Finished encrusted block

Final embellishment

The last flower: 3 heart shaped pieces of lace, attached with some stright stitches and a big bead as center.

Flowerspray

Leaves embroidered in closely worked fly stitches.

Lace flowers

Dragonfly

Two layers of organza fused together with misty fuse.

The four wings. They are very delicate.

The body of the dragonfly.

The finished dragonfly. Unfortunately the top left wing was damaged. There is a little hole at the top.

I am going to make a new one. I know, no one will notice, but I will ;)

Softening/hiding the left branch

I felt the left branch was still too strong, too heavy.

I decided to embroider a special type of ivy to soften it.

This is what the whole block looks now.

The red patch and the bottom right corner still need something.

Ladybird finished

The wings are embroidered and cut out. Unfortunately I cut one of the wires while cutting the wings from the red fabric. I will have to sew the top left wing to the block with a few stitches.

There it is! The design is from Jane Nicholas. I found the body is too small for the wings. It is better to embroider the legs first and then attach the wings.

Ladybird

These are the wings. The wire will be covered with overcast stitch, then embroidered and cut out.

This is the body; a piece of felt covered with satin stitches.

New spider species: pearlspider

This spider is perfect for breaking the green patch and the yellow ribbon.

These thin branches of straight stitches and french knots soften the thick yellow thread.

Leaves

These leaves are cut from greenish fabric, backed with vliesofix (wonder under?) and a second layer of fabric to make it firmer. I only stitched the central veins to the block to achieve some depth. And I added a little ladybird charm.

There are still a few "problem" areas, such as the yellow ribbon and the red patch. In the following posts they will be solved.

More work on the central piece

A little lace flower with beads.

Sees beads and bugle beads on the flowers on the central patch.

The center gets more accentuated.

New attempt

This looks much better, not as stiff as the heartshape.

For now enough beading.

Heart shape

I love the shape of a heart, so I thought it was a good idea to add one on the empty space in the yellow patch. I had just the right ribbon and beads. It coveres exactly the area I want it to cover, but look at the result on the next picture......

Sorry this picture is blurred, I forgot the macro button. I just wanted to show this picture so you can see that the heart doesn't fit in this block. I unpicked it.

Grass

Grass added to fill the gap between the bottom patches.

Gradually more connections are made to achieve unity.

Next I will sew a heart shape on the yellow patch.

Adding details

Some french knots to complete the branch.

I made a connection between the top and bottom right patches.