You came through with tons of feedback on the question of the embroidered “scales” on the hummingbird’s chest that I showed you the other day! Thank you – I do love reading all the ideas!

At this point, I haven’t put any idea to the test yet, though. But I have worked the hummingbird’s neck, and it might terrify some of you, especially if you’re opposed to the brighter blues.

It features a bit of texture, and I’ll just admit it now… I like it!

Here it is, from a slightly distance. You can see that I haven’t taken the dark threads off the chest feathers yet, but I definitely plan to remove those emerald green outlines.

On the neck band, I worked a ribbed web-like stitch, only in lines rather than around a circle.

I used one strand of regular cotton floss to stitch tiny lines perpendicular to the neck band lines.

Then, I wrapped those tiny little bars in the same technique used for the ribbed spider web stitch, to create a bumpy band on the bird’s neck.

I used the same colors of brighter blues that are found in the facial adornments.

This whole adventure was a little tricky, because that area is a lot smaller than you’d think when you’re looking at it in a photo like this. It’s only about an eighth of an inch wide. The wrapping of the straight stitches was done with one thread of regular floss and a #28 tapestry needle.

The tapestry needle was essential. I was already working in close quarters, and the fine tapestry needle with the blunt tip made it at least somewhat easier to wrap the straight stitch bars without snagging all the surrounding threads.

If we step back a bit, it’s easier to see the size of the birds in relation to the surrounding flora.

The different elements of the bird – the head, the neck band, the chest – are a lot smaller when seen in context, rather than up close in photos.

That’s one disadvantage of close up photos – it’s easy to lose a proper sense of proportion.

Here’s one even farther away, where I tried (but failed!) to get the whole design in the frame.

While the head does look a bit limpid at this point, keep in mind that the beak is still to come, and it will further define the head, especially right above that blue and purple neck swash thingamabob.

I’m eager to re-work some of the chest area now and see what develops!

So that’s my next step….

Again, all thread colors will be listed once I finish the bird, just in case I make any major color changes. Who knows? I still may end up scrapping the whole bird and starting over again!

Uhhh… maybe not…

If you have any thoughts or impressions, feel free to share them below!

If you’d like to follow along with the Secret Garden Hummingbirds project, you can find all the articles relating to this project arranged in chronological order in the Secret Garden Project Index.