Of Bear and DYBs

Still working on naked block (read - thinking about it. May have a better idea how to darken back the bright blue), but in the meantime, here is a picture of two of the other blocks. I joined them yesterday and embellished the joing seam.

The block on the left is one by Rina, in the first DYB we ever had - we think it was even a world first. The one on the right is by my dear friend bear (an internet friend I haven't even met yet). I have pieced all the blocks in this wall hanging, and embellished some. Bear stands alone as someone outside DYBs and RRs, who did this embellishing just for me - with a peacock with a fair dose of attitude in the centre. And bear also does stunning silk ribbon embroidery, and all sorts of other clever things, as you can see in the block. And I'm not sure that I have had a chance to show it off before, so here it is.

And that is also the thing about DYBs (Doing your Block). I pieced the six blocks each time, but then each one was embellished by a different person (while I was doing one for each of them). So I am doing very simple seams, so as to not intrude on their designs. When they went aorund, I asked for peacock theme, and some fascinating stuff came back.

And, experimenting with some different threads. This time it was DMC perle #12 crochet cotton - I have heaps, being a tatter. I love their black. But the rest of the colours I have are more, well, murky. I wonder if they have different ranges in different years - there is a lot of pewter and dusky pink in what I have. And Sulky metallic machine thread - it comes out of the needle almost as well as my favourite, Madeira metallic machine thread.

So do enjoy these - I am off to the naked block again, and the greatest UFO of them all - my garden!