Owl on a branch picture

I haven't made a picture in ages, so I really chuffed when we sat down a few days ago to draw a picture of a branch with an owl sat on it! It's rather like play school to me! Pencil, paper and a very large eraser!

One thing I have learnt from previous excursions into the 'design a picture' lark is to make the picture to fit a certain size frame. If you don't give this any thought from the beginning, you end up with a picture that doesn't fit well into a standard frame. We've spent too many hours wandering around trying to find a frame or a mount to fit a square picture!

We drew the picture onto paper. Then we cut out the individual templates from vellum: we find vellum is thicker and stiffer than tracing paper, so it's much better for drawing round. Then we cut the pieces out of fabric that we've backed with (a cheaper version of) Bondaweb - remembering to reverse all the pieces so they'll be the right way round when you assemble the pieces on your background fabric with your iron!

To make the background fabric stiffer, before I assemble anything, I back it with interfacing. This also has the added benefit that if you do carry thread across the back, it won't be seen from the front. As some of the picture is free-motioned, the extra stiffness helps when you put the material into an embroidery hoop too.
 

The trails of the bee and the butterfly are hand stitched with two strands of dark grey cotton - they're not quite flowing enough!

Another point of note: If you're sewing in the wee small hours and you're reaching for a dark brown cotton? Make sure it's dark brown and not black! Luckily, I don't think the mistake makes too much odds on the branch; it almost makes it look like a shadow or even 3D! (It's amazing how we can reason our mistakes into something positive, especially if we don't feel up to unpicking it!)