Herb Embroidery

I started a new embroidery quilt project recently and really enjoyed making these blocks. My sister grows and uses herbs and I found these vintage herb patterns on the web some months ago. I just loved the way the words were woven into the pictures. I work on them at guild meetings and doctors offices as a take-along project. Yesterday we had a teacher in-service at school and I took them along to keep my hands busy while I listened (well sort of) to the speakers.

Here is thyme with its pretty little purple flowers.

Marjoram is a very old herb that is not used much lately. But I loved the shape of the leaves.

The dill leaves are really accurate, I think. Reminds me of the plants in my sister's garden. The flowers are a bit light, though. I think I may take those out and use a darker shade of yellow.The chives are fun. The blooms are as I remember them from my own gardening days. The variegated green thread is a bit light in this block, but I think I will leave it. What do you think? I started the word in the Parsley block, then remembered I wanted to change colors for the word. I will have to go back and take out the loop on the "P" and change it to blue at some point, I think. But I love the shape of the leaves. I just started on the Sage block, and it is a real challenge.

I chose the striped background to go with a very pale delicate victorian floral in shades of rust and gray greens. It goes perfectly with the accompanying fabrics and has that vintage look I love so much. I have been using Weeks Dye Works Over Dyed Fibers for the thread, and it is lovely with its slightly variegated colors. I only have 8 herb designs and I need 12 for the quilt, so I bought a book of herb drawings from Dover books and will make 4 more myself, duplicating the script style woven into the pictures. I'll post pictures of my four additional herb drawings when I get them complete.