Diane's Faces RR completed

Okay my promise to get this block finished and out at the beginning of this week went !@# for tea kettle I can tell you! See I am in the middle of a "dustup" in a local fibre arts group and have taken it pretty rough considering how it was done, now I can imagine how my friend is feeling as she's positive her designs were stolen . Oh well nothing I can do but keep doing what I've done for years and that is note the book/pattern that the inspiration arrived from. Enough of this verbiage! Onto the good stuff!

Okay right off the bat (as we always do) I’ll tell you that my block was inspired by the “Feather Maiden” watercolour by Judy Balchin in “The Complete Book of Art Nouveau Designs”.

Diane wished someone would use her lovely face beads so I decided to give it a try and I sure hope my idea stands up to it’s beauty! I had such GRANDE ideas and plans (before it even arrived) for an art nouveau block until I read her message and realized feathers are not washable so had to rethink. Then I found this book at the Library “Stitches for Embroidery” by Heather Joynes (awesome landscape embroidery) and inside were these awesome stitched feathers so back to the grindstone to try this. I kinda like it, even if I had to shorten them some and it hides those larger white patches on the bead that should be black me thinks.



Okay, now the DMC floss and metallics for the braids along side the feathers with shorter strings of beads (had to redo this as the multi-coloured beads I first had didn’t do anything for this elegant Indian Maiden). So far it’s progressing but slowly. Then a beaded fringe over her doeskin (let’s pretend) dress, learnt at the beading workshop I was at resently and found inside “Beading on Fabric” by Larkin Jean Van Horn and again had to redo it as my spacing was wrong. I tried to have it lie over top the lower portion of the bead but no dice so I gave up. And then the finishing touches were embellished patches and seam finishes of sweet grass wreaths, feather-wheat ear-herringbone-cretan stitches and added a bird charm which I hope passes for an eagle besides sequins and beads.

Closeup
Full block.

Though, I’m not sure of the idea of putting these blocks into a jacket my dear – I’d be scared of them being damaged with wear and tear along with laundering – but it’s your blocks and definitely your decision. LOL! I enjoyed working on this baby but am very sorry it took so long. Now onto the next DYB and hopefully it will go a lot smoother!!!