Three more ferns

Just three more ferns to go on the left end of the second panel of St Cuthbert's Banner.  A small landmark, but one to note none the less.

Here's the first one:

And the second one:

On Fiona's original design, the third one slightly overlaps the seam between the left and top panels (with the end chopped off here, when I cut out the panel design):

While I expect to have to add a few bits of goldwork over the seams, I don't really want to have anything major to do there, so I've shifted the third fern down a bit, so that it all fits within the panel space:

And that's all the appliqué done on that end of the panel!

Applying the first foxglove

It's the first foxglove next, and I'm approaching this slightly differently to what I've done before.

Previously, I've added all the flowers, edged them in gold, then added the goldwork stems last of all.  This has meant going around the flowers, or stopping and starting the couched gold threads, to make it looks as though the stems pass under a flower.  This has been fine so far, and it’s what I’m planning on doing for most of the panel,  but as the foxglove flowers are so close together, the amount of stopping and starting needed would make it unnecessarily fiddly and time consuming, plus making sure that the stem flows as though it was one continuous line would be quite tricky.  It's much easier to do it first, so that it is one continuous line, and add the flowers on top.

So, here's the stem, tacked in place.  As on the first panel, I'm using two stands of imitation Japanese gold thread no. 8; I've laid it on the background fabric in the curve I want, and couched it down at fairly wide intervals along the length, to keep it in place:

I'm using Madeira 1409 for this, the same shade of green I used for the little green cups on the foxglove flowers themselves.  Still using this, I couched the gold threads down properly, with stitches a millimetre or so apart, and finished off the ends on the back:

The foxglove is made of a lot of individual flowers, and I need to get them evenly spaced, so as with the ferns, I stitched down the top and bottom ones first, to set the overall size:

Then, to get an idea of how to space them out, I laid the roughly cut out flowers on it and took a note of the spacing:

That seemed to work out ok, so I cut out the individual flowers, and laid them on the background too.  To make sure things shifted as little as possible before I came to stitch them down, I anchored each one in place with a couple of stitches at the stem end:

After that, it was a simple matter to stitch them down, using the same threads as their outline, i.e. 1409 for the green bits and 0101 for the flowers themselves:

I'm quite pleased - I think they work nicely.

So, here are all the flowers added up to now:

Pearlworts and wood avens

There aren't as many pearlworts and wood avens on the side panels as on the top and bottom ones, just one sheet of each.  Half of these go to the left of the central cowslip, mostly quite close to it.

The first one is quite central, next to a fern:

Three more are clustered quite close together.  Here they are cut out roughly, to get the positioning right:

And here they are applied to the background.

The smallest of the three is really tiny, by the way - less than a centimetre across.

There was also one lone pearlwort, over towards the edge of the panel:

So, all the pearlworts, three ferns and  a cowslip:

There are just three wood avens to go on the left hand side, also part of the little cluster of small flowers:

And work so far: everything together:

Incidentally, someone asked me the other day if I'd cut out all the flowers already.  The answer is no: I cut them out as I go along, just trimming them as I need them.  There are two reasons for this: I don't want them to fray before I’ve started to stitch them on, and, and probably more of an issue, I don't want to lose any.  None of the flowers are big and some are really very small indeed - it'd be all too easy to drop one down between the floorboards, or accidentally throw one in the bin with the off-cuts.  Keeping them as part of their sheet until I need them is a lot safer!

So, here's what's left of the sheet of pearlworts, after I'd finished cutting out the flowers I needed:

This can now go back into the cupboard, until I need it again.

The first three ferns

There are nine ferns on this panel, but I'm going to add them in groups of three, partly as that's about as much fern as I can stand in one go, and partly because it works out quite nicely that way.

I wasn't entirely happy with the curve on at least of the ferns for the first panel, so I need to take particular care over them.  I've stitched fewer leaves for most of them this time, which I think will help: I'm not trying to fit as much in.

Here's the first fern, very roughly cut out and approximately placed on the background, to judge the spacing:

To make sure the size is correct, I added the top and bottom leaves first:

I then added the leaves in-between, taking care to place them so that the fern curved nicely:

Here it is in context, next to the cowslip:

Next, the second fern:

And the third:

And everything I've done on the panel so far:

Applying the cowslip

Time to start adding the flowers!

I should just mention that while the finished panel will be vertical, it's mounted horizontally on the frame, so the flowers in the photos will be sideways on.  I could turn the photos round, of course, but I thought it would be better if you see them them way I'm seeing them as I work.  With most of them it doesn't really matter, but with some of them, it does look obvious.

Such as the cowslip.  Each panel has one in the centre, and it seems to be a good place to start, and then work outwards.  So, using my grid as a guide, I first added the bunch of leaves:

I'd meant to take a photo of each flower head as it went on, but I forgot, so I'm afraid you're going to have to skip the interim stages and go straight to all three having been applied:

It's a start, and applying the flowers is a lot quicker than stitching them in the first place!

For anyone who wasn't reading when I reached this stage with the first panel - don't worry that the cut edge of the linen around the applied pieces looks a bit rough.  Once all the flowers are in place, they'll be edged with gold, and the linen edges will be concealed.

Starting the left panel

Starting to put it together, that is, as the flowers are all embroidered.  They did need to be damp stretched, though.  Here they are, all pinned out ready to be dampened:

Now they're all beautifully flat, I can cut them up.  It almost seems a shame, doesn't it!  It'll be worth it, though, as the finished panel (and Banner, when I get that far) should be more than the sum of its parts.

Back to the second panel, though.  It'll form the left side of the Banner, and should look something like the design here.  As before, I'm applying the flowers by eye, but guided by a marked out grid.

For this to work, I need the grid on both the design and the panel itself.  The panel will be vertical when part of the Banner, but will be mounted horizontally on a frame to work.  To make things as simple as possible for myself, I need the design to be horizontal too.  As it's too long for the full thing to fit on my drawing board sideways on, I cut out the panel I need and taped it to the board (don't worry - I have another, pristine, copy put away!).  I could then draw the grid on in pencil:

Then there was the rather tedious but absolutely vital task of mounting the velvet panel on my biggest embroidery frame.  I'd cut out and lined with linen all the velvet panels previously, when I was starting the first one, so that was one less job to do now.

The grid was already marked out on the linen on the back, so I tacked over it, to transfer it to the front of the fabric:

Now I'm all ready to start adding the flowers!

Second sheet of foxgloves

I've now finished the second (of two) sheet of foxgloves.  So for the usual before-and-after pictures, here's the transfer, ready to be stitched:

And with all the embroidery done:

I like the foxgloves, even though they're fiddly to do - the small flowers at the top are less than a centimetre (under half an inch) across.  I like doing them more than the ferns, for example, and I think that's because they're more interesting.  They're prettier, there's more going on in both the design and the stitching, and they look more natural.

There'll be a couple more of them on the right-hand panel, but for now, that's the last of the embroidery for the left one.  I'm really pleased with this - according to my schedule, I needed to get all the embroidery done by 12 March, so I'm finished three weeks early!  Putting the first panel together took me longer than I'd expected, but now I've made up some time I should still be able to keep on track overall, even if this one take a bit longer than anticipated too.  That's the theory, anyway - time will tell if it works out like that.