Development of a Crazy Quilting Motif

The pictures below show the development of a heart shaped wreath from start to finish. Click a picture to see a larger view.

Motif in Progress

	Step 1. Basted outline of the heart shape. I originally used chalk, but I knew it wasn't going to last.
	Step 2. Two shades of brown perle cotton, one in size 8, one in size 5, couched down with 3 strands of DMC floss in yet another shade of brown. I twisted the two perle cotton strands together to get a twined look before doing the couching. You can see a tiny wisp of white at the base of the heart, which was my basting thread. I removed it before continuing.
	Step 3. I've added green perle cotton, twining around the brown thread, in two different shades.
	Step 4. Lazy Daisy leaves, all around the wreath, in the darker of the two greens. Note that they aren't too close together. I'm leaving space for the other leaves, in lighter green, which I will add in Step 5.
	Step 5. More Lazy Daisy leaves, all around the wreath, in the lighter of the two greens. When layering in this manner, I always put the lighter colors on top of the darker ones.
	Step 6. Now I've added more Lazy Daisy stitches, in a thread that at the time, and in daylight in my dining room, looked pink. Later in the evening, under different light, this thread looked decidedly orange. I wouldn't willingly put orange thread on a pink background, so I was left with two choices: either take it out, or just move forward with it. I decided to embrace the orange and work with it.
	Step 7. I've added the final Lazy Daisies, this time in a light-medium pink. The scan doesn't do a very good job of getting the color right, as the thread looks variegated. Upon reflection, maybe a variegated thread would have been good here....
	Step 8. And the final step! I've added beads, which I agonized over for quite a while before choosing them. The beads that went with the thread just disappeared, so I went with something that should never have worked in this spot. They are a black-lined transparent red; very strange with orange and pink, but I like the way it turned out. They look black in the pictures, and much better in person.