Update and Christmas CQed blocks

Wow has it been a world wind couple of weeks! It all started off when my grandmother was admitted to hospital in a coma. That was Oct 22 and late on the 25th she passed never having regained consciousness. She had a massive stroke. She had one 3 years ago so we knew this was coming and at the age of 92 years young she lived a long and wonderful life. She lived on her own since my grandad past in Feb '82 and was still living on her own til the day she died. Just the was she wanted it!

She'd not want us to wallow in sadness so as soon as I could I got back to work at the daily things I needed to do and get myself caught up on the stitching that I'd gotten behind on.

Today I finished the 2nd block in a RR for Winter/Christmas theme and I've been loving them!

I've already sent out the first but here's a pic of it. This one is for Debbie.

She wanted a more Victorian theme, which was challenging for me. I first had to do a fan as they are Victorian to me. This one I dyed green and used pearl drop beads for the bottom. I then did some surfing for some inspiration and came up with the dove and ribbon. I used a butterfly lace motif to create it and added a few hearts around it. I had to put on a cameo button as the finishing touch after adding in some stitched and beaded snowflakes a little garland looking seam treatment and a hand dyed flower motif I dyed myself.

The next block I did is for Cathy. This one I thoroughly enjoyed working on for 3 straight nites. I'm almost sorry it's finished .. LOL To start with I embellished the silkes using wool thread for the fur trims and gold accents on hat and dress. A bit later I did the flowers as well. I kept within the 4 colours within the block and loved the way the little doll looked as it reminded me of the old fashion Christmas gifts little girls got, which is what came to mind seeing the little girl silkie... an old fashioned Christmas. I used several lazy daisy chains thinking of the paper garlands and of course more snowflakes for this block too. I did several different seam treatments for a busy but pretty and sparkley block I think. :)