Squish the centers!!!

I just love this piece of ribbon embroidery and I would highly recommend anyone EVER contemplating doing daisies (or daisy-like flowers) to study and keep this photo.  You should notice right away that each flower is different but you know each is a daisy.

And not a single one looks like a fried egg...
























Over and over again I see daisies (or daisy-like flowers which includes aster, cornflowers, etc.)
looking like a mass of fried eggs staring right at you...

One trick to force yourself to avoid this is when you draw the centers, flatten or squish them and then draw a irregular shape around the center....and do each one different.  This will force you to add variety to the shapes of the flowers.

At our Sit & Stitch meetings we are doing ribbon flowers with a 4" hoop to use in hexies.  At the last get-together I had them do blue cornflowers using this little trick... This one is by Kathy Streeter and she has already finished the hexie as well.  She not only used blue centers instead of yellow centers, she added a second row of petals in a different shade of blue.












 

This one is by Teresa Smick and is still a work in progress.  She used a variegated ribbon and also added a second row of petals which added depth and interest. PLEASE NOTE: every center is an irregular shape.

Both these exquisite examples just ooze interest and variety to a simple composite flower... so remember "squish " the centers...





The wild turkeys have flocked up for the winter and are regular visitors now...