An Embroidered Angry Bird

A gift given in the early 70's

While I was taking classes to complete my undergraduate degree Mom was fascinated with owls. She's not the type to obsess; she didn't collect owls of all types, but she made it clear that she would enjoy owl gifts.

So I embroidered this one for her sometime in the early 1970s and was very proud of it, even if I do say so myself. As a college student I couldn't afford to frame it; Mom did it well with the gold moulding emphasizing the eyes and the dark frame highlighting the dark browns of the owl and grounding the rather light coloured bird and background.

This project started a kit so I had the right thread at my finger tips. Plus the instructions must have been very clear because I was able to successfully complete the variety of different stitches required. It seems to me I spent hours working on it, and I'm sure my eye sight was much better than it is today. ( I struggle now doing cross-stitch as I often split threads because I can't see the tiny little holes clearly enough.) Even after all these years I smile every time I walk by it.

Those penetrating eyes sucked me in at the start and still do. So while I was home I photographed this beauty. After hanging around nearly 40 years it is no longer in a place of prominence, which is to be expected, but the serious look of this owl remains.

I am bringing up my rusty skills in embroidering because it will come up in the near future. These posts will relate to knitting and require my dusting off those skills of yore.

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