Lindisfarne Stones: goldwork felt pieces

Well done anyone who guessed that I would be making this in goldwork!

I'll be covering the entire design in gold, with the grid pattern picked out in red.  I'll be using imitation Japanese gold thread no. 8, couched down with coloured thread.

First things first, though - I need to get the design onto fabric to stitch.  Couched gold thread works best over felt, so I made a transfer of the design (reversed, so that when used it would come out the right way), and ironed it onto yellow felt:

This is the first time I've tried to use a transfer on felt, and I'm reasonably pleased with the results: a bit patchy in spots, but not too bad overall.

I then cut out the felt shapes:

And stitched them onto a slightly wonky piece of yellow-dyed linen, stretched on a frame:

I'd attempted to go over some of the paler transfer with various pencils and red ink, hence the splodges down the bottom of the top piece, but it was just making things worse, so I gave it up.  I'll just have to try and be careful when I come to stitch it!