This month Aurifil tasked us with using at least 3 thread colours in 2 different weights in 1 project!
I am always looking for an excuse to design another owl pattern (I have three already) and my one of my boy’s favourite bedtime books to read is ‘Wow! Said the Owl’ by Tom Hopwood which is a really beautiful book and I have been inspired by the final pages for a long time. This challenge was the perfect opportunity to try out my embroidery!
I decided the owl in the book looks like one of the UK native species, the Short-Eared Owl (who’s ears are so short that they are very rarely seen!) and now this block joins the Curious Barn Owl and Grumpy Little Owl in my pattern library of UK owls. I pieced my block with Aurifil 80wt (6722) which was absolutely perfect for the ridiculously tiny eyes and helped all those bits of fabric in such a small space to lie neat and flat. I then heavily free-motion quilted it all over the black background with 50wt (2692) and the owl with 3 other threads in 50wt (4669, 6724 and 2625)
Then came the fun bit! I used six colours of thread in various sizes to embroider the stars. Two more 50wt (7001 and 2024), another 80wt (2515), bright orange floss (113), 28wt (2479), 12wt (5005) and wool 12wt (8405). Phew! May have gone way over what the actual task required of us! Out of all of them I really loved the 12wt which is the bright blue (5005) on the red spool, the sheen and smoothness made it a pleasure to embroider through my quilt sandwich and I am looking forward to an excuse to use it and other 12wts in the future!
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