RoseAnnes BAS Blocks

Back again at last. I have been very slack with my writing but here are some photos of the embroidery I have been doing on Rose Anne's blocks.

 This is a butterfly done with chain stitch, detached chain pistil stitch, seed stitch and colonial knots. It is done with single thread art rayon.

The next block is the beautiful underwater scene. I added the tiny fish around the angel fish with silver thread and fly stitch finished with a chain. The other panel is coral, starfish and seaweed in various threads and pearl beads.

Here I added a bead tumble down the side of the heart. The stitching is Rhodes stitch in yellow silk.

A basket of silk flowers with a beaded button for an accent.

Sometimes I make real flowers but most of the time I make made up ones like these. The leaves and the flowers are silk ribbon and the vine is silk thread.

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This stitching on the trellis is a sort of cross stitch but the legs are straight not slanted. It came from one of my favourite books "A Book of Fancy Designs for Ornamenting Oriental Work" This is in the public domain and can be found at http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/embroid.htm I don't know what page it is on but the publisher is Mary Haehnlen. This little jewel only has 24 pages and was published in 1884.  

This is just a series of straight stitches using one of Carol Sample's templates. Once in blue the echoed in a goldie colour. A lighter shade of blue was used on the detached chain with pearls. As you can see even with a template I cannot sew straight.

 The bottom of this basket is woven over irregular buttonhole stitch and topped with chain stitch to make the appearance of a planter box of woven cane. The flowers are a stitch I found on the web and are supposed to look like peacock feathers. They are made with one large detached chain in a dark colour, then a smaller detached chain in a lighter colour stitched upside down to the first stitch lastly a Colonial or French knot to finish off. I personally like Colonial knots so that is what I use. The greenery is fly stitch and straight stitch in some places.

And to finish on block 9 a personal touch of a Gum Blossom done in Pistil stitch, Satin stitch and couched bullion. The leaves are satin stitch outlined with outline stitch in a single thread. The gumnuts are bullion stitch. Gumnuts are the seedpods of the plants not the buds as some people think.