RR Progress

Since Lisa's piece never came in the mail and the May 15 mailing deadline for the second rotation is rapidly approaching, I picked up some blue aida and started a snowman round robin piece myself. I hope she likes it when it finally wends its way home to her. Sadly, it is my vision not hers ... but better than nothing ... since her piece seems to have been lost in the mail. Here is a photo of what I have stitched so far. It is Stitches & Stones All Wrapped Up with just a few adaptations to make it fit the requirements of this round robin: switched the charted cotton overdyes to DMC & changed the lettering a bit to fit the size parameters. It may not look like much just yet but it will be a tall, skinny snowman wrapped three times around in a scarf. Since the original chart called for stitching the scarf in an overdyed cotton in several shades of purple, I thought I could get a similar effect by stitching it in stripes in four shades of DMC purples. And while the white of the snowman doesn't pop dramatically in the photo, it does in real life. I backstitched the snowman in a shade of blue that is nearly identical to the fabric to give the snowman some definition without making him look like a page in a child's coloring book. My only problem was that I have to remember to stitch the scarf in three strands to get proper coverage while the snowman himself only requires two strands ... something one doesn't have to deal with too often with linen but a natural consequence of using aida. I figure I can finish the snowman tomorrow and that will leave me two days to do something about organizing the sections for the other stitchers in the rr. I plan on making up a border and dividers by stitching some strategically placed snowflakes connected by rows of smyrna stitches ... I'll be dividing it into six main stitching areas since there are six rotations left in this round robin ... and, if there is room, a section for a title band across the top that Lisa can stitch herself.