This is what I have rolled up in my backpack to take home; two pieces instead of one. Rob woke up with the idea of cutting the canvas. I thought of turning the paintings around. We hastily stuck the birds on. Observation: Rob cuts and re-assembles, whereas I look at things from different angles.

We’ve added thread to the canvas and the painted blanket birds which have red netting underneath them. We are still not entirely happy with the result. It’s eleventh hour now.

Here is a painted blanket bird and some bits of yarn we will play around with these on the canvas.

Who would have thought that turning a batik bird over could make you jubilant? We really like the look and  feel of the woollen Op Shop blanket on the reverse side of the birds. They look so much better than the busy birds. They can stay blu tacked up and we will see how they…

A fresh look in the morning and we see that we are still not on track. We keep trying all sorts of things, more fabric, less fabric, adding elements, re-arranging elements then taking them away. We only have today to go and feel like throwing in the towel. Finally we decide we have absolutely nothing…

One of the things this project is teaching me is not to become too wedded  to your original idea. I love the batik fabric but it is simply too busy for its backdrop. There’s no time to make new birds. Lesson number two: integrate all the elements of the project from the outset. We realise…