Friday 13 April 2012

Budgies


When I was a kid and still slept in a bunkbed, my family had a pet budgie called 'Brolly'. We didn't have him for long, as I recall. He died possibly after just a few months (hard to say as children have little concept of time!). His name was a lame pun on the common practice of referring to pet birds as 'Polly'. We must have found it funny because we had subsequent birds named Ollie (a budgie who, again, did not last long) and Folly (a cockatiel who flew away one fateful morning).

Even though Brolly didn't last long, and we had other pets that did (several dogs, 2 guinea pigs and about 5 hamsters), my older brother took to documenting the cartoon adventures of Brolly the budgie. Many years have passed since then but my brother still insists on drawing a picture of the cartoon budgie in every card he ever sends (see picture showing illustration in recent birthday card).

Earlier this year I decided to make cushions for my brother and his fiance a housewarming gift. I wanted to take the opportunity to try out appliqué for the first time. I asked my brother several times what he would like me to appliqué on his custom-made cushions. He replied with such dickish suggestions as "an ocelot", "a pencil sharpener" and "a protractor". Budgie-theme it is then, I concluded.

So here it is, just a tad classier than the cartoon Brolly: