April Cherry Blossom ATC Swap

What a beautiful collection of cards! And, funnily enough, where I was saying previously in the post about my own cards that I had done a lot of french knots, there appear to have been a lot of french knots being stitched up and down the country! Some stitches just lend themselves to a particular thing, and it seems when you want little details to make an overall texture, like leaves or lots of flowers, french knots are the go-to. 

Some of us may have been unknowingly united in our preferred representation but there are still differences. Some would include the changes in colour, being paler or darker, and there's one that has made knots with a multicoloured knitting yarn by the looks of things. It's definitely not a stranded cotton or tapestry yarn, much too fluffy, so I would like it was some kind of soft variegated yarn that works beautifully! The smaller knots between them look more like ones made with stranded cotton, like little buds yet to bloom. 

Our tree shapes (when we have a whole or majority tree rather than a branch) are also different which is interesting.

I really enjoyed taking these out of their envelopes and looking at them for the first time as they arrived. The detail in some of these cards was breath-taking - particularly on the cards which had focused in on one or two flowers. Sharon's long and short stitch thread 'painted' flowers on the purple background are divine, and I love the simplicity of Lis' petite point single blossom. The colour shading here is really clever. I do admire those who have the patience for this technique.

This one has a padded and textured tree trunk - unlike mine which is flat, this appears to have been stuffed with something so it protrudes out from the surface of the card. A little risky as one of the rules is that it needs to fit into a normal letter envelope but it got here so that's fine. 

Pam's piece below with her lovely satin stitch petals, also has little glittery threads used as stamens which catch the light and just add a little bit of extra sparkly interest.

Jacquie also has some sparkle with her lovely glittery mesh background, and has again used multiple shades of pink. It is definitely about adding detail with more than one shade of pink, such a simple idea yet so effective. 

These two (above and below) are fairly similar in their execution but so stunningly beautiful. The little fly stitched birds is a nice touch, as is the flower garden with the detached chain stitch flowers.

I think this may be my favourite swap theme so far (I feel like I say that every month) and I love that they work so nicely together as a collection. There is a lot of pale blue which offsets that lovely range of pinks to perfection. 

As always, you can find single photos of each card in the dedicated Stitchscape Swap, ATC space on my website. Just click on the front image for the theme (I try and choose a different person to be the frontline card each month) to bring up the whole photo collection for that theme. ATCs | Dotty Textiles