PARASOLS Block 12 Cream on Cream Crazy Quilt Finished.

These are my Parasols for the March Victorian Symbolism Challenge for CQI but it is also Block 12 for the Cream on Cream Crazy Quilt.  I have had the hand-made broderie anglaise circular lace motif for ages - it consists of the circle in the centre, the flowers joined on individually with a few over-sewn stitches and finally the ovals around the outer edge were sewn on separately at the end. I kept picking it up and deciding that it just didn't suit any of the crazy quilted blocks until this one. It made a perfect parasol top!!  First of all, I appliqued the lace motif to cream satin and attached the tatting around the edge. It was still a bit ho-hum boring so I cut the parasol shape out of the cream satin and appliqued it to some darker fabric which matched the lace.  It was still missing something so I added the pearl beading and that's how it stayed while I finished off the rest of the block. This morning I added the parasol spines, ending each one with a 'grain of rice' pearl and a round pearl in the centre and voila! A parasol viewed from the top. 

The other parasol is the one that I embroidered last week while watching the DVDs of my nephew's wedding. Because I didn't want to take away from the parasols, I concentrated on the seam treatments and on some really unobtrusive flowers which hopefully will remain in the background.