Dorothy's Round Robin - Building a stitch

[cq4fun]

Here is a picture of Dorothy's Round Robin block. Dorothy is in Texas, and I don't think she has a blog. She used tapestry/upholstery types of fabrics, but it wasn't difficult to stitch.




One of the things that new stitchers sometimes have trouble doing is deciding how to go about building a design. There are many, many ways to do this. Here's the order in which I did this one.

• I looked at the block. Not a single idea flooded into my mind, which is a little unusual.
• I began to look at the fabrics specifically. I had my thread container open next to me. I noticed that the light teal fabric had a tree design in it, or three of the big leafy branches, at least.
• I saw that I had a darker thread, a silk perle, which was the same tone as the fabric, so I decided to choose that thread.
• I thought about outlining the leaves, but I didn't imagine I'd enjoy that so much, so I decided a feather stitch following the spine of the leaves, or the branches of the tree, whichever it is, would look nice.
• I started at the top of each leaf and did a feather stitch downward. There was a little leaf in the corner, so I did that, too. That left the middle looking a little bare, so I added 2 more stems that met with two of the major lines already stitched. I decided that looked fine, though I could have added one more, and had an odd number of stems, which I normally prefer.
• Since I wasn't sure what else I would stitch, or how I would embellish the feather-stitching, I didn't add another stem. As it turned out, I probably could have. I think it looks fine without it, though. Sometimes you add something and then it needs balance and you have to add something else, and it winds up being a mess. I like an open, clean look, not too blingy or encrusted, so I left it as is. You can look at it and decide you might have done something else.
• I decided French knots would be nice, but where to put them? I started with a one-wrap knot in a perle #12 silk and put it in the center of the end feather stitch. That looked fine, but I thought I would need something bigger at the end of "arms" . . . hmmm. I tried a double wrap on a right arm, one stitch down. As I stitched, I decided on a pattern. Center knot with 1 wrap, alternating right and left arms with knots with two wraps.
• I discovered that this left me with some arms which were bare. I'd been experimenting with three-buttonhole flowers that I saw on Ati's blog, but decided to use just two on this design. I put one on every empty arm, going in different directions, sometimes at whim, sometimes determined by the space available.
• Finally, it still didn't look finished, so I chose a white silk perle and began adding lazy daisy leaves. However, I didn't like the look, so only did a few and out they came.
• I decided that a small bead, and I had the perfect color with me, would go in the "cups" of feather stitches without a French knot.

That was it. I didn't plan out ahead. I can't seem to function that way. I know people who do, but it never works for me. If I make a plan, or plan to copy something, it almost always gets changed. My head wants to do something just a little different. It works best for me to stitch and stop and think and stitch again. That won't work for everyone!

Here's a close-up view. Click to get even closer.




I was at the Arizona Quilters Guild annual show on Friday. There were 6 crazy quilt entries, and the first place won Best of Show also. I will be posting some pics I took later this week.