BJP-April and may

 we've been having a very soggy, boggy chilly spring!

but stuff is growing and I wanted to celebrate that in the april BJP,
so I thought a growing seedling would do the trick just fine.

and the follow up being the lilly of the valley for the may BJP.

now I just have to figure out what to do for june before it's over!

new project

I don't have a name for this one yet  and I'm one short of a full deck, but we knew that about me already didn't we?

 one of the flights of fancy CQ embellishments packages was the inspiration for all this.

if you need stash, that is a great place to drool!

I did a little bit of everything to this block and I'm still trying to decide if it's too busy or not busy enough!

that probably means I got it just right and I should stop now.

so here's what i have so far.
this lovely lady is done and I am trying to decide if the dragonfly makes it look to busy, right there on the red patch or should I move it to the yellow patch below it or take it off all together?

what do you think?
assistance is requested
it's driving me crazy.

Fools Gold #1-Gerry's block

Being the third person in this rotation I tried to incorporate as much of the seamwork from everyone else's blocks so there is some continuity



Maire and Barbara used blue and red to some degree on their blocks so I did also, and since neither of them used red as a focal color, i  took it and ran!




And in true Jacobean fashion i added a bunch of bugs.

Dragonfly is first, I found these wonderful blue "Milk glass" colored beads at my local bead shop. don't they remind you of hobnail glass?

I embroidered the leaves first using two different kinds of floss.
The lighter green is wrapped with a gold filament and sparkles a little.
I used the same silk floss for the red flower as I used in barb's strawberries and embroidered it over padded gold lame.
I then couched down a flat gold tape for the main stem and thin gold band for the outlines and leaf stems

Mr. Snail was made with bullion's of cotton floss from wildflowers and silk wool from Glorianna.

the ladybug is made with trebizond silk  on felt then tacked on as an applique so she has a little more definition.

I should have done this with the flower but i embroidered it directly onto the block and as a result it looks a little lumpy.