Spring CQ...Buddleia Black Knight

This one was so simple after those hours of stitching on the Osteospermum!

My Buddleia is shown here where it normally shades my garden bench. Today it is catching raindrops, though.

But when it flowers it looks just like this:



My version is kind of a caricature of this bloom here.
I started with a leaf....

I liked the shape and the veining.

Once the stitching was on, I fused the leaf to this felty-type crafty stuff. I think people use it to back fabric postcards and ATC's. It is a little bit stiff, and has fusible web on one side.
I thought it would give my leaf some body and dimension.

Which it did!
I am couching it in place with a thicker version of the silk thread I used for the veining. The thin stuff is Silk Bella, the thicker is Silk Serica, both by Kreinik. Yummy to stitch with.

And here is my little Buddleia Black Knight.
Those are vintage lucite flower beads. Spendy little blighters; I got them at the bead show in April. You can find similar lucite flower beads here.
I like the extra variety of texture that the lucite adds to the mix.

*A Fun Note*
My quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts contest, "My Quilts/Our History" was featured in Alex Anderson and Ricky Timm's Quilt Show Newsletter, Volume 2 No. 24
for June 10, 2008.
wOOt!
It is not too late to join in this contest and support the Alliance, a most worthy organization that has documented literally thousands of quilts. Read about them here.