BDE Round Robin - The first Robin to land

The first "robin" that I received was from Jan.  She sent a blue blouse that she'd added BDE Cast-on stitch flowers with lazy daisy outer petals  and lazy daisy leaf sprays on the collars. Her flowers were in mauve, dusty pink, violet, and a deep blue. Her only request was that we try to keep our additions to the blouse in these color families and not go below the bust line of the blouse. 

I decided to add a spray of bullion roses to the upper right bodice area.   If you've never made bullion roses, there is an excellent tutoral at  http://www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/bullion-stitch.html  as well as general stitch directions on the BDEIG site.  Just remember that the direction that you wind your stitches is reversed when you use rayon "z" twist thread than when you use "s" twist thread like cotton, silk,or wool....so note what thread is being used in any instructions or videos. If you wrap your threads the wrong way, the twist of your thread will unwind and flatten and not make a pretty stitch.

I first stitched the stems using the stem stitch.....again lifting the thread above my stitch line, because I was using rayon.  Leaves were added next.  I then made dusty rose colored bullion roses of different sizes by adding more or less rows of bullion stitches, adding more wraps as the petals increased in length.  Tiny buds were added and then calyx.  Fine growth was added with couching stitches and then small blue beads for little accent flowers.  I decided that I wanted to bring some of the violet color into the composition, so added a butterfly made with cast on stitches to finish my addition to Jan's blouse before sending it on it's way to the next person in the RR.

Here is a picture of the blouse with Jan's original work on it and mine.  I was pleased with how they blended, but were still individual.  I hope she likes it as much as I did.

I sure enjoyed working on Jan's project.  I'm fairly new to BDE and being part of a Round Robin is a great way to "stretch" yourself.  It brings you new challenges each month and makes you work on items that you may never have thought of doing yourself ....so it teaches you to adapt to new situations.  You improve, too, as you want to do the very best that you can on someone elses items.   If you haven't tried one.....you should!  Round Robins are offered in all types of needlework and quilting.....even cyber RRs on ElectricQuilt designing cyber quilts!