All the flowers added

I was wrong when I said I only had a few flowers on the right still to add - when I checked the design, it turned out there was still a fern to go on the left, too.  And here it is:

After that, there really was just a few flowers (and another fern) to go on the right, and here they all are:

So, that's all the flowers cut out and attached, but not the panel finished.  Next, I'm going to edge all the individual pieces in gold.

I think I should point out, that while the panel clearly isn't symmetrical, it isn't meant to be - fortunately, as that makes life rather easier!  Either side of the cowslip is similar to each other, but the Fiona's design is subtly different on each side.  I like this - I think it adds life and interest.  Happily for me, it also means that if a piece isn't quite aligned with the matching piece on the opposite side, it doesn't really matter.  I can just tell everyone it's meant to be like that!

More flowers

It's a beautiful sunny day today, though at -8 degrees Celsius I'm not expecting the snow to thaw any time soon. Never mind, it's nice and cosy indoors, and I've got plenty to do.

Including adding more flowers to the bottom panel of the Banner, which is coming along nicely.  Here it is with a few more added:

And in close up:

And with a few more after that:

Just a few more to add on the right, then they're all in place.

Adding more flowers (and a weather report)

Winter's arrived a month early this year - everything's under a thick blanket of snow, and I'm currently looking at a blizzard.  A good day to be at home stitching, so it's a pity I had to go to work!  Still, it did look quite pretty from indoors - this was the view from the office window this afternoon, with a corner of Newcastle Cathedral on the left:

Increasing transport problems led to the office closing early, and after surviving the commute home, I can now bring you up to date with work on the Banner.

I've added quite a few more flowers to the velvet background now; applying them is quite a fiddly process, but much faster than embroidering them in the first place.  Here are a few more attached:

There are a few ferns to do, which as before seem to take more time and effort than somehow they ought.  I can't help it, I still don’t like them as much as the other flowers.  Never mind, I need to add them anyway.

To get the layout correct, I stitched on the first and last leaves first, to get the start and finish points:

And then spaced the rest of the leaves in between.  Or almost all of them - when I laid them out roughly to check the spacing, putting all of them on was going to look really cramped, so I missed one out.

I'll remember that for the rest of the panels - one leaf less to stitch!  Here's the completed fern:

And the full panel so far, with a few more flowers on it:

There are still a lot of flowers (and ferns!) to add, but I'm pleased with how it's coming along.

Applying the flowers

It's now time to start applying the flowers to the velvet panel fabric.  This is a big moment, and rather a nerve-wracking one, though I suppose the worst that can happen is that I make a mess of a flower and need to stitch it again, which I don't want to have to do, but which wouldn't be the end of the world.

So with that calming thought in mind, here goes.  With the grid in place it shouldn't make any difference where I start adding the flowers, but I've decided to build the design up by starting in the centre and working outwards.  This seems the best way to see it develop and to make sure it's balanced, but does have the down side that this makes the cowslip the very first flower I have to do.  This is the fiddliest shape of the lot, though I suppose once I've done this one, the rest should be easy!

With a deep breath, I cut out the cowslip flower heads and leaves very roughly:

Then, with very sharp embroidery scissors, I cut them out properly, leaving a small edge around the flower itself:

The biggest one is the most central, so that goes first: using the grid drawn on the design for reference, I positioned it on the panel fabric, and started to stitch it in place.  To do this, I used one strand of the shade I used to edge the flower, in this case Madeira 0105, so that the stitches used to hold the applied piece in place shouldn't be visible.

Using small stitches a few millimetres apart, I caught the cut out flower head down; each stitch went just inside the buttonhole stitch edging:

Here's the flower head, completely stitched into place:

And all three flower heads and the leaves:

I should stress that this is not the final version - I know the cut linen edging looks a bit rough, but don't worry: once all the flowers are in position, I'll edge them all with gold, which will cover the rough edges up and finish the flowers nicely.  I'll also add the stalks, and some other goldwork detailing, but that's all to come.

I must say I'm very pleased with the red infill stitches between some of the individual cowslip flowers.  Apart from the fact they look rather neater at the moment, I don't think you can tell that they're stitched and not the red velvet showing through.

Preparing the panel

Now all the flowers are done, they need to be applied to the background fabric, but before I can do that, I need to get this ready.  I also need a means of ensuring that I put the flowers on in the right place.  As both of these are part of the same process, I'll describe them simultaneously, in the order in which I did them.

