CQJP

I have completed my next block in my CQJP. I think this is block 7. Center motif is a folded ribbon rose using Hanna silk ribbon with 3 little buds and swags coming off from the center flower. Leaves were created with 4 mm light brown SR using a loop stitch tacked down with a bead to hold in place. Stems are stitched with metallic brown DMC floss. I don't really like using metallic floss. It's difficult to bring through the fabric but I love the bling it adds to the piece. I just try to keep the thread I'm working with short so it's easier to work with. Just to the left I used small gold bugle beads and sewed them down in position to give them a curved line look. This is a technique I like to use quite a bit in my crazy quilts. In the upper right corner I stitched some coneflowers. Again the stems are teal metallic DMC floss with lazy daisy stitch leaves. The coneflowers are Japanese Ribbon stitch slanted down towards ground and then beads sewn on top to look like the cone part of the flower. I also hand dyed the lace on this piece. I am very new to hand dying. I used 2 different colors of Rit dyes here (teal and brown) but would love to here what other crazy quilter's use. Do any of you have a preference? I have dyed some other pieces for this quilt but I am not real happy with the brown. It almost looks brown/purple. Any suggestions? I even tried adding several different colors (red, green, blue) trying to recall for my younger years when I mixed paint all colors mixed together make brown but it didn't work real well. I am open to suggestions here.