Hand embroidered robin heart: a winter memory stitched in thread

During the Xmas and New Year holidays, I finally made a small winter guest that I had been missing for a long time. 

Winter in Serbia has little snow. But a couple of days ago, for a short time, the world outside my window was white. And then, just as quickly, the snow melted, leaving only wet streets and a faint winter mood.

The brief snowfall brought back memories of cold (veeeery 🥶 coldd-d-dd) Russian winters. I remembered my bird feeder hanging in the window. Every morning I filled it with sunflower seeds. The birds flew in one by one, performing an elegant, polite dance: one bird would land, take a seed, fly away, and then another would arrive:

After the brief snowfall, I missed my quiet winter ritual. I wanted to feel that joy again. That's how the idea for this embroidery was born. If I could not invite the Russian winter to my window, I could at least invite its birds into my hands. I took a piece of blue fabric and sketched two round shapes that would soon become robins. I sketched branches and hearts around them.

After threading the needle, the process went fast. With each orange stitch, they felt warmer and fuller. The embroidery was finished in two days. Perhaps the birds were in a rush to sit on their stitched branches. When I'm feeling down during the Serbian winter, I look at this little heart. I can find joy in my life through thread, fabric, and memories.

If you'd like to see how these little robins came to life stitch by stitch, you can watch the full embroidery process on my YouTube channel —🐦How to Embroider Robin Birds + Make Heart Ornament:

Happy winter!

Lena