Flower Fossil Applique

I loved doing this C&G Heat n' Bond applique even though the fossil/shells turned out stiff as boards. I felt the embroidered edge was too fancy for the shell. So the sample sat for a week. But, the exercise called for machine stitches so eventually I went with fancy edges and lots of different patterns, thread and colour. The stitching went like magic. No breaks, bad tension or stripped threads. I started to really love the exotic look all the stitching gave the simple shell shape. The background was a struggle to find. The shells are gradations of pink and orange hand dyed fabrics. I was fixated on using a background that used similar gradation values in blue or green. It just wasn't working. This corally looking piece materialized one afternoon. Without a lot of thinking (for a change) I just added in a few of the brilliant green and blue blocks to meet the '4 patch' requirement for the exercise.

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