Owl Fringe







Little by little, I’m stitching away at this 1978 Erica Wilson crewel embroidery kit. I thought the tree would never end, crisscrossing and outlining forever. But it was worth it to get to the owl.

It’s super groovy. Just wait until all the turkey work goes in. It’ll be a shag carpeting owl fest.
We spent a few hours taking photos today, and I was so pleased with results. It seemed everywhere I turned was another picture-perfect scene.

From a sparrow and swallow, to a gorgeous heron and a beautiful fawn, this was one perfect day for wildlife photography.

Normally, my reference photos aren’t my end result—I take them to use to create a sketch or painting—but after taking 175 photos, I found a few to post.

My camera is a Panasonic Lumix FZ80. It’s a point-and-shoot with a 60x zoom.

When I started drawing and painting critters, I decided I wanted to take my own reference photos instead of relying on other photographers.

I love this camera, because I can quickly snap a dozen photos and have multiple angles and poses to work with. It’s easy to use and a smaller-sized camera so I carry it around on weekends.

The fawn was a total surprise. It came out of the woods, waded into the creek, and spent about twenty minutes exploring. What a beauty!


Who’s that, you ask? A fierce-looking owl, peering out of my 1978 Erica Wilson crewel embroidery kit. Yes, another kit. I just finished the wheat and flowers pillow, so I started another. I have hopes of doing my own design at some point, but these kits offer a lot as far as learning the ropes, or in this case a modified herringbone stitch that is really strange. I keep thinking it will start to look normal, but after many, many hours of stitching, it still looks very odd.
