Fools Gold RR - Karen's Block

Below is the work I did on a block for Karen in one of the Fools Gold DYB Round Robins I am in.  If you would like to see the finished block, scroll down to the bottom of the post.  I took photos along the way this time though so thought I would show the progression of the block.

These bright warm batiks that Karen pieced with threw me for a bit of a loop. This is one of the challenges of round robins - stretching and growing a bit to work on colours and designs you wouldn't usually.  It only took a day or so of looking at the block though for the colours to start working with me.  In the accompanying booklet Karen had a list of "likes" and peacocks were on the list and I like them too so I decided to make a paisley peacock for the block:  one paisley shape for the body and three for the tail as you can see here.  I used outline stitch in Kreinik #4 braid for the basic shape.  I decided on a large central motif since that was what was done on the blocks already completed in her set.

 This next step is where most of the hours went! I chose the thinnest Japan gold thread to use because it is a six inch block and I wanted to keep things in scale.  I laid down and couched the Japan gold - six circuits around each of the tail sections and the wing.

 Karen's booklet also indicated she would like colour added as well as gold so the next step was laying down base seam treatments in gold stitching and braid.  I decided to leave the stitching on the peacock all gold since there is enough colour showing through the open areas already.

Lastly I went back and added colour to the seam treatments- you will be able to see it better if you click on the photo to enlarge it.  I also added a sprinkling of sequin flowers in the spaces around the peacock and added a bit more bling to the tail with sequins and beads.  I hope Karen will like this!