Lace Cottage

In 2008 I joined a landscape round robin with Debbie Smith, Lyn Gaskill, Janie Jones and Leslie Erhlich... This is the block I sent out and I called it "Lace Cottage" and it was indeed a lace cottage... I had problems with the perspective which I was unable to correct but those problems were barely noticeable when the block returned... The fabric was a twill and I used bleach to create the clouds.

I invariably add to RR blocks when they come back but this one needed nary a stitch... but I did reduce the sky area....

Leslie did some spectacular work with trees on this block.. The cherry tree on the left has an unbelievable amount of french knots. The trees on the right are pieces of dyed suede and edged with knots... very effective technique and worth remembering.. The trees behind the cottage were painted on the fabric and outlined... Debbie Smith did the precious little sheep for me.

I agonized for a long time over what I wanted to do with it and decided I wanted to use it on a tote for my needlework and this block will be perfect as it is all tight stitching and no embellishment that would catch or snag on anything.. I also wanted to do another lace cottage for the other side of the tote... Unfortunately I've never gotten that far so I decided to go ahead and make the tote with this on one side and piece another block with a cottage and see if another landscape RR comes up..then I can add it as a pocket on the other side... I really treasure this block....