Female Purple Finch Embroidery

Purple finch and cone flowers on a hot, late summer afternoon. My struggle will be to add background details that tone down the flowers yet draw your eye to the bird. It’s a fun puzzle to solve.
Can you spot the bee?

Purple finch and cone flowers on a hot, late summer afternoon. My struggle will be to add background details that tone down the flowers yet draw your eye to the bird. It’s a fun puzzle to solve.
Can you spot the bee?
I treated myself and had this embroidery framed under glass. I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

If it wasn’t for the texture created by stitching wool on fabric, I’d be happy with a drawing or painting, but there’s something about a certain scene that makes me think “wool!” Embroidery is a little like carving or sculpting, I imagine, where you can see an image emerging that has dimension.

Lately my process is something like this: my husband and I venture out of doors to take photos, I find something interesting—usually a critter or plant— and take many pictures, go through a period of forgetting about it, then open up my photos, find one out of the many that appeals to me, do a few sketches, and start planning a project. I usually add in details, plants, and other important pieces from other photos.

Will it be an embroidery or a drawing or simply stay a photo? Time will tell.


I finished this embroidery. I stitched for over five weeks, many hours per week. Whew!

Working with wool and linen is a treat. They go together perfectly, and I never tire of the combination. I’ve purchased some linen twill, a traditional crewel fabric, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

I was so involved with this project that I didn’t spend much time planning another one. So now, what should it be? I think I’ll start sketching and see what calls out to me. In the meantime, I need to learn how to frame this project.