This latest work is a study in dimensional wool appliqué with embroidery embellishment using metallic threads. I have used another of Lilly Barothi's beautiful designs.
This is the second design in a series of Lilly Barothi designs that I have interpreted which was done in 1956, a good 24 years after the original design I worked with. This piece was remarkably within the same style featuring crisp graphic images which are easily translated into wool appliqué. It is like getting to know the designer when you intimately work with their original hand painting, drafting patterns and choosing colors to bring them to life. How amazing that I am able to work with her although we are separated by generations.
As I studied her original design, I decided to enhance the color choices using some of Weeks Dye Works latest wool colors and modify them with metallic threads. This brought today's modern textiles to the forefront of the work and allowed for more choice. Using a blend of my dimensional techniques and embellished trapunto, the tulip remained the hero of the design making the work sing with dimension and sparkle. I eliminated the black circle inside the tulip body in favor of a trapunto tulip center. Since this design was originally from Europe I did not want to incorporate pennies, which are entirely American. After much research, and a little recommendation from an appliqué friend from Ireland, I decided to create a border of Irish crocheted lace. The border is done using a silk/wool blend of yarn and makes an excellent finish to the table rug.
Now began the search for fabrics and threads. For the background I use a white (bleached) wool to provide a clean base for the bright colors. The balance of the fabrics are from Weeks Dye Works and the challenge was finding metallic threads to match each color. In addition, I chose an over-dyed Perle cotton variegated thread from the Caron Collection to embellish the tulip. Threads for appliqué included colors choices of wool threads from Bella Lusso, Gumnut and Weeks Dye works. Metallic threads were from Rainbow Gallery and Kreinick. For these two metallic threads I had to choose proper thread weight to be sure they were balanced and showing well against the wool, especially when embellishing the tulip center with a crossed trellis design. I used an off-white Perle Cotton by DMC for the assembly
The Tulip center is trapunto which requires a super slant of the needle to create the additional space under the appliqué piece required for stuffing with fiberfill. Once the trapunto was complete I embellished the piece. 
The tulip frame is embellished using the Caron Perle cotton and colonial knots. They almost give the appearance of beads surrounding the large purple pieces.
Each appliqué piece is outlined in a stem stitch using metallic thread which provides a crispness to the work. On the golden flowers I also added colonial knots to the center edge of each petal.
Once the appliqué was completed, I backed it in white wool and used an off-white Perle cotton #5 to blanket stitch the backing to the appliqué front. This blanket stitch edge also served to anchor the crochet.