Birdie Stitches - January

I'm so happy to be done with my first block for the Birdie Stitches!! I'm really happy with how this turned out, even though my embroidery skills are seriously lacking.



When I was picking out embroidery floss at Joann's, they were completely out of white, so I went with Ecru, but I was hesitant. I didn't know how it would look, since it was pretty much the same color as the linen I'm using for the middle fabric. Now that it's done, I really like it! The two things I had in mind when I picked out the dots and solids fabric is that I didn't want any white or black. So it kind of keeps with that theme.

The one thing I changed from the pattern is that I added in more french knots - in the band of the snowman's hat, and in the ear muff on the bird. I'd never done french knots before, but I've admired them on flickr, so I went a little crazy. But I like the extra bit of color they give. Here's a better look at the areas I added the knots.



While I loved doing this block, I did become very aware of how much my skills will improve over this year. I have a feeling my December block will be drastically better than this block!