Design Choices for Hearts RR

I belong to a Hearts round robin in Crazy Quilting International, a Yahoo group. This block belongs to Carol, and it was sent to me to "do my thing" on it. I'm the 3rd out of 4 people to work on it, then it goes back to the owner. This seemed like a good project in which to blog about the process I go through as I figure out what to add to a round robin block when it comes to me. We have a lot of newbies in CQI, and maybe seeing how someone deals with design decisions will help erase some of their fears!
To be frank, at first I panicked (I usually do, LOL, until the ideas start flowing). This is the block when it came to me, and as you can see, there's a lot of different things going on. The pastels are on the right and the saturated colors on the left. Although it's a Hearts theme, there are fabric prints with butterflies and roses as well. And the lovely green trim (wish I could get some for me, LOL!!) rather made the butterfly look like it was on a stick, and led the eye off the block. Now, things like these are common when a block is in progress - that is to be expected. If you click on the picture, you can see that Gerry H. did a lovely heart/swirl and pearl seam treatment in the right (as well as emphasizing that heart) and added that to-die-for green trim. Karen did the fabulous seam treatments at the top and dyed that lace to match the butterfly. You can click on the picture to see their meticulous work.

But my primary responsibility as the third person in the rotation is to begin to tie the elements together into a cohesive whole. My other design goals were to make the block more "heartsy", make the eye flow around the block, balance color and visual weight, and finally to add some texture. At first I intended to ignore the roses altogether, but then my friend Gerry K convinced me to play them up. Since I love doing ribbon roses, that was a no-brainer! :-) (which is good, because sometimes I'm known to be brainless.......)

One of the first things I did was to add some hand-dyed vintage lace sweeping along the bottom to break up the green trim, and then built an arrangement of ribbon roses over it. I tucked in leaves and a few hearts, too.

But then I needed a focal point, and so I added (again, thanks to my friend Gerry K for this idea) a big heart in the lower left area at the intersection of the hot pink, white and pastel pink rose print. I did some searching online and found a cute bead-woven heart pattern, and made the center of the heart with 19 sparkley crystals. Here is a closeup.

I also did some seam stitching in a variegated silk pearle thread. Then to this corner, to break up the strength of the white and deep fuchsia colors abutting each other, I replaced the tiny white trim with a blue and white to carry some blue into that corner. Next, I dyed a venice lace motif in pink/blue and green and placed it over the seam.

And so I was beginning to feel better. But I knew I was going to have to meander either a stitched vine or a nice trim, lace, or cording around the block to lead the eye. After searching through my stash (I love to do that, don't you? It gets you reacquainted with your goodies, LOL), I found the perfect aqua trim (and in the perfect length). I began laying it down in the lower right, where the doves in the fabric print had a ribbon in their beaks..... To the ribbon, I added button clusters, hearts, and pearls. It went counterclockwise around the block and ended up tucked into the rose arrangement.
Finally, I added some glitter to the rose print fabric (in the darker areas) and made some more ribbon roses and silk ribbon leaves, alternating with mother-of-pears hearts on the vertical seam above the big heart. The ribbon underneath is vintage rayon with picots, covered with a variegated silk ribbon in the middle. That pearl heart in the center of the "butterfly" lace motif is another of those bead-woven hearts. I think all butterflies should have a heart-shaped body, LOL!!

And this is how the block ended up. It is now definitely a pink and blue block, and a definite HEARTS theme. I was able to add 23 hearts to the block (can you find them all?). And there is still room along the top for sweet Debbie Q to do her magic!

And soon the block will be winging its way to the next stitcher. And I await the arrival of the next block. But first, I have an apron commission to finish, a purse in the works, and I'd like to start on something for the AAQ Contest. Maybe if I give up sleeping..........