Day #67 - Handstitching, not my forte, but fun w/jungle critters!

Good morning, everyone!

Well, I decided that hand stitching, at least in the sense of applique, is not my forte!  Could it be that I am having trouble SEEING things that close/small?  Could be...sigh... 

I started the morning with stitching the gorilla on a block for the Jungle Critter Challenge.  I wasn't overly excited about how the stitching came out, but I struggled onward!  I liked the block I'd used, it was an extra block from a quilt I'd made my son several years ago.  1/2 is the brown checked, the other 1/2 is made by sewing strips of different widths together and then cutting out triangles from it.  My thought was, for this block, the gorilla is walking along the ground (brown) and the trees are in the background (green).  A bit "artsy", eh?

After finishing that one, I moved on to a parrot.  Since I didn't care for the hand stitching, I went with machine for this one.  First, I backed it with fusible webbing.  Okay, actually, I fused the webbing to my ironing board!!  YUP, wrong-side up!!  Pulled that off quickly and cut ANOTHER piece and tried AGAIN!  Did it right, this time, lol! 

I decided to make the block a tree with the parrot on a branch.  The upright is a part of the block (ie: sewed in) and the branch is sewed on top.  Just trying to be creative, folks!  Anyway, I rather liked how that one came out.  So, my two blocks for the Jungle Critter Challenge are done!

Would you like to join us?  I have more critters with directions that I can pop in the mail!!  Let me know!!

Don't forget to enter the Celebrate Life Drawing I posted yesterday for an embroidered design!

Hugs and STAY DRY,
Carrie