Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Garden Steps Block #1...done!

Last night I finished the embroidery
on block #1 of the Garden Steps Quilt Along :)
I'm sooooo loving this!
It's a good thing that Clara and Jenny
over at Clover & Violet
are making me wait a month for each
embroidery pattern,
because I'd probably spend all my time
on the handwork of this quilt and get nothing else done :)


I used backstitching to outline the design.
Then I used french knots in 2 colors for the topiary plants.
I used a satin stitch for the butterflies
and lazy daisy stitch for the flowers on the pots.
I used a french knot as the center of each little flower.


OK....time to get busy on my tiny houses quilt!

I mean.....laundry and housework :)

19 comments:

  1. those french knots just do me in! i love it! fancy stitching there Karen!

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  2. Your french knots are awesome! I wish I could do them that well. I love the colors you picked for your quilt. I want to do this project too, but I will be starting it late. The blocks look fairly easy so I should catch up in no time I think.

    Jen

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  3. beautiful and fun and colorful and happy! I love this block!

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  4. How bright and cheerful! I love the textured look of your topiaries. I'm going to have to get over my fear of french knots!

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  5. I totally LOVE the theme and detail. OK...believe it or not I have caught the quilting bug and want to chat you up to help me plan a quilt for Baby Bear. I am going to start with a basic quilt, but I would like to do some hand stitching also. I cannot wait to chat you up and get your input. Then maybe we can go to M & L? I also want to make a couple of runners for our new dresser. Your runners are GORGEOUS too :-)!

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  6. That is just awesome! Someday, I will be able to make a french knot. Lol. Some day, a long time from now. Lol
    Can't wait to see the next one!

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  7. That is so cute, Karen. You did such a great job!!! Love the leaves on the topiaries.. wow! Love the block!

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  8. So cute... I love the French knot idea!

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  9. Gorgeous! I love your french knots, too...what a great idea to use two different colors to give depth. I have half my blocks finished and waiting for embroidery, not realizing that we'd have to wait so long between embroidering blocks. How did I miss that? LOL

    Hugs,
    Pam

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  10. WOWWWWWWWWW
    I love your first block.The Embrodery is wonderful and all the block ... I'm really in love with him.Great work!!!!

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  11. Such beautiful work!! Very inspirational. I'm hoping to get started soon. I do a lot of stitching on linen but haven't done 'freehand' embroidery in, oh, 30 years or so. Thanks for listing out what stitches you used on each thing--that's very helpful!

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  12. Your first block is truly lovely...I love the topiary plants. It looks so real..thanks for sharing stitches that you used for your bautiful work!!

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  13. Karen your embroidery is so awesome! I absolutely love it and all the details you added! Great job as usual! ;) By the way... not sure if I should tell you this or not... but the embroidery patterns actually come out every two weeks! That means more stitching and less time to wait in between! :) Hoping to get started on my soon. You've definitely given me inspiration! Thanks! :)

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  14. You really took that design and made it your own! Great job on all those french knots in the topiary!!

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  15. Simply Fabulous! Love all those french knots.

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  16. Spectacular.You did great job!

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  17. Your trees are so realistic I just want to reach out and touch them! Fantastic job!

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  18. absolutely LOVE your adaptation of the block, especially the faith, hope, and love addition (if it was on the original, i missed it LOL) and the french knots are also wonderful. it sure does show how one can take and make this their own. i am a french knot fan myself and use them quite often, but boy howdy, the satin stitch scares me....probably because i don't feel i do it well enough and only practice will help me get better, but who wants to waste time PRACTICING when i could be doing REAL stitching? oh brother! even 5 minutes here and there would make a huge difference in my skill and fear. so, if i can do this for the satin stitch, your other commenters can do it with the french knots--here's to 5 minutes here and there ;o)

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  19. I Love your french knot idea! You inspired me to do the same, I love the texture they create. Thank-you!

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