SPRING HAS SPRUNG

ARE YOU LOOKING AT MY TITS?

So how do you like my tits?

I can show you a Blue Tit

and a Long Tailed Tit.

(This really is for me the joke that just keeps on giving.

And quite frankly if a joke is worth telling, its worth telling a bit too often)

I can also show you a Nuthatch

a Wren

and a Little Gull

Why Nora? Why? I hear you cry

Well I've been teaching a class in felted birds for a a while now and love making them, but was beginning to feel the need for something more challenging to do.

On our recent adventure in Brittany I was comparing notes with the junior siblings about behaviour on family walks.

You see we were NEVER allowed to go charging through the undergrowth whacking things with sticks and whooping at the top of our voices.

Because you might DISTURB THE BIRDS.

Of course we always did all of the above, but learnt very early on to always be at least 20 yards ahead of the old male parental and be ready to sprit at a moments notice.

Dad claims he is not a twitcher,

he says twitchers are way worse than anything he does.

But I say a man who can't hear the oven timer when its going off right next to him and confuses all 4 of his children constantly (despite the 30 and 26 year age gaps) but can hear the call of a Skylark half a mile away and can tell you that the smudge in the sky is not in fact a house martin but a sand martin,

the man who can identify a bird over the phone from a very sketchy and ill informed description from yours truly is a twitcher.

I asked him to identify a bird in one of his (many) bird books that he thought would look good made up in fabric.

He came up with this baby.

The Little Gull.

The body is smaller that other gulls and slightly rounder, so would look nice and plump when made up. It also has quite clear and uncluttered markings.

It was great having an expert around when I was working out the prototypes.

And so Stitch and Twitch was born!

I am probably going to be putting all of these in my shop

when I can bear to part with them,

but I am also working on instructions and patterns so I can start selling them as kits.

I would so love to claim the joke at the start of this post as mine own, but sadly I'm good but not that good!

The credit has to go to my friend, ex studio partner and costume maker to the stars Dominic.

So I feel the need to say Thanks Dom your humour has always really hit the spot, and a really really big thanks to my dear old Dad for being such a boring old fart and inflicting all that avian knowledge upon our unsuspecting childish ears.

On another note the festival season is almost upon us and to celebrate this fact the festival bunting is back in my shops. You can find it here and here.

I am also one of Beth of Do what you love's shared stories this week.

Check it out over here.

Have a happy week and enjoy the sunshine.

Love Nora xxx