Embroidered Penny's Bird!

I had mentioned a few months back about something I was working on for a blog pal. I couldn't show it because I wanted it to be a sort of surprise. She gave me permission to embroider one of her birds that she had drawn. I fell absolutely in LOVE with this guy, and felt I HAD to embroider him.

You can see her original drawing HERE, at Penny's blog, called With My Boots and Sketchbook. To get her drawing onto my fabric, I held natural muslin up to my computer screen and copied the bird with pencil. It worked out fairly well, but there were areas that had to be changed up slightly due to the muslin having slipped one way or another as I was penciling it out....but it really added to the quirkiness of the whole thing. I also decided to give the bird red toenails, which, to me was the icing on the cake! I sewed the piece into a homemade envelope pillowcase, which was cut from a fat quarter, and I thought it looked like chicken feet had walked all over it to create the pattern! This project just started with the inspiration of her really amazing bird, and after embroidering it, I knew it had to be put into something (pillow)...and Penny likes it. It really was the journey that was the fun part of this. Thank you, Penny, for allowing me to embroider your cute bird, and for the picture of the finished project, as I had sent it off to her, not remembering to get a photo before it shipped all the way to Australia!!! That's how I roll !