This week I've been getting my Round Robin piece started. Since my theme is somewhat rustic (chickens and roosters), I bought a half-width of raw linen 14-count Aida, in a khaki/natural color. I hope people won't find it too dark for comfortable stitching. I don't think it's too dark, but it's probably the darkest fabric I've ever stitched on so far.
There are four people in my Round Robin group, and I decided to lay the four squares out in one long row (oriented top to bottom) rather than in a 4-square design. I would like to make a long, skinny wall hanging for my kitchen when my chickens come back to me! So it's something like a bell pull layout.
I was of two minds about doing borders for my squares. Ultimately I do want borders, but I wasn't sure if I should wait to stitch them until the piece came back, so I could coordinate colors with all the different squares. Also, I thought the borders on the finished piece might look better if I stitched them at the end rather than stitching them and sending them all over the world. So I was leaning towards just marking off the squares and then doing the borders later.
But then I got an idea for a border and I wanted to see how it looked, so I stitched the first one. Now I'll go ahead and do all four. It's mostly black and white, with a little red, so it will probably go with whatever colors people use on the other squares. Also, if the other stitchers see the border before they stitch, they can decide whether they want to modify their patterns' colors at all.
So far, I've stitched the borders for two of the squares. Last night I finished the border on the bottom square, which is the one I had chosen to stitch my design in. So I took a break from the borders and started stitching my own square.
I am putting a rooster, a hen, and two chicks in my square. Last night I stitched the hen, and she turned out pretty good. She is stitched in four different shades of gray, but with the backstitching she stands out pretty well on the fabric. I haven't decided what to do about her eye yet... of course it's charted as a French knot, but I was thinking a black bead might be cool (for a beady little chicken eye). Also, a bead would probably be easier for me than a French knot that looks good! However, if I decide to do that I may wait to put all the chickens' eyes on until the Round Robin comes back to me. Is it weird to send blind chickens around the world?
The two little chicks will be yellow, of course, and the rooster is brown and red and has a lot of colors in his tail (turquoise mostly). I think it'll be pretty when it's done. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add any background stitching to make the birds stand out a little, like on those snowmen I did at Christmas. I am already planning to add some "dirt" around their feet, in a chicken scratch pattern. I think it's going to look cute!
I'm not sending charts with my Round Robin. I would prefer to be surprised at the end, although if people can't find chickens to stitch I'll be happy to send some out, since I do have quite a collection. It doesn't matter to me if people stitch realistic chickens or whimsical ones; in fact, I quite like whimsical ones, although the ones I'm stitching are more realistic.
I'm also planning to ask the stitchers to put their names and locations on their squares. I think it will be so neat to have a piece that was stitched in Germany, the UK, and the US! I'm sending out a little backstitch alphabet pattern for people to use for the names. I will probably add a title and year to the whole piece myself, if there's room for it, but I may wait until it comes back to do that. I'll see.
Anyway, you can probably tell that I'm really excited about my first Round Robin! When I finish my square, I'll post a picture here.
