Dimity's Fiber Adventures

Joyce’s blocks were mailed to Pam today for the last round of stitching.

This the Chain stitch block:

This block was pretty full, and I wanted to leave enough room for Pam to do something so I outlined the goldfish with 2 strands of metallic DMC thread, straight stitched around each scale, and added French knot eyes in the center block, then added a little whimsy with a back stitched snail on the bottom left.

And here is the Feather stitch block:

It was a lot of fun adding the beaded feather stitch on the right, along with knotted center stem stitch roses with a grey 10/2. The grey was used to tie in with the grey fabric used in the block.

Next is the Fly stitch block:

I embroidered a fly stitch anchored with chain stitch instead of a straight stitch using light green Jeans stitch, then spent hours, and I mean hours, weaving some silk ribbon on the left. The ribbon was threaded under a fly stitch, then I raised the ribbon with a blunt needle to form a loop, and anchored it in place with a glass seed bead. Stitch by stitch, loop by loop, bead by bead, up one side of the seam and down the other I went. I do hope you like this seam treatment, Joyce. I like it so much, I’m thinking about using it as a trim on another project.

And now for the Herringbone block with a twisted herringbone lattice stitch in the bottom left corner:

I thought I was spacing the rows properly, but it got a little wider towards the bottom. The fabric was too fragile to take it out and redo that section, so I’m going to say it was a deliberate attempt to create persepective by going from a narrower to a wider lattice. That’s my story, and I sticking with it. LOL

Stem stitch:

Portuguese knotted stem stitch around the center bead – which I made. I’ll post more about that later this week.

And last but not least the Straight stitch block:

Raised chain stitch with my snow dyed #5 perle cotton, whipped stitch on lower left, and scattered bugle and seed beads for the straight stitch.

I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of the Anything Goes Block, but I added a beaded daisy chain stitch to that one.

Whew, that’s a lot of pictures. Don’t forget to click on them so they will enlarge for you. I do so hope Joyce will like what I added to her blocks.

Hugs…

Joyce’s blocks arrived in the mail this week, and I started working on the them immediately.

Here is a picture of her Blanket Block:

This block had very few colors in it, so I got the hex color of the blue section I wanted to embroider, then used the green that is a split complimentary of it for the crossed buttonhole stitch, the small straight stitch stem, and the little detached chain stitch for a leaf. The “flowers” were made with turquoise sequins held in place with little seed beads.

Then to add a bit more of the green to the block, I stitched some French Knots on one of the previously stitched seams.

The second block I finished was her Chevron block:

I added some metallic rick-rack trim couched in place with the chevron stitch. Then I added to the seam treatment on the left by added a white straight stitch inside a detached chain stitch to match the one on the other side. Next was a detached chain stitch around that with DMC Precious Metals. It gave a nice padded effect to the original detached chain.

To finish off that seam, I sewed some small seed beads down the center. That seam had a lot of steps to it before I added mine, and now it is really complex. If this RR taught me anything, it’s that the more passes and techniques used on a seam, the more I like it.

The bottom corner was blank and Joyce said she likes butterflies, so I painted a small butterfly motif I had, and beaded that. It nicely fills in that bottom corner.

I hope you like what I added to your first two blocks, Joyce. Two down, seven more to go.

Hugs…