Grandpa’s Cardinal

Posted by Angelique on August 2, 2008

I love doing embroidery. And I love giving them as gifts because it makes those I love happy. I try to find things that will be significant to the people I make them for. For my Grandma it was hummingbirds, but for my Grandpa, it is cardinals. This is what the cardinal project looked like when I first started it.

Here is the finished embroidery before I put it in the frame.

It took me a while to make because I was going to school at the same time. But I finally finished it and got it to him for Father’s Day 2007. I wish I could’ve been there to see his reaction, but he lives too far away for that. However, from what my mom told me, he has it hung in the same room as the hummingbird. I’m glad he liked it.

Here is a close-up of the bird’s head. I like to do detail work on my pictures. The more detail the better. It takes a long time, but it comes out looking so pretty when it’s done. It took me at least a week or so just to finish the detail work on the cardinal itself. But I think it was worth it.

Overall I was very happy with the outcome. I am sort of a perfectionist when it comes to my work, so if I wasn’t happy with it, most likely I would have just chucked the whole thing and started over. Then it would’ve been the next Christmas before he received it. Everything worked out though, and now the cardinal is hanging right where it was meant to be. Here is a picture of it in the frame getting ready to be packaged and shipped (Sorry about the flash right in the middle of his head……remember boys and girls, flash and glass don’t mix).