Briar roses...

Well, here are my efforts that took me into the wee small hours - not a lot to show for it- except my sleep depraved eyes. I sat yesterday looking at my block and my block looking back at me. We both knew - my block and I - that if I didn't make a start - it would be unlikely that I would. So my block said to me - "Let's just get on with it!!!!!!" And so I did...

A glimmer of an idea grew... I remembered that I had some flower threads in a couple of kits I had so I went on a mission and unearthed them. Between the three kits I had quite a selection of the colours that toned with my block. Flower threads are lovely and soft and I have enjoyed working with them before. I wondered how best I could utilize the threads and thought that they would lend themselves quite nicely to outline stitch roses - which as the name suggests is just outline stitch going around in a circle. While mine aren't the best example you can get the idea what they should look like. Like when making up a CQ block - you have to travel in the same direction otherwise you can get yourself in a bit of a pickle. At first the roses sat above the seam line like birds on a fence and so I thought about what I could use to connect the flowers - leaves just didn't do it for me - believe me I tried- so I fell back on the tried and true feather stitch - now I am a fussy Virgo - and go to great pains to make things nice and neat. This time I wanted the feather stitch to ramble and be a little untidy and not stay within the boundaries of the tan/gold section. As you can see I have managed to connect the flowers and ramble just a wee bit - I am going to extend the 'rambling' - over the seam line- into the floral section, the red section below and perhaps into the multi coloured section at the other end. I already have bought a couple of buttons and some other bits to go into this section so the rambling should 'travel' the eye just nicely to them. As I stitched kept getting the words 'briar roses' - so much for my tree block!!!! I have a feeling with what I thought I was going to have is not what I will end up with. But in saying that I am positive that the block will undergo many changes before it is completed. I do feel a little better this morning having made a start.

I perceive part of my difficulty is that it is a strong block and not pretty, therefore I am needing some strong stitch elements so that they doesn't get lost in the fabrics - I think the flower threads helped start this process - however I won't be using just flower threads - but they were a great way to start 'the ball rolling' so to speak...