Rose Anne's Block

I finished the embroidery on Rose Anne's block this morning. My very first seams on my very first block of my very first Round Robin. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it, and am very pleased with how it came out


The finished work

Her naked block was largely in brown tones, not a colour range I usually work with, and when she first posted the picture of her block I confess my mind just went blank. However when it arrived and I saw it in person - so to speak, ideas began to come out of hiding. Rose Anne's copious use of silk fabrics (my favourite fabric) gave the whole block a wonderful metallic sheen, which was accentuated by the fact that two of the fabrics had small sequins attached. So it seemed to me the natural choice should be metallic threads and silks.



The naked block

On the smaller inner seam, I used a wonderful copper metallic (DMC 'Precious Metals'), a grey greenish blue stranded silk, and seed beads - reddish gold, and pale peach. The wave is a combination of blanket stitch (crests) and stem stitch (troughs), with detached chain, straight stitch, couched straight stitch, and beading.



Close up of the smaller seam

On the longer outer seam, I used a rich chocolate Rajmahal Art silk, an 'antique' gold metallic (DMC 'Antique Effects'), a soft blue stranded silk, and seed beads - antique gold, and glacier ice blue. The initial row of herringbone stitch was overlaid with Cretan stitch, and detached chain and beading were added.     
                    


Close up of the longer seam

Now I just hope Rose Anne likes it.