Tapestry ...

 

Progress...

I am Sure you can imagine, Dear Readers, that I have not neglected my Tapestry stitching during the past few weeks. In spite of the very hot weather (which has subsided, thankfully) I managed to get a lot of  stitching done! This required that I continue with designing my own additions to the Tapestry, and the options were wide open. Should I add another figure (a page, perhaps?), or more animals?, or more landscape...? A castle in the background?..., a forest...? or a Formal Garden....? The space available was not large, and I needed to stay with the theme already in play.... the flowery meadow and Ladies... so I decided the easiest and most necessary part was adding another hound. You can see her above. I only had to make a few adjustments from my sketch as I stitched... mostly with where exactly the shadows needed to be. But this left still plenty of space to experiment with. I had already decided that this was becoming a bit of a "Sampler" for me.... seeing if my design ideas worked okay when stitched. And because I was unsure about what else to add, I decided to stitch the flowery background as close to the original kit design as I could.

And perhaps you recall that I had added

 a whole range of my own flowers to the original designs...

The little white daisies and the tiny bluebells

 were not part of the original designs.

Here you can see the current Tapestry

 next to the already completed one.

Because they are so obviously a "continuation" of the theme,

 I am assuming they were once a much larger Tapestry

 that was cut up into smaller pieces at some point in its history.

 Only some of the pieces have survived.

Which allows me to add parts that "continue" the theme in a larger sense.

I followed the flower placement as nearly as possible

 to the kit instructions before adding my "additions".

This way the new Tapestry would look similar to the first one.

Here you can see the two together again.

I wanted to be sure the flower placement was balanced.

But this was really just delaying the challenge

 of adding my own designs.

At some point I just had to add something!

I decided to add a trellis with a Rose growing on it.

Here is my sketch.... 

set beside the Duchess...

Just to try to get the placement correct.....

I am trying to keep a color balance in the overall design...

And I am trying to work with the greens already in use.

And adding the trellis...

which seems so formal and rigid in this meadow...

But perhaps we are at the edge of the meadow...

(because I wanted to try a tree...... a little Medieval Tree...)

I had to make several sketches before I could start to stitch this!

And again, I am staying with the colors already in use...

 just trying to make the tree look "Medieval".

I really think I will not be able to tell if I am successful

 until the background has been added.

You must remember that it will be a midnight blue

 background like the other tapestry.

The colors look one way on a white background,

 but have a reverse effect against a dark background.

This means the darker colors will "disappear"

 and the lighter colors will "jump out".

But it is way too late to change my mind! 

I must just keep to the design...

(I have to keep reminding myself to trust the charted design!)

But I didn't chart the background flowers.....

I am just adding them in as balanced a way as I can...

and "borrowing" the designs from the other tapestry chart too...

Here they are all added!

Ready to begin the background stitching!

There is a Lot of background to stitch!

And when finished it will join the other

 Tapestry "fragment" in Rose Thorne Cottage.

This one is only 5.5 inches square. 

It is way too small for the Huge Old Castle walls!

I am working my way up to designing one

 large enough to be worthy of the Castle.

So you can see Dear Readers,

I am making Progress on the Tapestry stitching!