Fiddling Around the Edges

When I got this block to add to, I was intimidated by the beautiful work of the previous person. She did such a lovely rose bouquet and her seam treatments were excellent. So was her butterfly. So I decided to embellish the doily. Figured that was a safe thing to do. You can see close ups of the areas I worked on in the next few photos.

After I did the doily, I put a little flower next to it. The larger flower is spiderweb, and the second one is just straight stitches in a circle. They look pretty good, I think.

Since there was so much lace on the other side of the block, I decided to balance it out with some more on the lower left. I crocheted the edging with some thread I had around with sparkly in it, then added the two daisies.

In this picture you really see the nice work done by Jill. What I did is barely visible. I added beads and bullion roses to the lace in the upper left and some sequins to the seam by the doily. I know the next person will do some wonderful things with this.

Closing the Circle

I'm now three-quarters done with the little jessicas on this band. I'm glad this isn't my only project. Stitching all those circles crosses your eyes after a while! It's coming alone well since I started it back in the rotation.

Lettering Done

The lettering's done, except for the names and dates on the bottom. And I'd guess the lower knot is at least halfway done now. I'm getting there. My hope is to have this done by next weekend.

Filling in the Blanks Again

The second "garden" is almost done! Actually, it is done, since this picture was taken last Friday. You can see that I've started in pretty heavily on the third corner, and that there's really not much left to fill in. Despite all the partial stitches, the silks are a joy to work with. I'm finally feeling like I'm making real progress again, even if the group as a whole is on to the sixth or seventh part.

Teal and Green

The new color, a teal, was added this week. I'm using it for the tie bars and insides of the swirls. This band is now over the halfway mark; maybe I'll complete it in the next couple of weeks. I still can't believe how quickly it's going.

Seahorse Returns

I've decided that I always need a small item in my rotation, and this was shunted aside last year after I got home from France. It's back in the loop now as my small project. Stitching on it's easy and it's working up quickly. Maybe I'll get it done in a month or so.

A Color Done!

This week I finished the darkest blue solid color on the third corner of this section. The end -is- in sight! I also added more gold, and after having worked some with other metallics such as Anchor and Ribbon Floss lately, I really appreciate Petite Treasure Braid more and more. It doesn't unravel or get too knotted and kinked, and it untwists easily when it does get kinked. I rarely have to worry about it. After working with these others, treasure braid is my "go to" metallic.