Pigeons again, and some Christmas mug rugs

Recently I’ve been musing about aspects of my childhood growing up in Chicago. When I was young I loved animals (still do!) but about the only wildlife I can remember from those early days were the flocks of pigeons that swooped and dived over the city. Not long ago I was playing around with the idea of how flocks of birds turn and change shape as they cross the sky, and I suddenly remembered those pigeons. I sketched a flock of birds and stitched them out over stamped grey rectangles in the background, to suggest the grey towers of downtown Chicago

Chicago pigeons

OK, the birds don’t look much like pigeons, and the Chicago pigeons weren’t exactly in these colours but somehow the bright colours suited them, and I had the childish idea that they probably would have chosen to be coloured like this if they could! This picture sold almost immediately at our recent show, which rather surprised me, as I didn’t think anyone else would see it the way I did

On another subject, the Christmas squares have been very popular, and I received a gorgeous picture from Jane in Kansas, showing how she used them. She says “I have stitched two of your Christmas squares as mug rugs. So I made them almost five inches square, hooped some polymesh and started stitching. I used a layer of batting and a layer of felt on the top and a layer of felt on the bottom. Then cut around the overhang.”

Jane's Christmas mugmats – careful cutting needed!

I had never thought of doing them like this, and I’m really surprised that Jane managed to cut so accurately around all those little bits of stitching sticking out over the edge. But it’s worked beautifully