• £75

River Birds

  • Course
  • 31 Lessons

Learn how to create two British Water Birds using free-motion embroidery and appliqué. You can watch me create a Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher embroideries. I will show you how to build up backgrounds with silk organza and get creative with your water. We will stitch flowers, and leaves to adorn your embroidery. Use my downloadable templates and images to guide you. Sew along at your own pace.

Take as long as you want to do the course, wiz through it in a couple of weekends or take your time and go into depth to keep you busy for a few months.

Sign up anytime, roll on roll off.

How is the course delivered?

There are lots of short videos in bite sized pieces to watch then stitch along to, there are images to inspire you, lots of PDF templates of birds, flowers and backgrounds to download and print out so you can trace my designs accurately. Alternatively put your own twist on it, I give you tips and tricks on stitching and creating your own work.


There are no zoom meetings or live Facebook chats, there is however an online course facebook group where you can join to see what others are up to or show us your creations. There is a place where you can ask me or Courtney (my tech help person) technical issues or leave comments or images of what you have created at the end of a lesson for me to reply to. Or you can email me any images or queries to johilltextiles@gmail.com


You have the course for years... for as long as I am running them.
This is my 11th course, it has been filmed by me in my small garden studio in Saltford near Bath, UK with a personal intimacy on how I work and create my textile artwork.

Tools and equipment for the Grey Wagtail

You will need to be able to lower the feed dogs on your sewing machine and attach a free motion embroidery foot. 
You will need:

bondaweb or similar product,

505 repositional spray or similar product,

tracing paper and scissors

threads that suit you and your machine

fabrics to applique onto our work, to make the bird and water.

A firm backing cloth what doesn't pucker when stitched into.

A hoop is useful, so is a frixion pen and some pritt stick. 
I go into more details within the course.

Wagtail

This is the embroidery I film myself making. I show you a few variations of this design using different colours of fabric. Also ideas for creating the lichen on the rock in whip stitch.

Kingfisher

This is the second embroidery you watch me make, I go into detail so you can follow along at your own pace. I treat the water in a very different way and give you lots more ideas on how to create the water. I show you different backgrounds and encourage you to get creative. I teach you how to use silk organza in backgrounds, I go into detail on how to colour it to achieve just the right colour, but feel free to buy it coloured if this isn't for you.

Materials list for the Kingfisher

I get creative with silk organza and show you how to colour your silk with paints, you can buy it in white from my website along with a top quality wool that I used as the backing fabric for this piece.

Do you enjoy splashing a bit of paint around or want to learn how to?

Why not tint your fabrics for the bird in the same way as we do the organza?

The rest of the materials are the same as for the Grey Wagtail just different coloured fabrics and threads.

The tools and equipment are also the same as for the Wagtail.

***

Press on the crosses below to see the lesson contents list in full detail.

Contents

Lets get started

Technical information
Problem solving
River Birds Doodles
Equipment and materials for the Grey Wagtail

Grey Wagtail embroidery

River Birds Wagtail introduction
Stitching the Water Background; Grey Wagtail
Stitching the Lichen; Grey Wagtail
Adding the rock to the background
Assembling the Grey Wagtail
Stitching the Grey Wagtail
Water Crowfoot
Adding the Flies
My practice pieces
Other Wagtails I have stitched

Kingfisher

Equipment and materials for the Kingfisher
Painting the silk organza
Kingfisher background
Adding the silk organza and stitching it in place..mp4
Stitching the tree stump and water
Appliquéing the Kingfisher
Tip to help you position your bird.
Stitching the Kingfisher
Finished Kingfisher
How other textile artists approach water and rivers.
BONUS Painting on Fabrics
BONUS watery ideas
BONUS another watery experiment
Using silk fabric for the water
Two more Kingfishers
Thank you

How to create your own bird template

Making the template for the Heron

Messing about with the Water!!

Get your creative brains working and create your own version of this watery fabric!

Jo Hill

Me at my machine in my little studio, where I created the course.

Get creative!

There is a 15 minute video showing you exactly how I make my templates, watch me create a Heron which will be ready to buy as a template soon!

But more importantly learn how to make your own!!

River Birds

  • Course

What others have thought!

I’ve just finished this course and cannot recommend it highly enough. These really lovely lessons, are thorough and will grow your confidence whatever level you are at. Thank you! Very relaxing and looking forward to my next course with you; maybe in person but if not, online.

Watching Jo in action is like watching a very talented artist who obviously loves what she does. She takes you through the steps in a very clear and easy-to-understand way and offers help and tips as needed.

Shuan

- Workshop