The first milestone

Today is an important day: it marks the first milestone in completing the Banner.  And here it is:

It's a sheet of foxgloves, and yes, you've seen other ones before, but what makes this one important, is that it's the last one.  There are four foxgloves on the Banner - two each on the left and right panels - and this is the fourth one.  For the first time, I've done all the embroidery for a particular flower.  No more foxgloves, ever!

Of course, it'd be better if it was the last of the ferns, but their turn will come, and for the first time, I really feel the end is in sight.  We can start to count down a few more milestones in the weeks to come.

Four more ferns

Another update for you: the remaining four ferns for this panel:

I'm pleased with progress so far - I've just got two more sheets of flowers to do (a foxglove and the cowslips), then that's it for this panel, and ahead of schedule too.

I haven't done them yet, though.  Back to work!

Foxglove

Firstly, I'd like to say thanks to Jacqueline at Needleprint for the fantastic post on the St Cuthbert's Banner project.  It never ceases to amaze me how generous and kind everyone is and how much support you all give me, and I am truly thankful to everyone who takes the time to read my blog, comment or post themselves. Thanks to each and every one of you!

Back to business, though.  I've now finished the first (of two) foxgloves for this panel:

The foxgloves never show up that well at this stage as they're quite light on a white background, but I think they're my favourites of all the flowers.

I'll try and think of them when I'm back to my least favourite ones: yet more ferns...

Wood avens

Another quick Banner update for you: I've now finished the sheet with all this panel's wood avens on:

I've made a start on the next one I'm doing, the first of the two foxgloves, so I should have that to show you shortly.

It's coming along, isn't it!

Third panel update: five ferns

As with the second panel, there are nine ferns to embroider, and here are five of them:

They look fine when they're applied to the velvet and nicely edged with gold, but (and I think I've mentioned this before, about a dozen times) they're a pain to do.  They're small and fiddly and, frankly, a bit boring.  So, it's best to get them over with, I suppose, and now I'm over half way through them.

You might have noticed that two of them, with seven leaves each, are bigger than the others, with six.  Amazingly, this is deliberate.  I may be speaking too soon, but I think I've finally got the hang of them; on the very similar second panel (and on the design), two of the ferns are bigger than the rest, so here I've stitched an extra leaf each.  This also means that the four remaining ones are all six-leaf ones, so that's good!