Diane's block ready to move!!!

I love the fussy little finishing touches.... couple seams, a fan and a few fancy buttons and it's ready to roll. My favorite on this block was finding the lace that coordinated with Faye's gorgeous circle seam... I forgot to memtion that it was lace leaves that I used for the dragonfly wings.... Now back to bunnies....

Progress on Diane's block.....

You can see the marvelous piece of lace I found that repeats Faye's seam of circles... perfect, right? I added the dragonfly at the center and am working on the rose cluster in the lower corner. The rose appears darker than it is. The ribbon I used was organza so is actually very airy.... I beaded the painted button and it is just pinned approximately as I want to do a couple seams in that area and then the fan. I am going to make the deadline as DH will be gone for 2 days and my evenings will be free to stitch.....

Diane's FFT#7 Block

I'm setting other blocks aside to work on this block because I really want to keep it on track time-wise and it should leave here on the 1st which is Monday.... I tend to get rather outrageous sometimes when I am first or last on a block but it's a different story being second... I try to coordinate my efforts with the first stitcher so that the block has a strong direction.

First the block itself is traditional, soft and romantic and, as first stitcher, Faye's work is elegant and perfect......As I look at it I want to pick up on Faye's elements and colors so....

• I will find some way to echo Faye's strong circle elements.
• Faye's picked up the mauve's and lavenders in the rose and I will continue those colors plus add more shades of pink
• Faye stitched lots of delicate rose buds so I will continue the rose theme with a substantial rose floral cluster to anchor the lace in the lower left... Will antique that lace first.
• Faye added a web and a spider and since our challenge is insects this month I'll add one. Diane has an aversion to butterflies so it will be a dragonfly...beaded of course.
• Finally for my own additions I'm thinking something romantic and traditional like a fan and a button of course... I'm thinking a romantic cottage button......

Tune in tomorrow to see if I'm meeting my objectives.....

Why I'm not stitching much!

Last fall I wrote at length on my ram woes... This was a nice tidy area of field fencing for the rams....but once the ewes went into heat the rams went into testosterone overload... What fence they didn't climb over they tried to ram through..either to get to the ewes or to attack each other.. The ground was too frozen to put in new posts and we spent the winter trying to "make-do"

I have pulled out almost all of the damaged fencing and am putting in a wood fence with new posts and it has to be done before the shearer gets here which will be soon.... so stitching is limited... I did get some done on a rabbit while waiting at the vet and also tore out some of what I did on my OOYCZ project...AGAIN.... I'm trying to find a teenager to help with the digging.

I remember it well!!!

Yesterday I posted about my poor neglected garden and I was amazed to find a comment left by someone who actually visited the garden in 1999 on the very last day it was open to the public. Nearly 1500 people came through the garden that weekend. When the last person left I locked the gate.. hung a sign "Garden closed to the public. Please respect our privacy." I went into the house, locked that door, pulled the shades, unplugged the phone and collapsed on the couch with the dogs...

On that very same day the Corgi rescue person left a dog crate with 5 year old Maggie in it. She had changed hands 5 times before she got to us... She was grouchy, ill tempered, stubborn, and independantly minded and I adored her immediately. Now at 15 years she is deaf, slow and has doggie dementia but is still stubborn and independant and still adored...