Quick RR Tune Up and My Two Cents..

 

 Susan B. joined a "Butterflies & Dragonflies" RR and she came up with this innovative design for her block... a lace butterfly within a silk butterfly..
So obviously the block was to return encrusted with lots of butterflies and dragonflies... and it did.

We all like to add to our blocks when they come home so Susan and I were discussing what she could do to finish the block off... But at first glance I felt the metal dragonfly at the top must go... It just didn't fit with the rest of the needle work..

It is my personal policy that anything I remove from a block either goes somewhere else on the block OR goes into a special bag to be used on another block in the future.  I'm sure there will be the perfect place for that dragonfly...

Then I studied the block a bit before I touched what was missing...  The lace butterfly was well embellished and had a body.

But the large butterfly had lost its definition as a butterfly...  All butterflies need a body. This one needed a spectacular body to anchor the entire composition.

Susan's large butterfly has this  void in its center where a body should be.  And the two pink leaves were lost at the bottom of the wings.  I felt they needed to be integrated into the overall design somehow...

With all the lovely floral and ribbon work, what a perfect opportunity to give this butterfly a body worthy of a Paris fashion runway...

So by expanding and building on the existing work, a gorgeous body could be added with just adding a lot more pink floral and lace work..  I moved the two pieces of pink lace leaves and integrated them into the floral cluster.  At the same time I would use either pink cording or ribbon to add some swirls to echo the fancy antenna at the head...  Other than moving the two lace leaves, no one's needle work has been disturbed.

And that is my................

My two cents for student Kathy

This is a block Kathy did in a previous crazy quilting class...  She said she would never finish it and saw it as a total failure..  And I  saw it as fixable and a   spectacular block...First the block was not securely attached to the foundation and the stitching area was not defined... Absolute MUSTS in my book...

I love the fabric (with one exception) and her color choices... The lace suits the era and so does the bits of glitz.  I love the rose theme and light blue  echoed.  It is sooooooooooooooooo Victorian and vintage looking.

There is really not all that much to fix after it is secured to the foundation and the stitching area defined.

1. This fabric doesn't work.. She has a lovely green brocade upper right.  It or something similar to replace it would be best...

2. She was a novice with seam stitching and it shows in spacing etc.  This is what we are covering next week in class and this is easily remedied (rip it) and redoing would be good practice.

3.  A little glitz is good but the mass of sequins is overpowering... Remove a few or all... (rip it)

4.  I love blue patch at the bottom  but there isn't enough fabric to square the block and an added patch here could shorten the the blue patch.  I would use green I think...

5.  Kathy has put  a lot of surface beading along here which will be lost when the block is squared... so making the block larger would save her beautiful beading..


NOW here is my vision for this block...    

Photoshop of course

I found this image with a rose-patterned kimono which were so popular in Victorian times... This kimono echos perfectly the rose velvet print lower left. After adding a spray of ribbon roses to echo the roses in center I would make the rest of the block an exercise in unique and elegant fans....lots of them.. And add lovely layered seams goes without saying...


Spectacular...right? and that's my