Approaching the gold dots on the outer edge of the Medallion design, I decided that they should tie in with the center goldwork area on the Tudor-style roses that surround the Medallion. The center of the dots, then, should be filled with a goldwork embroidery technique called chipping or chip work. This involves cutting up tiny bits of check purl and sewing the bits down by taking the needle and thread through them and sewing them down like beads, in a random fashion, until the area is filled up.

After working out the colors and procedures for the stem stitch filling on the outer edge of the Medallion (it’s not all finished yet!), my next step was to concentrate on the goldwork dots and makes some decisions about them. Around the outside of the Medallion, you see, there are 50 round dots, each about 5/16th’s of an inch in diameter. So they aren’t large dots, but they are dots nonetheless, and each has to be individually worked.

What was I thinking?!

Once I finished one section of the blue outer edge of the circle, I took a break to think about those dots.