Winter Moonlight inspiration

I thought I'd show you something I did a while ago when I was struggling a bit to get any textile work done. I had so many ideas but none of them were making progress because, I think, I was frightened of them going wrong. I'd done a few things but they had come to a halt because I either didn't feel happy with them or couldn't see at the time how to develop them and due to that I think I had this fear that nothing would go right, so I couldn't even touch any of my ideas, even though I really wanted to.

I saw a fabric panel that had been designed by Jill Dian Izzard in the magazine STITCH with the Embroiderer's Guild and loved it so much I had to have a go myself. As it had instructions on how to make it, I didn't need to think about it; I could just follow the points leaving my mind free to enjoy the process.

But, although I followed the design for some things, like the sky being stitched with straight stitch to represent clouds which also rippled the fabric slightly to to add texture, and fraying the fabric to give a soft look, I did change a few things to my own preference.

Here is the finished thing:

The original had leaves on the tree and also a nest with eggs on one of the branches, but I decided to make it a winter scene, so I left the tree bare and, of course, birds don't nest in winter, so I left out the nest.

There was also a shape representing the sun but I left that out too as I wanted it to be a midnight scene, feeling there is something magical about a frosty winter's night.

I decided to make the hills out of pale fabric and added lace to the bottom edge, representing snow, which I stitched over with French knots in white thread.

I painted the lace with silver glitter paint and added clear beads to get the look of frost gleaming in the moonlight and attached some of the same beads to the sky area as well as painting small patches of glitter to look like stars.

Working on this seemed to alleviate my fear, proving to myself that I could do my textile art and, in freeing my creativity by not thinking about it too much, it set me on a path to creating the the things I'm working on now. 

With all this talk of winter and the weather we've been having here, it's difficult to think that it's spring. But the birds in my garden seem to be getting ready for it.

The pair of woodpigeons who have been here for ages still have their nest in the tree. I've named them Wilma and William. They had at least one chick last year. 

There is also a pair of magpies who've been building a nest in another tree for a few weeks now and it seems to be huge. I think they've added a conservatory! I've given them the names Mabel and Monty and it's been quite entertaining watching them fly in with long twigs then trying to get them to the nest through the branches.

Then there's the pair of collared doves I see regularly. Guess what their names are!? Clara and Colin. I can't leave out little Robbie who I posted a photo of recently, and his wife Roberta. They're robins, of course. 

The leaves will probably obscure Mabel and Monty's nest soon, but as long as I can see it, I'll keep an eye on their progress. I don't know why some people don't like magpies so much. In the rhyme 'One for sorrow...etc.' it's only bad luck if you see one. More than that and you're ok. After all, they're only ordinary birds trying to get on with their lives, just like us.