Flowers.... Flowers......

 

And Still More Flowers.... 

Well, Dear Readers, It is that time of year when we are swept into Flower Season in a great heady rush of blossoms! The Trees, the Shrubs, the Gardens, the very lawns at our feet are bursting abloom and transforming the world from a bleak landscape to a colorful wonderland seemingly overnight! Ahhhh, I do Love springtime! And, of course, here in Blogland it is the season to bring forth the Lilac Shrub in all its Spring flowering glory! It is such a brief season, lasting barely a week or ten days in RL, but I allow it a slightly longer run here in Etherland. There she stands! The ancient lilac beside The Folly porch, scenting the air with that wonderful aroma.... (well, in my imagination, at least!) and filling the hearts of all passersby with Joy! If you wonder why it takes me so long to finish my Dream Landscapes... this is the reason! It is so beautiful, but agonizingly slow to materialize! And now, every year I get to revel once more in the awe of this miniature shrub!

 

We have been experiencing a lot of cloudy days recently,

 but I was able to get pictures of the Lilac in sunlight 

yesterday morning before the clouds moved back in.

 

If you Really need to know about the making of these blossoms.... 

you can read about it in the archived posts for 2018

  (beginning in March) and (ending in October 7) 2019. 

It took a year and a half to make the shrub in four seasonal variations! 

Yes, sometimes it just takes a huge amount of time!

 

 

But, oh, it is so satisfying when it is done!

 

But that is not all the flowers I have to share with you this morning. 

I also have been stitching up a "milles fleures" 

 background for the Medieval Lord Tapestry!

 

Some of you might recall the previous Tapestries

 I have stitched in this series, showing the background

 liberally strewn with blossoming greenery. 

 

Here is the original kit picture for reference. 

Because I moved and changed so much of this design, 

I found almost no spot that I could stitch as the kit had specified,

 except for the part to the left of the Lord's head. 

I also had widened the area being stitched from 3 and 3/4 inches 

to 4 and 3/4 inches, so there was really no comparison.

 But I decided that it would be best to use the "flower forms"

 as designed, and just fit them in wherever

 I could in the new design! 

I also tried to keep a similar overall balance 

of pale and darker blossoms and to "sprinkle" 

them in a natural seeming arrangement.

 

Here you can see the "finished" addition

 of the kit designed flowers. 

But some of you might also recall that I had

 added a few more flowers to the 

other pieces of this Medieval series.... 

Lots more in fact!

 

In case you needed a reminder.... 

Here you can see all three of the Tapestry "fragments" 

lined up next to each other for reference.

 The one on the left is the first I stitched

 and I only changed a few details of the headdress

 of the lady to the left and added more flowers, of course. 

The middle one I designed the Lady to the right

 as well as all the background to her right, 

plus the added flowers. 

So you can see why I have to continue

 with this altered background for the Lord's Tapestry!

 

You might have noticed there are no blue's in the Lord's Tapestry 

(other than the midnight blue background) 

and I had added tiny blue flowers to the others. 

I dug around in my archived kits and 

found the threads for the Lady's Tapestry...

 

I keep the remaining threads, needle and charts 

in clear plastic pockets in a binder for just this reason!

 The blue threads and some of the green threads

 I used were all right there!

 

It was just a matter of fitting more flowers

 into the background wherever I could... 

keeping an eye to the color balance too. 

There are also tiny "white" blossoms being added... 

but they are nearly impossible to see until the background is stitched.

 

 Here all the flowers have been added... 

before the background midnight blue is added.

 

Which is quick to follow... 

because we need to see how it will look...!

 

And Oh, how I love what it does to the colors!

 

But not to distract you, Dear Readers, 

I have also been stitching a few "flowers" 

on the Chinese Dragon Carpet too!

 

Now that the daylight is lengthening and the light is stronger, 

I have been working on the Dragon Carpet again. 

It needed the corner motif's redesigned

 from what the original kit specified. 

But first I had needed to add all the little "golden blossoms"

 to the chart in the appropriate places. 

Because I had changed this design too,

 I had to alter the position of these blossoms.

 

And I had redesigned the corner motif entirely! 

I wanted to carry the central motif of the sun

 out to the corners, and balanced it with 

additional golden flowers just inside the corner.

 

Here you can see I have added the golden flowers

 to all the corners and the "sunburst" to the outer borders as well. 

Now all I need to do is design the remainder of the borders.... 

and stitch the white background... 

that will take a while!

 

Well, Dear Readers, I have been

 Wallowing in fields of blossoms lately,

 stitching Flowers, flowers and still More flowers.... 

and Loving every minute of it!