Winter birds

 This little wall hanging cheered up our cabin this winter after the Christmas decorations came down.  

Winter Birds 3x44 inches

When I first purchased my Elna embroidery machine I tried out a number of Embroidery Library designs. These winter birds were stitched on a piece of blue linen I had on hand.  They turned out beautifully, but I never could figure out what to do with them.  They sat in the orphan blocks box for years.

This January I finally used them to make a wall hanging, and it worked out perfectly!  I trimmed the blocks down to 9 inches and added navy linen-look cotton sashing.  It gave me a chance to practice my free motion stipple quilting.  I quilted right through the embroidery and it worked out well.   I used two different shades of blue thread for the wavy line quilting in the sashing and border.