Friday, March 16, 2012

Stitching Bloggers' Question o' the Month

Do you participate in exchange or RR stitching? Why or Why Not?

I don't. But I did. 

In 1996 back in the heyday of AOL's message boards on the subject of cross stitch, I joined a floss swap group. We were a group of 25 stitchers who shared our birthdays and addresses and formed our own little internet band. We'd mail a skein of floss to the other 24 participants on their birthday and in return you'd receive 24 cards with floss on your birthday. Then we started acknowledging anniversaries and births and holidays. Kind of got crazy there for a while. 

Eventually a group of 9 of us started a Round Robin. You picked your theme, provided the fabric, stitched borders and the first square and sent it off to the next person. I remember stitching bears and birds and flowers and hearts. I think I was the only one who provided a chart because this is the piece I wanted.

 

Started in 1996. I finished it in 2007. It's in my finished box. Still unframed. But it is finished!

This is the only Round Robin piece I have. As the other two never made it home to me. And consequently I stopped participating in RRs.  

Though two years ago a group of six from my EGA guild did a friendship sampler that really is a Round Robin. You can see those results here:

Friendship Sampler 

It was a wonderfully fun experience doing this with friends. Especially such talented friends. 

I'm done with this type of stitching/sharing. Too stressful for me. All those deadlines. 

2 comments:

Margaret said...

Yes!!! I used to participate in exchanges and would spend ages thinking about what to stitch, what to include etc and then mail it off. Often I was disappointed when the exchange received didn't appear at all or didn't seem to have much thought put into it. My one and only RR had so many errors in each one that arrived and I felt an increasing load of guilt that what I sent on wasn't perfect! Now no exchanges and no RRs - I only do "gifts" as and when I feel like it!!

BFromM said...

I participated in a Round Robin once, around the same time. I stopped after that, because the deadline pressure was too much. I've seen beautiful quilt a alongs, where people send out fabric, and a quilt block style, and they look like a lot of fun. If I was going to get back into a round robin, it would probably involve sewing, rather than stitching (just because of the time). But, that would have to wait for quite a while until I don't have children at home anymore!