April Block of the Month

Here are 2 photos of my finished April block of the month by Sue Spargo. The applique pieces that look white are actually a light blue velvet. We learned 4 more new embroidery stitches for this block: eyelet wheel stitch on the small red circles, closed fly stitch as stems for the blue circles, double threaded back stitch on the green leaves, and French knots  above the blue circles. I really like the double threaded back stitch. It looks lacy, but is easy to do. I added, as Sue suggested, bullion stitches around and on the top of the lime green center with lime green size 8 Valdani thread #V18. The small blue circles on the green center are  made by using a 1/4 hole punch. Who knew??? I would have never tried to punch out wool with a hole punch, but it works really well. Sue just sent us a notice that the new hole punches are not quite as good as the one I have, so if you purchase one use it right away to see if it works. The punch is made by Fiskers and has a purple handle. Then I decided to add 1/8 inch blue rick rack and couch it around the  blue circles on the upper flower part with the Genziana wool thread to match the rick rack.
Sue, also, suggested that we add a back stitch with orange sea grass around the orange wool flower pieces, and pistol stitches to the upper part of the ribbon stem using size 8 variegated Valdani #V16 which I did. I then decided to outlined the multicolored cotton pieces with the stem stitch using the same thread and to add purple pistil stitches for stamens on the flowers. I used Shepherds Silk from The Thread Gatherer.