Pleasant Pheasant

I have fallen seriously behind with my Star of Africa Bee blocks, so this weekend I have ignored all of the other projects littering my table and only had eyes for a Star of Africa block :)

Part of the reason for the backlog with this Bee, is that each block is different and depends upon the theme requested by the Queen Bee for the month. The standard of blocks produced by the other Bee members is so high, that my brain freezes every month trying to come up with something appropriate. Once I have come up with an idea it then takes me even longer to work out how to put it into practise!

In April, Cindy asked us to make a block that reminds us of home. I had already made Sana a block of the Angel of the North when she asked for a block to represent coming home.

So I needed to come up with something different for Cindy. Time to get my brain in gear!

After pondering over and discarding lots of ideas, I finally decided that the family of pheasants who live at the bottom of our garden were the ideal reminder of home, so I would try to represent a male pheasant in my Bee block.

I can't take any credit for this photo sadly, as they fly off every time I try to take one ;(

The male pheasant is frequently seen strutting his stuff in the garden in the morning, and has a very self-important and puffed up air about him as he does so :) The much smaller female seems to trail along in his glorious wake!

Deciding what to do is only half of the battle with these Bee blocks, the next, and much harder, bit is working out how to do it.

After weeks of deliberation (or procrastination depending upon your viewpoint) and the discovery of the perfect fabric for his plumage in my stash, I finally got down to business and sketched out an applique outline for the block.

And here he is!

The applique pieces were fused to the background fabric with Steam-a-Steam and then free-machine embroidered around the edges to add definition and reinforce the bond. Cindy asked us to add our name and location to the block background so I embroidered these on once the applique was complete.

I am delighted with how this turned out and think that I might use the applique pattern to make a cushion cover for the autumn.

Next up is a postcard block for Leanne, the block should represent anything you might find on a postcard from your neighbourhood, so more wracking of brains required :)

I can definitely call myself a slow blogger in respect of the Star of Africa Bee, so I am linking this post up to this month's link party, which is hosted by Martha, and to the Let's Get Acquainted Link party, which is hosted this week by Em