DYOB #4 Swap Block Finished!

YAHOOIEEEE!!!! I'm finished my Chain of Hearts "swap" block and ahead of time for once, a first for Rose Anne!!!  I have to say thank you first to Pat F and Dianne J for their advise at our Ravenesque stitching day - they got me over the first hurdles!!!  Then this weekend to Jeanette O for her idea to outline the rose patch that had me stumped (last thing to do too).  Then I "begged" Maureen, Margreet and Ritva for their input and they very kindly steered me on the right path which basically coincided with my friend's suggestion.  So I put the three suggestions together and just love the finished patch!  I'm ready for mailing!  It's so AWESOME to know you can just ask away and someone will provide constructive critique on your block!  Thank you all ladies, much appreciated!


Swap Block - who will receive it???


This has my tatted beaded edging just visible, the Feather stitch with Delica beaded accents on the green patch and on the wine patch my Heart motif with my own fine chain tendrils that sort of form a heart too.  The wine patch is edged with the Reversed Fly stitch whipped.

Top left

This shows the "rose" patch that I had the delimma with and Jeanette O suggested outlining the flower and leaves with gold.  It is edged with the Barb stitch which I first thought was the Up and Down Buttonhole - DUH me!  Then Maureen B had suggested beading the rose which makes it pop I think and then Stem stitched the leaves and Margreet suggested fine feather stitch branches which covered parts I did not want to embellish.  Awesome group effort ladies.  

Then the brown patch consists of the Wheatear stitch motif which I then took artistic license with and added leafy stocks filled with a fine feather stitches again.   Finishing off with a medium butterfly charm.  I figured this patch had it's motif so close to the seam it did not need a treatment.

Top right


This shows off the lovely Venice lace trim that I anchored in place with two rows of the Up and Down Buttonhole stitch following the lace details.  Then I used the circle motif for the Whipped Spiders Wheel stiches and added the beehive charm and a stitched trail to the bee.

Also seen is the cream filler patch which I edged with scrunched silk ribbon and clumps of seed beads.  Then added scattered Colonial knots with varied fine chain tendrils to fill the patch.

Bottom right


The lower left patch had it's own embellishment stitched in place so I added some seed beads for emphasis and the butterfly charm.  This patch I edged with the cretan stitch in wine and then whipped with a varigated corded thread.  You can just see the fawn sparkly patch above that has my tatted beaded edging with the larger dragonfly charm.

Bottom left

This is the centre of Chinese brocade with more dragonflies which I've left as is except for adding in three smaller charms.

Centre


But who knows when I'll get my own heart blocks embellished - were supposed to be worked on at the same time as the swap blocks.  Now I have DYOB #2 and #4 heart blocks on the UFO pile waiting for stitching/embellishing!!!  SHEESH!!!