Green sepals

The green bits on the wood avens are far bigger and more pronounced than on the pearlwort flowers, so need a bit of shading to give them life.

Previously, I'd buttonhole stitched round the edges of all six flowers on the sheet in the lighter of the two shades I'm using.  I then worked a band of stitches in the same colour around the edges and at the ends of the sepals:

And in close up:

Most of these flowers are pretty small, with the smallest less than an inch (2.5cm) in diameter, so there's not much room for shading there.  Some of the smallest green sections are therefore just in the lightest green thread, but where I had a bit more room I introduced some shading:

In close up again:

That was enough to complete most of them, but with the largest flower, I was able to add a bit more, taking it down to the darker shade:

I think this works quite nicely, giving an effect of the petals casting a shadow.

The largest flower on this sheet, the one on the top right, is the biggest flower appearing anywhere on the entire Banner.  As such, this seems the best place to demonstrate the techniques I'm using in more detail, so in the next couple of posts, I'll show you buttonhole stitch and split stitch shading as I start the petals.