Needle Book Results

Last week the group of ladies from Tokoroa came for the revealing of the finished needle book blocks from our round robin.

The image on the left is my finished block.  I made the block but all of the embellishments were done by this lovely group of ladies.

I took photos of all of the finished blocks and have created a gallery page for your viewing.

One round robin finished and one to go.

Needle Books from Tokoroa

My recent sojourn in Australia meant that I have fallen behind somewhat in my contribution to the two needle book groups I am involved with.

By the time I returned there was more than on needle book needing my attention.

After working on this one I was able to mail it on Friday, but I still have needle books in hand.

This is a close up of my work for this block.

I used a hand dyed floral motif and then worked around it with purple sequin flowers, gold beading and french knots in cotton and silk threads.

I also added a row of blanket stitch to the left in variegated silk thread.

Now to the next challenge, I am sure I will catch up - real soon.

Taking the plunge

Part of participating in a needle book round robin is the challenge of making the first imprint on the naked block that arrives in your letter box.

It is a bit like a blank canvas for the artist to contemplate - where to start, will the first mark be right or wrong - you just have to get on with it and take the plunge.

This block is the first I have received from my Blog Round Robin.  Lorraine sent it and it is all in purples, a colour that I do like working with.

In the end I decided to do this floral spray which incorporates a floral motif, feather stitch in gold metallic thread, sequin flowers, grub roses, beading, an iridescent butterfly and french knot stitching.

The block is on its way to Cherie, in Australia.

I look forward to sharing more as other blocks come my way.

Needle books - again

Last week I posted this image of Michelle's needlebook.

It already had work on it by two other people and now it was my turn..............

I couldn't resist adding a couple of green beaded flowers to the ones on the right but then I turned my attention to the left side of the block.

I attached a hand dyed motif and added floral silk ribbon embroidery.

There was already another hand dyed motif and I added some silk ribbon work and cotton thread french knots.

I must have taken these photos at different times of day - the second image is more true to life.

My time with this block has come to an end so it is time to move it along with the previous one I mentioned a couple of days ago.

I still have another block to do before I am all up to date once again.

More needle booking

Yesterday I started working on Rhena's needle book block.

I had some variegated silk thread which I stitched across two blocks in stem stitch.

I wanted to add some green silk leaves but upon searching my stash found I had none so what is a girl to do?

I hunted through my stash for some undyed 4mm silk ribbon.

I got out my favourite Olive green dye, diluted it with 50% water and wet the ribbon using an eye dropper.

I popped the ribbon in the microwave for 1 minute on high.

Checked it and popped it back for another 20 seconds.

 I took the dry silk ribbon and steam pressed it with my iron and, as a result, have the most lovely variegated olive green silk ribbon to do my stitching with.

Back to the block I went and added ribbon leaves to the stem stitch I did yesterday - did some loose french stitching at the base of each leaf in soft pink thread.

To the right of the block I then added a soft green velvet leaf that I bought in a craft shop in London about five years ago.  I decided it was about time I used it instead of just keeping it to look at.

A couple of grub roses, a little bit of silk ribbon work and some more loose French knots and I am all done.

Rhena's block is ready to move on to the next person in the round robin.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my request to begin a round robin through this blog.  I now have enough participants and so, over the coming weeks, I should have lots of different bits and pieces to share as various blocks come and go from the two different round robin groups.  I hope you will find this to be as interesting as I do.