Basket #1
Basket #2
Basket #3
Basket #4
Basket #5
It was an absolutely splendid day today and as promised, I managed to get outside to take photos of my five basket blocks. In order to stay out of the slight breeze I snuck round to the west side of my old farmhouse and hung each block on the garden trellis that is mounted on that wall. The clear afternoon sunlight gives a very true version of the colours in the cottons and hand-dyed wools that I used in each block but in order to properly view the embroidery I needed to get closer.
The stems and leaves were cut from a variety of batiks and are all stitched by hand using traditional needle turned applique. The berries and blooms are a combination of felted wool and hand-dyed wool, and have all been applied with a buttonhole or blanket stitch. I had a great time choosing from #8 and #12 perle cotton, stranded embroidery thread, and hand-dyed threads including some wools. In addition to the buttonhole stitch I added French knots, straight stitch, and lazy daisy stitches to embellish the individual flowers, before trimming the blocks down to twelve and a half inches. Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to head over to the studio to get all the blocks up on the large design wall and decide on proper placement. I can’t wait to see this one come together!
As always, carol xoxox
Your warning was kind of like the Sesame Street book about the monster at the end of the book and Grover warning you not to turn the page!!! Your blocks look amazing and I love the butterfly block! As always, your work is absolutely beautiful and inspirational. I can hardly wait to see what it will look like all put together! xoxo
Wow! So sorry for the delay in replying to your comment – somehow I missed it along the way. Thank you for your lovely words of encouragement! I’ll be posting again soon about the progress on this quilt. It’s on the large design wall at the moment, with blocks all sewn together into rows… a big reveal coming soon! love, bubby