The front of the Banner

Well, it's done - the front of the Banner has been successfully completed.  What a relief!

Ably assisted by my mum again, I did pretty much the same as before, though this time I had to take care to centre the border panels as well as the central cross.

I had a tracing paper outline with centre lines marked on, and used this to line it up, making sure the cowslips were in the middle:

Once the four pieces forming the border were cut out and edged (and I forgot to take a photo of that bit - sorry), I marked the centre points of each one and the cross panel with pins:

so I could match them up to sew:

Everything was machine stitched exactly as before, so without further ado, here it is:

If I say so myself, it looks pretty spectacular!

The back of the Banner - finishing

I'd got the back of the Banner put together, but that wasn't it finished - there was still quite a bit of work to do.  Firstly, and the single biggest job remaining, I needed to sort out the back.

Even though it won't be seen, the back needs to be neat to make sure the Banner lies as flat as possible.  As the fabrics it's made from are quite thick, this wouldn't be possible without doing something to neaten up the seams.

Here's the back as it was immediately after finishing putting the pieces together:

Not too pretty, is it!  To tidy things up, I first pinned the seams flat:

Then used herringbone stitch to stitch them to the linen lining fabric, using a matching thread:

I was very careful to make sure that none of the stitches came through to the velvet, so this is completely invisible from the front.

With all the seams stitched down, the back looks much better:

It also helps support the piece, making it a little firmer; this wasn't intentional, but it's useful none the less.

So here's the front of the back, if you see what I mean, with the seams nice and flat and the corners trimmed:

It's still not finished though - I need to add braid around the central panel.  I used a curved needle, and used ladder stitch to stitch it in place:

It really lifts it, doesn't it:

The braid has been specially woven to match the red and yellow colours in the Banner, and its chequerboard design also echoes the flag of Northumbria.

I'm still not quite finished, though.  The Banner will be carried using a vertical pole with a crosspiece along the top (and more on that later). I don't want the Banner flapping around or swinging forwards, which would make it very difficult to carry, so I've added loops on the back for the pole to fit through.

These are in the same velvet with linen lining as the rest of the Banner, carefully marked so that the grain of the velvet is going in the same direction as that of the Banner itself:

These pieces were edged, stitched, had their seams stitched down, and turned right side out:

Then stitched to the panel, using ladder stitch again.  The pole will be 35mm in diameter; I found a tube that was 39mm, so a little wider, but I thought that if it could pass through, the pole itself should be fine:

So here's the Banner back finally finished:

Now for the front...

The back of the Banner - making it up

The time has come to start putting all the pieces together and make the Banner up.  I'm doing the back first; it's important to get it right, of course, but I feel I have a bit more leeway than with the front, so I can get a bit of practice in.

As a reminder, the design calls for a central cross (front and back), with a wide red border.  Here's the cross that'll form part of the Banner back:

I made a paper pattern the actual size of the central section, without any seam allowance.  I marked it into quarters, to show the centre and mid points of each edge, so I could line it up correctly, with the cross centred and the edges square on the grain of the fabric:

Using tailor's chalk, I marked around the edge, where the seams will go, and the centre of each side:

You can't tell from the photo - in fact, it was pretty hard to tell in real life! - but I tacked over the markings both to hold the shape in place and to transfer the marked out edges onto the back, too.

I then cut this out with a seam allowance, and edged it with the overlocker:

I did the same with the four red velvet panels that will form the border.  As the panels are plain I didn't have to centre anything, though I did take care that the top and bottom edges were straight:

It's a bit easier to see the tacking stitches this time!

Here it is cut out and edged:

I then tacked the first panel to the central cross:

If you look closely, you can see arrows marked on the linen lining.  Velvet needs to keep the grain all going in the same direction or each piece will look an entirely different colour, and I don't want it appearing to be in a variety of reds.  The arrows show which way up each panel needs to go, to keep everything going in the same direction.

So, machine stitched in place:

And the two sections joined together:

I did the same with the other three side panels, joining them to the central cross:

Now the really tricky bit: the mitred corners joining the side panels to each other.  I pinned them carefully:

Tacked them (though that's very hard to tell here, I'm afriad), and marked a nice clear line in red pencil to machine along:

I couldn't get the foot of the sewing machine right to the top, so I'll need to put the last (or first) few stitches next to the central panel in by hand later.

So, I machine stitched that and the other three corners, and...

Success!

It's such a relief that it all worked ok, especially with the front of the Banner still to do.  I can be quite confident now that it'll all turn out as it ought, though, which is a load off my mind!

There's still quite a bit of finishing work to do on the back first, though, and I'll tell you how that goes next time.

(Also, a big thanks to my mum, partially seen above holding it up, who came round and helped with moral support and cups of tea on what was rather a nerve-wracking day.  Thanks mam!)

St Cuthbert's Banner - the final bit of embroidery

Well it's been a long time coming, but I have finally done the very last of the embroidery for the Banner.  As milestones along the way go, this is probably the biggest until I finish the whole piece.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Last time, I'd done the very last ferns (hooray!), so all that needed to be done was a few flower stems:

And a few more:

The group of wood avens at the end:

And the last few tendrils, completing the whole panel:

Finally, here it is with the grid removed:

And that's it - no more embroidery.  But coming next, is putting all the pieces together, to make the Banner itself.  This is the bit I've been working towards for months, so make sure you keep reading!

Goldwork stems and tendrils - left (and a bit)

Things are really coming along now, with most of the goldwork flower stems and tendrils done.  Here are the three ferns on the left (sorry about the slightly blurred photo):

Some wood avens and a pearlwort:

The rest  of the flowers:

And some extra tendrils:

Moving on, here's the central cowslip, with its stalks:

And the three ferns on the right:

The last of the ferns ever!  That counts as a red-letter day in its own right.

There really is very little to do now and all the embroidery will be finished.  After all this time, it hardly seems possible.

The rest of the goldwork edging

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted - I hadn't realised it was such a long time ago.  Sorry about that!

But if I haven't been posting I have been stitching, and have finished edging all the flowers.  Another major milestone completed!

Last time, I'd finished all the flowers to the left of the cowslip, so next it was the cowslip itself:

Then the pearlworts:

The central wood avens:

A couple of ferns:

The remaining wood avens:

And their leaves:

And finally, the last ever fern!  I kept that one to the end on purpose.

So here's the panel, with all the edging done:

The only things left to do now are the stems and tendrils.  I can't believe how close to the end I now am!

Goldwork edging for the flowers

Or some of them, anyway.  As I was up the right-hand end of the panel anyway, I started the edging at that end.  There's no need to reorganise my seating arrangements if it's not strictly necessary!

So, working more or less in reverse order to how I stitched them on, here's the first fern with its edging done:

Then the little cluster of three wood avens flowers and their leaves:

The remaining wood avens and the pearlworts:

Then finally the next two ferns:

That's all the flowers on the right done, so almost half way through.