September and October CQJP blocks

This weekend, I finished the beading and other embellishing on my September block. As you may recall, this block commemorates the trip Mike and I took to Europe over Spring Break this year. I added three charms for three of the places we visited. I bought the "Paris" and "London" charms at one of the big craft stores, I think Hobby Lobby.

Here's a closeup of the souvenir tie tack I bought in the gift shop at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. I purposely bought it for this block, the way I bought the doily that the "London" charm is on while we were in London.

Here's a photo I took of the real Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle may look familiar to you. It's one of the most photographed castles in Germany, and it was the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

I added this gold ric rac on the long patch of fabric. First I couched it down with chain stitch and French knots.

Here's a closeup of the bead cluster that I sewed onto the ric rac. The two oval-shaped pearlescent beads are from a pair of fancy earrings I bought on clearance after the holidays a few years ago. I deconstructed the earrings to get a fun assortment of beads.

 I put sequins, seed beads, and larger pearls on the lace edges of the doily.

The date was an after-thought! I had already photographed the block and was putting it away when I saw one of my other Europe blocks and realized I had forgotten to put the year that we took this trip. I used some small rubber stamps and gold ink. It's a bit faint, but I like that the 2012 is not real obvious.

Besides finishing up the September block, I pieced my October block. The blue oval is where I am going to applique a photo from our wedding. I'm planning on sewing my seam treatments before I applique the photo; I think that way will be a bit easier than appliqueing first.

Happy stitching!