Attaching a Parrot Head

Ultrasuede Parrothead

After a few more rows of tent stitches in the background, I attached the Ultrasuede parrot head to my canvas using a very strong pair of magnets.  Then with a tiny sharp beading needle, a ply of the same dark purple Gloriana silk used on the body of the bird, and my thimble at the ready, I carefully stitched around the perimeter of the fabric to attach it.  I used simple, small straight stitches and usually had no trouble penetrating the Ultrasuede.  The only hitches were when I had to pierce a canvas thread also.  I used the thimble then.

It took a while but the head is securely on now.  I will decide later whether to couch a thread around the edge of the head.  I stitched tiny stitches along one side of the eye hole to keep the fabric snug to the underlying canvas.  I will wait to see if I need to continue once I attach the long strip of ribbon floss above the eye to make the black streak painted there.

Once the eye is finished, I will embroider on top of the Ultrasuede.  I am thinking a scattering of motifs as I sketched out, not covering the fabric with a lot of embroidery.  We'll see how that works out tonight!

So far the hardest part has been cutting a smooth eye hole to allow the stitches and bead of the eye to show through.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow