an easy fix with paint and for another day.) I do think it's a definite improvement. 

BTW I had been having trouble placing these guys because of the feet of the lower one. I usually advise the feet be added during assembly. Fortunately I accidently? cut off one of his feet so I was able to reposition it when I stitched them to the background. 😊

I have to dis-assemble my studio tomorrow as there are a two customer quilts arriving.....

That will give me time to plan the next video.

Putting the Two Birds Together.

 Over the last few days I think I tried at least 5 different ways to balance these two on the background. 

In the end simply giving them a final trim went a long way to making them look natural.

I played with two different colourways of poly yarn for the branches. In the end I went with the grey tones with a bit of brown thrown in. So most of the day was spent attaching the yarn

I've found the easiest way to handle this 3d addition of 6 to 10 strands of yarn was to twist it tight and then capture it under netting. Sewn down one side and then the other using the zipper foot allows you to control the bulk of the yarn. It can be further 'tamed' by stitching over it after it's attached to the landscape.

Lots of pins and careful sewing lets you put on a realistic branch that gradually tapers to the twigs.

All the excess netting is trimmed away at the end.

The boys are starting to look at home.

Raven # 2

Either this bird wasn't large enough or something. It really didn't feel right.

I played with alternate branch material. While this was okay it represents bulk which can't all be stitched away. As the raven was flat, I needed to rethink it.

And it was the wrong colour.

So maybe he needs a buddy!

I had to piece the material to get enough but that was easy enough. I fused it to the interfacing.

I couldn't get it in the hoop completely. I'll need to shift it [probably twice.

Here they are. Hmmmmm not convinced yet. Maybe this is the wrong background for them?

Tomorrow. 

Finishing the Raven

 This stitched up very quickly.

The reason is the choice of material for the base. There is no need to completely fill the features and the analogous colours add the highlight. It also makes stitching the feathers very easy.  All the final work can be done on the background.

And after cutting him out roughly, I used the remainder of the material as a branch.

I need to look at this for a while before I commit to using this material and this position.