I finished my April block, only a few days into May.
The green seam is zig-zag chain stitch, and the flowers are straight stitch and French knots. The yellow seam is plain old cross stitch.
In this photo the blue seam is wheatear stitch, the TAST stitch from two week ago, with orange French knots. The orange seam is fly stitch with some tiny silver beads. The pink seam is the TAST crossed buttonhole stitch for this week, accented with some tiny heart buttons and detatched chain stitches.
I used outline stitch, satin stitch, and stem stitch to embellish the center image of the hummingbird. Tahlia sent me some retro-reflective thread from Textura Trading Co., which I combined with two strands of cotton for the bird wings. The retro-reflective thread has a sparkle which is hard to see in the photo, but which gives the wings a bit of sheen.
I'm going to put this project on hold for the rest of the month. I'm wrapping up the school year and then Michael and I will go on vacation. I may post some other projects on my blog in the meantime, but I'll pick up the next block in June, when I hope to catch up with the rest of the Tuesday Stitchers group.
19 comments:
The Fuchsias look beautiful! The whole block is very well developed.
Enjoy your vacation; well deserved.
Lovely fuchsias. I still really like your whipped wheel flowers. I'm enjoying all of the eye candy on your entire block. Enjoy your time away.
Oh I adore the little blackbird singing away in the top right corner.
You have made some beautiful silk ribbon embroidery fuchsias. Suck a lovely looseness to your stitches.
Hope all goes well with ending the school year, and then you can relax and enjoy your vacation time.
- please excuse the bad typo in the above comment = such (not suck).
Lovely work, Barbara! Your fuschias look real, and I love the way the blend with the hummingbird's fuschia and the way you made it look 3-D. It's interesting the "spice" added by the touches of orange' I especially like the little orange french knot posies. Have a great vacation. Are you headed some place special?
Your fuchsias are beautiful and look just like they're growing in a garden.
Love those fuchsias! I like that you added some stitches to the 'silky' fuchsia to give it a more 3-d look. Lovely SRE, and your block is delightful with all the birds and flowers.
The SRE fuschias are my new favorite part of this block! I also adore the orange french knot flowers on the brown stems-- beautifully proportioned, and I like the way the colors work together with each other and with the fabrics nearby. If you want to get a picture of how the retro-reflective thread works, you can try taking a picture in a dark room, using a flashlight at an angle to illuminate the reflective thread. Sometimes the flash of the camera in an otherwise dark room can capture the reflective quality too.. but it really is better seen in person! Glad to see you experiment with it! I think it's a lot of fun. :)
I love your fuchsia silk flowers!!
The block turned out very nice!
LOL!
We're going to Europe! I'm very excited about this trip: we'll be in Barcelona, then Nice, then Florence.
Thanks for the photography tips!
:) that typo made me laugh-- I never see my own until after I've published, and sometimes not even then.
Such a lovely block, so full of details!
I'm sure you will come home with enough inspiration for a very long time!
Yup, I'm in love with the fuschias as well! It all looks great but those little flowers just take my breath away.
Enjoy that time off and the start of summer in Europe! I dearly love that seam with the orange French knot flowers. I've done something like that on a wavy line, sideways, but never thought to stand them up! Isn't it funny how our minds work? Or don't work, maybe. =) The block is so perfect for St. Francis.
Those fuchsias are fantastic! I love the way they curve! Someone used the word "eye candy" to describe your block, and it fits; your block is just delicious colors and textures!
What do you teach?
Thanks Carolynn for the nice compliments.! I teach American literature and ethnic and women's studies at the local state university.
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