Working on Birthday Hearts

Now there are four in progress! The background on March is finished, and August almost. Time to start the embellishment with silk ribbon, which is the fun part.

I got distracted from January and didn't get it finished when I needed it - but it's moving along nicely now. I changed the colors a bit from the original start. It's strange how I can feel and "see" the colors for each month before I start them.

To explain, I'm seeing January as cold with the colors rather low intensity - and the greens are the colors of pines and spruce trees (I loved Tyler, Texas and then Tallahassee in the winter when I lived in those places.) Also, these greens will be beautiful background for the January flower - the carnation.

The two whites are just two different textures for snow and ice, which is wishful thinking living in Texas. I used one of my favorite techniques on the Petite Very Velvet white patch - where you see the little blue dots. I put the Sundance #250 clear beads there - not the hexagonal but the plain ones, as I didn't want glitter as used on December. The garnets were made with beads, and that would have been a distraction.
April is just far enough along to have the colors and stitches selected and placed. The colors appear much like January, but at higher intensity (brighter). This is how I see this, my favorite month of the year - bright and beautiful spring with blue skies. Also, these colors will be wonderful with the colors of the sweet peas.
When I saw the bricks in this picture, I knew the effect was too good to lose - but instead of making actual brick-like stitches, I decided to use a subtler effect - can't remember the name of this stitch, but I've used it before and like it very much. It is a slanted stitch, but has the appearance of being upright.
And last is August almost done - but I can go ahead and start the silk ribbon features. I'm really looking forward to adding the gladioli - Jean at River Silks helped me choose the ribbon, as I just sent her a picture of the flowers, and she matched the 4mm silk ribbon to the real flowers - gorgeous!! I hope I can do it justice.