my creative space - blue wren

Like many people involved in the brooch swap, I thought long and hard about my brooch, I dithered, I stressed, I changed my mind a few times! But I've done swaps before and I think that the pressure is part of the process and often comes with big jolts of inspiration, experimentation and new skills.

I set last weekend as my deadline and starting making a few different prototypes but soon settled on this design, modelled on my great friend, the little blue wren. We have a wren family who live close and visit every day. Mr Blue Wren (above, photo from here) likes to sit up high and sing his little heart out while his delicate fawn coloured family bounce their way around the yard eating bugs, bathing and chattering. Occasionally they drop in on the back deck to check the dog's bowl, and sometimes sneak in our back door to look for something better. I just love them.

Though I haven't done much with felt before the graphic wren was easy to convert, I traced a photo roughly to get the shapes then printed out the pattern above and cut pieces which I layered up on a felt backing. I actually used a little pva glue to hold them in place and then sewed each colour firmly with matching cotton.

My brooch goes in the mail tomorrow, with some little extras I'll keep as a surprise for my swap partner! If you want to use the pattern to make your own wren (for personal use only) I've included it above. Check out all the other creatives here.

And if you missed it yesterday I'm having a giveaway below, to celebrate my new Flower Press facebook page.