Right hand side of the panel

The new boiler was installed today, which was a relief.  Hot water!  At last!

The Banner panel has also taken a step forwards, with all the flowers applied to the right-hand panel.  There were a few pearlworts:

Some wood avens:

And the very last foxglove:

Then finally the last three ferns:

So here's the panel with all the flowers in place:

Back to normal

I'm back online, I'm happy to say.  Broadband access has become such a normal part of my life that I really miss it when it's not available.  I can say the same about heating and hot water, too, which I have now been without for a week, after my ever-unreliable boiler finally broke down beyond fixing last Saturday. I'm getting a new one installed on Tuesday, which will be a relief; I'll be glad when this week is over!

All of this has been a bit distracting, but I have managed to get some sewing done, and have added all the flowers to the left hand side of the panel.

Starting with the foxglove, I added the goldwork stalk first:

Then applied the individual flowers spaced along it:

Next came three more ferns:

And a wood aven and a pearlwort:

So, here's all work on the panel so far:

Apologies for the loss of service

Sorry for not posting, but I've lost Internet access (I'm writing this on my phone).

All being well, it should be fixed tomorrow, when normal service will be resumed. I hope.

A note on placement

The two panels I've done already - the bottom and left ones - while clearly similar, have obviously different designs.  The remaining two - top and right - are similar to the finished ones.  And I do want to emphasise that: similar.  The concept of the design is a scattering of wild flowers, as you might find in a meadow.  As such it needs to have a certain freedom in it, to give a naturalness to the look of the finished piece.

So, while the layout of the right and left panels are similar, they are not, and are not meant to be, symmetrical.  If the design was very controlled and demanded precise placement of its elements (as a lot of my own designs do), then I would be doing my level best to make sure that everything was placed as accurately as possible.  As it is, though, I'm not referring back to the previous panels, but continuing to place the flowers where I feel they ought to go, using the marked up design as a guide.

I thought it best to explain that before I started, in case you think I'm just being a bit slapdash with the layout!

With that out of the way, let's get down to business.  As before, I'm starting applying the flowers in the middle and working outwards to either side, so that means the cowslip is added first:

There are then a few ferns:

Then some wood avens and pearlworts:

And here's everything together:

I like this stage - things start to come together (relatively) quickly, and you can see real progress.

Panel number 3

Time to set up the third panel, the right-hand one.

All the flowers are embroidered, so the first step to get everything ready is to damp stretch them:

If you spotted that one of the sheets of ferns has half a side of pins missing, you're doing a lot better than me - I didn't notice until the next day, when I came to take them out again.  This is what happens when you do things late at night after a long day at work.  Still, if this is the worst that happens, it's not too bad, and it acts as a warning to always double-check that things are as they ought to be.

As with the previous two panels, I'm placing the applied flowers by eye using a grid as a guide, so I needed to mark out the grid on the design:

And the fabric itself:

All ready to go!

Climbing hydrangea - and bees

Now I've got my new camera, I've discovered I really like taking pictures of flowers.  I was never very interested in it before, in my pre-camera days, but of all the trial and error snapping away that I've been doing, that's what I've enjoyed the most.

I'm pretty pleased with the results, too.  This is a climbing hydrangea, which is growing up the side wall of my yard:

Sadly, the photo can't give you any idea of the beautiful smell from all the flowers, but with the windows open (when it's warm enough!) they make the whole house smell lovely.

The flowers are very popular with bees, too.

I wonder if it's the smell that attracts them, or something else?

Now that summer's here, almost, I think a few flower-photographing trips might be in order.

Cowslips

The second-last-ever cowslip.  Not much of a milestone, but it's something!

That's all of the embroidery for the right panel done, so now it’s back to applying all the flowers to the velvet.  Once I’ve got this panel done, I’ll really start to feel that the end is in sight.

(Sorry for the very short and rather infrequent posts lately, by the way. I shall try and do better.)