Crow Perched on Pumpkin Wool Applique

This is made with all felted wool fabric. The orange was hand dyed in the kitchen. The shapes are all hand cut using designs traced on wax paper and ironed on. It makes it so easy to cut once the wax paper cools off.

Here is a detail of the stitching. I did this with the sewing machine and the free motion quilting foot. I used contrasting thread for the pumpkin to suggest the texture of real pumpkins. The fabric was not fused down before quilting, which makes it more difficult to make totally smooth, but for this I preferred a more rustic, primitive look.

This is the same bird as the pins, without a contrasting wing color. When I sewed him on and added the legs with more free motion quilting, he appears to be looking up at the sky. Totally un-intentional, but I love how it turned out.

The leaves around the base of the pumpkin are stitched to show the texture. Not perfect, but rustic and primitive.

I finished this off by making it into a pillow. I used the same color wool as the leaves and sewed on a two inch border on all sides. I backed it with a green wool fabric from my wool stash and stuffed it with a pillow form. It is 16 inches square. Love it!