Feathered friends
I have always enjoyed birdwatching. We are lucky to have a large variety of birds visiting our suburban garden, including three species of woodpeckers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, an occasional treecreeper, jays, longtailed and crested tits as well as the usual sparrows, robins, blackbirds blue tits and great tits. There is also the occasional buzzard passing overhead, and once there was a young sparrowhawk in the trees at the bottom of the garden. Altogether I have counted almost 50 different species in the years we have been in this house. It is the best garden I have ever had for birdwatching (in comfort too!), with plenty of species I have never seen in the gardens of previous places that I have lived. I think that if we ever move, I will want to take the garden with me! So here are some of my favourite feathered friends.
I made lino prints of some of the birds I see daily (blackcap, greater spotted woodpecker, robin and blackbird), colouring them with inktense pencils. I had intended to mask the birds and print leaves in the background, but it didn't look right when I tried it, so I coloured the backgrounds with inktense too. The fabric I printed on turned out to be a bit stretchy, making it a bit difficult to put together, but overall I'm satisfied with it, even if it's a little bit wonky! I'm sorry that it is so late, but I had a few problems making it, and also have been having to work around eye strain, though that is a bit better now. The print of the great tit didn't make it into the quilt
