Little Nuthatch

On Wednesday I was once again at the glorious setting of Hampton Court Palace

The gardens were looking stunning, especially the roses, but I was not there to admire the view (although I did wonder about a bit)
I was at the Royal School of Needlework for a silk shading/needle painting masterclass with Trish Burr

I had a fabulous day, Trish is incredibly talented and generous, she was very relaxed and a wonderful teacher. The kit was very good, beautiful printed linen and full skeins of DMC along with a full colour 25 page instruction booklet

We managed to get lots done in class

The detail in Trish's designs are amazing, the eye is about 1/8" but we used 6 colours for the detail

Once I had stitched the eye and beak, he had real personality

I found it difficult to make the feathers, as I am usually trying to make all the stitches even and the same size, you need to do the complete opposite for this technique! we were joking that my bird had obviously spent hours preening!
Next up was the flowers

Again incredible attention to detail, these tiny buds are 1/4" but again I have 6 colours in them!

One thing I love about this technique is that you can go back and add stitches, I felt my orange was too harsh and in a block so I added a few more of the paler yellow to break it up.

The centre is filled with colonial knots

I had a wonderful day and am really pleased with my little Nuthatch, it is difficult to see how small it is, the detail is incredible, but he's only 3"