CQJP 2016 January Block Seam 9 and Motifs 5, 6 & 7

The 9th seam on my CQJP 2016 January block was inspired by Valerie Bothell's Joyful Embellishments Stitch 2. However, I substituted French knots for the detached chain stitches so the stitching would not overlap the green vine to the right.

To create this seam, I traced a curvy line using a wavy ruler I purchased from Creative Memories for scrapbooking years ago. (Oops! This post was edited 2/20/2016. In the original post, I mistakenly stated this seam was created using a crazy quilting template.)

Next, the seam was embroidered with size 8 Anchor #0225 pearl cotton feather stitches.

Size 8 DMC #498 pearl cotton French knots were added to the tip of each feather stitch.

This was my best attempt at photographing the 5th motif on this block. 

The butterfly was created using size 8 Anchor #00047 pearl cotton to make four detached chain stitches for the wings, a straight stitch for the body, two more straight stitches for the antennae and two French knots at the tip of each of those.  

Size 12 DMC #B5200 pearl cotton running stitches were added to create the butterfly's flight path, which includes 2 heart-shaped loops. (You may be able to see that better if you click the photo for a larger image.)

This small dragonfly lace motif (that I purchased from Crazyquiltingsupplies.com - please note, I am not affiliated with the website) became the 6th motif. Using a single strand of DMC Blanc cotton floss, I tacked it down with tiny white stitches.

For the 7th motif, I added "Love" using a strand of size 8 Anchor #00047 pearl cotton. This was my first attempt using the Vandyke stitch (this week's TAST stitch) on a curve. As you can see, I need more practice! The lower case letters were added with stem stitches.

Clusters of 3 French knots were used to fill in the surrounding area using size 12 DMC #B5200 pearl cotton.

There are only 5 seams and 2 motifs left to complete this block. (Did I say only? 12-inch blocks do take a while to finish!)

Thank you for stopping by!
Renee