I've been thinking about how to transfer the design to the velvet, to place the flowers correctly.  I considered my usual design-on-the-back-and-tack-through method, but have decided to take a different approach this time.  I will partially be doing it by eye, but only within strict limits, and there will still be some tacking through from the back, just not of the flowers.  So what am I talking about?

I'd made a paper pattern for the panel shape when I made the toile some time ago; I hunted this out, and marked it up into a grid pattern.  I generally prefer to use metric measurements (they make the maths easier, for a start), but as the Banner very specifically is a yard (36") wide, I need to use old-fashioned Imperial measurements for it.  Each panel (top, bottom, left and right) is exactly the same: 36" along the bottom, and 18" along the top.  I drew up the grid as a series of squares (or triangles, along the edges) which are 2.25" a side.

I then cut out the linen that will form the lining on the back of the velvet.  I traced the pattern shape onto the linen, and marked the end of each grid line:

I then joined these up, to form the grid on the linen:

I also brought out the outline design for the Banner itself, and drew a similar grid onto the bottom panel:

By matching the two grids, I'll be able to position each flower quite precisely, or at least that's the plan!

With the linen marked up, it was time to cut out the velvet.  It's critical to ensure that the pile of the fabric is all running in the same direction, or the velvet can look as though it's completely different shades of red.  I'd marked arrows onto the linen, to indicate which way up the panel is to go:

I also pinned arrows onto the velvet; it doesn’t entirely matter which way the arrows point as long as I'm consistent and always have them pointing the same way, but I've made the top edge 'up', and have the arrows going in that direction:

So, with all the arrows pointing up, I cut out the velvet:

I then pre-shrank the fabrics, stitched the linen backing to the velvet front fabric, and edged them with the overlocker, for neatness and strength.

Doing this piecemeal seemed like a problem in the making, so I've actually cut out all eight panels, and attached the linen, with each one clearly marked where it's to go ('Front - Top', 'Back - Left', etc.) and lots of arrows.  This should save me the headache of trying to remember which way up things need to go later - all I have to do now is make sure all the arrows go in the same direction, and I'm sorted.

So, with the rest of the panels safely put away in my fabric cupboard, I mounted the bottom front panel onto my big frame.  Here's the linen on the back, showing the grid:

I then tacked over this, to transfer the grid to the front:

I can now position the flowers by the grid; once all the embroidery is done, I'll take out the tacking stitches.

And now - at last! - it's time to start adding the flowers.

Damp stretching the flowers

I promised last time that I'll be starting on putting the bottom panel together next, and I am, but I'm afraid there's quite a bit of prep work to do before I can start any actual embroidery.

Firstly, damp stretching the various sheets of flowers.  If you've been following the blog for a while you'll know that I prefer to damp stretch rather than iron embroidery; it gives a much smoother finish, I can control any reshaping that might be necessary much easier, and there's no risk of accidentally scorching the fabric.

Here are all the sheets, together for the first time:

Happily, there's no pulling or puckering around the embroidery, but as you can see, the fabric's slightly rippled, and I want it to be nice and flat.  So, after a an hour or two of careful pinning onto a cork board, here they all are stretched taught:

I then lightly sprayed them with a plant mister, and left them overnight to dry.  And the result?  Beautifully smooth, absolutely flat embroidery:

Next, I need to get the bottom panel itself ready.

Cowslip leaves

The last lap!  The very last bit of embroidery to do for the bottom panel is the leaves for the cowslips. These are all together in a bunch rather than separate, and are nice rounded shapes, so much easier than the wood avens leaves.  The technique is the same as ever, though, but just quickly:-

I outlined the edges of all the leaves, even the ones or parts of ones that aren’t on an edge to be cut, in buttonhole stitch in Madeira 1410:

Then worked a single line of split stitch in three strands of 1412 to form the leaf veins:

Bands of stitches in 1411 in the centres of all the leaves:

Followed by a band in one strand of 1411 and one of 1410:

And then the rest filled in with 1410:

And here's the entire cowslip sheet, completed:

And that's it!  Wow.  Well, that's it for the first panel, there are another three to go, but never mind that now.  I could start straight on with more flowers for the other panels, but for all our sakes I'm going to move onto something different, and actually complete the bottom panel of the Banner.  This should really give the first idea of what the finished article will look like.  It's quite exciting!