CQ RR

I'm in a CQ round robin on Stitchin Fingers, and received the first block from one of my RR partners, Kim. Here's what her block looked like upon arrival.

The picture is of her Mother, and the beaded lace piece and the pleated flounce came  from Kim's wedding veil. Isn't it beautiful?
Three yo-yo flowers echoing the colors of the block were created by Kim and connected with stem stitch branches.

Examining the block, I decided to follow Kim's lead and add more beads, lace, and flowers, repeating the block colors of cream, blue, and brown. I wanted the focal point to be the picture of Kim's Mom, and I hoped to keep the feeling delicate, feminine, and pretty.

Thinking that the lace and flounce competed with the photo, a necklace of  blue swarovski crystals were added to highlight the face and draw more attention to Kim's Mom.

Then, to gently frame the face and bring out the warm skin tones, an S-swirl of pink lace flowers was added.

Lace in a soft brown was added to the top right seam edge with a pretty, cream beaded gimp lace.  The brown lace was gathered into a frill to adorn the block edge, and topped with a second piece of lace in brown leaves and blue flowers. To the left of the face, I added a lace border in a flowing, soft blue, repeating the blues and carrying the eye to the lace, the face, and the crystals.



I left the other seams around the photo unembellished, as I didn't want to close in too much on the lovely face. Leaving these seams bare brought more light into the photo, I thought.

The flower-topped lace frill draws the eye along the side seam instead of allowing a straight diagonal seam to carry the viewer out of the block.

Greenery connects the pink flowers together, and tatted leaves were added, with some pointing towards the face in the photo.Some flower petals were not sewn down onto the fabric to give the illusion of flowers moving on a breeze.

 On the top left diagonal seam edge, I added the same lace that anchors the soft brown lace frill on the right, repeating the lace pattern, as well as the block colors. French knot centers attach the lace.
A row of tatted Josephine Knot flowers in a  soft  
 blue perle, anchored  with seed beads dance along the seam on the far right.          

Tendrils of greenery climb around the flower stem Kim created, and woven picot leaves were added.    

 On the small right diagonal seam, a Josephine Knot flower cascade was added in blue, and I repeated the seed bead center in each flower.This color repeats the button shade of the yo-yo flower below, and the fabric in the yo-yo flower opposite.


I returned to the upper right seam to add more embellishments. The white gimp and beaded lace was too stark against the dark brown background, so I added some caramel thread and metallic braid in copper along the top lace edge. Caramel JK flower cascades sit atop the soft brown lace and  seed beads in a tawny brown were added to each center.

To soften the straight edge of the beaded gimp lace, and to repeat the light tones of the lower beaded lace and fabric flounce, thread branches were added in the cream thread, along with beads in the cream and tawny-brown, and french knots in caramel, cream, pink and blue.
I think this adds a whimsical touch.

 I added blue seed beads in two shades, in the center opening of the blue lace seam trim to the left of the picture to add a variation in the blue. The pink flowers were given cream bead and french knot centers, adding another tone of soft pink.



My contribution to this block is now complete, and it will now travel to Brinda in India for the next step of its journey.


 I hope you like what I've added to your block, Kim!  It was a lot of fun stitching!

Hope you have some fun stitching today, too.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz