Between working on embroidering those two felted mittens in wool, I’ve picked up, now and then, another one of the tiny birds that I showed you earlier in the month.

It’s really weird to go back and forth from embroidering with wool on something relatively large, to embroidering with a single strand of DMC on something that’s relatively small! But I kind of like the change!

The more I look at this little fellow (you can look at the original design here, from the partial kit available at French Needle), the more I’m thinking I was a bit careless in my approach.

For one thing, I was missing a color. So I just skipped it!

For another thing, and I’m telling you this with a straight face – I totally winged it on the wing and on that underwing thingy sticking out. I didn’t really stop to think about where I was going or what I was doing.

On the one hand, I’m glad it didn’t come out super rigid. On the other hand, I can definitely see areas that could benefit from improvement (but probably won’t!).

I was a bit more conscientious of the bird’s head, because I wasn’t satisfied with the look of it on the original kit. I thought the original was a bit blocky, so I tried to blend a bit better on the head.

I also reversed the color order on the eye, and substituted black. Still, the eye’s a bit smug looking. I might touch that up a bit, since the eye is always what brings a piece like this to life!

A little bit about these little birds: the whole image is about 2.5-2.75″ high. They’re stitched with one strand of DMC on super-nice linen (the design is already transferred). They’re definitely projects for someone looking for a challenge, but they aren’t overly difficult. You’ll need to know a little bit about long and short stitch and you’ll need to be able to make certain decisions (like stitch directions, when colors should change, and whatnot). The picture, though, serves as an adequate guide.

These birds hail from the images of French naturalist George Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788). You can actually find many of his works available online through internet archive, including this book which includes many of his birds, as does this work.

So, that’s my bird adventure – the bird in between in the mittens! I’ll finish his little legs and leaves at some point this week, along with those mittens.

I hope your week is clipping along at a wondrous and happy pace!