Stacie's Block

Thank you everyone who left such wonderful Thanksgiving wishes. We had a lovely time with our visitors, and then I took a few days off to recover. lol
I hope your Thanksgiving was a splendid one.


Stacie and I decided to do a 1:1 RR and she sent me her block:


 The color scheme?   Blue
And the theme?  Creepy crawlies!


Isn't this a nice block?



I decided to make a garden scene for the creepy crawlies




I created a thread-wrapped wire form for a tree, and sewed it to the block. Then I added lots and lots of tatted leaves to the tree branches.

I loved the tree. I was so enamored with it, I didn't notice that it overwhelmed the whole block The scale was all wrong for the block theme.


So I frogged it all! sigh.

And I began again.

This is a layered, woven and split-stitched seam treatment, with tatting on each side. The circular motif at the end of the row was added to lead the eye back around the seam, and not off the end of the block.

Created with a variegated perle cotton ( thanks, Fox!) I first stitched horizontal bars across the seam, then wrapped and knotted the thread onto each bar as I worked vertically, alternating the direction with each of the seven rows. It is thick, solid, and raised. French knots finish this seam treatment.

Doubled, variegated Lizbeth thread in 'Peacock Blue' sew these two fabrics together. I liked this effect so much, I had to repeat it elsewhere on the block.

A row of tatted leaves. Hmmm, I'm not sure I like this.

rick-rack and a 'shrub' with tatted Josephine Knot 'flower clusters' adorn this section. I added gold thread to some of the clusters to echo the gold rows in the fabric.


Don't you just love that snake? Believe it or not,  I knit the body using two tatting needles! The eyes and tongue are beaded. I like how snake is wrapped around the trunk of the shrub, and hangs off the branch looking for a meal.

 Two large, hand-painted lace leaves were sewn to the upper right, and a hand-painted lace arbor was added, with a stepping stone path

I began to add greenery between the stones, changing the size of the french knots as I moved further along the path. 

an intersection of seam treatments

 I added tatted greenery and tatted Josephine Knot flowers to the arbor, and then some woven picot stitch leaves.






French knots in browns, greens, and a bit of yellow grow
between the stones.

A bullion stitch caterpillar appeared on the lace leaf, and I added a lace flower piece beneath the leaves. Hmm, maybe that caterpillar looks more like a slug? What do you think?

a different angle

The block so far


The stones were subtly extended into the adjoining fabrics, and grasses were added for the garden setting.
The row of tatted leaves on the seam treatment  was covered with a fun trim in blues, greens and tan

adding a dyed lace flower to the hand-painted leaf

a lace bug crawling onto the lace stem


seed beads and a crystal add a bit of sparkle to the blue lace flower

a beaded spider based on the design of Shawkl's spiders as  shown on her blog post tutorial.

the spider web with a jeweled center and beaded web joins


Now I'd used what I thought was a washable pen to mark the spider web, and stitched it 3 times before the final frogging. Then I went to remove the pen marks. I scrubbed it twice. ARRGH!
Luckily, Stacie is sweet enough to overlook my faux pas, and decided the marks would be shadows. Isn't she wonderful?




other beads were added to seam treatments and the lace flower

buttonhole stitch in a dark green makes the lace bug stand out a little better, as do its beaded eyes

black ants follow the stone pathway beneath the arbor
( the ants were inspired by Allie Aller's ants in her book
"Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting")

a white inchworm keeps pace



I added brown stitching around certain areas of the arbor to make it appear more dimensional and stand away from the background, since the tones were quite similar to the stones. Brown shading was stitched around the stone's base to create the effect of shadows.

The block


Is it finished?


Well, I thought so, but then.........

I removed the metal tag on the left that didn't seem to work


maybe the right side was a little dark.....
so I auditioned some white flowers to hopefully lighten and brighten this area and repeat the light tones of the top fabric piece

The finished block









I had a little problem with the dark blue fabrics: they stretched when I used a hoop to do the embroidery. Has anyone else had that happen before? Were you able to fix it? I was so worried that the stretching would ruin the block. But, my RR swap partner is a gem.

Stacie likes the block! Yay!
It's on its way.
I can't wait to see what Stacie creates for me!

My good friend, Shirl arrives Sunday for a visit, so no Inspirations post this Sunday. I hope to have lots to show you next time.
Wishing you a warm and sunny weekend.

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz