The Scarlet Carnation was the book that I was reading on my Kindle when the prompt for month one’s block was given, so it’s cover is what I decided to make, as literally as I could. I chose to use only the elements in the cover design that I thought were important elements in the book. For the background fabric I used a piece of teal shot cotton, which I added shadowing to around the edges by lightly rolling on black block printing ink. The scarlet carnation is a rose twirl block (ala Karen Eckmeier), which is reverse appliqued to get the perimeter shaped like the carnation on the book cover. All of the other elements are raw edge applique stitched down with Madeira polyneon machine embroidery thread to add a bit of shine. I wanted to somehow represent the white of the lettering, as white carnations become an important part of the story, hence the white buds. The cover of the actual book is 5.25” x 8.5”. In order to keep the proportions correct, I made my block 7 x 10 plus a 1/2” edging of teal as a border.