Life In The Wilderness, Birch Lake

Life In The Wilderness: Birch Lake, was created for my "Kindred Spirit Friend," Heather as a thank you for giving my blog a new look several months ago. Heather's blog is called "A Cherished Life". I loved it so much I decided I wanted to create something that would reflect my appreciation for her kindness and talents and would hopefully make Heather smile as much as I do when I saw the new look of my blog. I have a great love for wildlife as Heather does and we both had a special interest in a wee beaver. So this started my idea for the theme of this project, Life In The Wilderness, Birch Lake. I have never did any "Stumpwork" embroidery before so I got out my books and started playing. The above photo is my third attempt to create the stumpwork wee beaver and birch trees. Note one of the birch trees has already been cut down for its beaver dam. vbg I am truly very appreciative of, Laurette, Heather's Mum for providing me with heaps of information/photos of this area so I could create this project as close as possible to what it really looked like. Laurette, also has a lovely blog called, "Tea and Biscuits" where she showcases her poetry and stitching.. You all must venture over and have a look at her blog. I also asked Heather, never ending questions about where she lived hoping she would never get suspicious of what I was up to.

Heather lives in the Northern wilderness of SK Canada so I thought I would create my base of this project out of 100% hand dyed wool with a crazy patchwork look. I wanted the lake to sparkle so I created "Birch Lake" out of several different Angelina Fibers.

In this photo I have added the stumpwork wee beaver and birch trees. I have also added a silk ribbon cabin, evergreen tree, wild rose bush and some ferns.

In this photo I have completed the wee beaver dam by using 100% wool multi color yarn stitched down with variegated pearl cotton thread. I also used the same yarn to create the dock on Birch Lake. The wee beaver and dam is stuffed with wool to give it a dimensional look. I also used Brazilian Embroidery Floss (BE) called "Boucle" to create the path to the cabin.

In this photo I have created some stumpwork cattails with 100% wool floss, with silk ribbon stalks. I also added three blueberry bushes with wee beads for the the blueberries. Heather mentioned one time that there was a small island at their end of the lake which she liked because it stopped heavy wave action from hitting their shoreline. Hence the BE boucle threads used to create the wee brown island near the Loons. I also added lots of underbrush around the lake by creating it with the "Turkey Stitch" using two different colors of 100% wool floss.

Heather told me one time they had a bear break into an enclosure they had on their property and so I decided to add a Zuni Bear sneaking around in the woods on the far side of the lake. He was heading toward the blueberry bushes to have a good snack. I also used lots of BE Boucle flosses in this project for shrubs and grasses in the woods. I added several bead rocks along the lake shoreline.

In this photo I added several silk ribbon violets and more ferns and grasses. In this photo is a close up of the Loons I added. I have a great love for Loons and Heather told me they had 2 sets of Loons on Birch Lake. Both Heather and I love listening to their lovely eerie sounds. I searched everywhere on the Internet and could not find any Loon beads. Then in the middle of the night it came to me that I had Loon ear rings I had bought when I lived in Fairbanks Alaska. So I had my sweetie carefully take off the ear ring part and then I had my loons. I glued them onto the lake. They are hand carved by Alaskan natives.

I love dragonflies and I knew "Birch Lake" would probably have heaps of them flying around so I added a beaded dragonfly in my favorite color of pink. I also used metallic variegated Kreinik threads to create its lace wings to make them sparkle.

This is the finished "Life In The Wilderness; Birch Lake" landscape. I used simple stitches for the seam treatments for the crazy patchwork stitching because I wanted the eyes to focus on the encrusted embroidery scene of Birch Lake. In the lower right corner I put my "JG" initials using the lovely boucle floss like I do on all my work. I think it blended in well and is not really noticeable. I finished the edges of the project by using variegated green and brown 100% wool and button hole stitching it on.

When Heather open her pressie she was so happy that she called me straight away all the way from SK Canada to thank me for it. I was outside in March raking leaves off my flower beds. Yes, my prayers have been answered we are having an early Spring, at least at the moment. We chatted and chatted for sometime. It warm my heart and made me smile allot that Heather was so happy with the gift I created for her. That is what life is all about giving to others and making them happy.

Hugs,