I’m six days in to the eight day module. Still really enjoying myself :) and yeah, I have done so much sewing that my fingernails hurt, but as I wandered back towards the palace after getting my lunch, stuffing a brilliant mozzarella and chorizo panini in my face and revelling in the February sunshine, I thought ‘fucking hell, this is better than being at work’.

Today I have done three new stitches for three big sections, which is great because I really need to make strides here! I finished off the laid work section for the berry-thing on the right hand side, so I could move on to the long-and-short for the top sections (…sepals, possibly?! I did biology A-level, believe it or not! I’m sure I have more plant knowledge than I’m currently using). Long-and-short was really tough, by far the hardest bit so far, but I’m quite pleased with the results…

Split stitch outline on the external lines of the area:

Long and short stitches in the darkest shade:

Additional rows in graduating lighter shades:

Moving on to the next section, working from background forward:

And it’s current state! After the centre section I’ll add the lightest pink shade to the top:

After that I covered the big trellis section on the left hand side, which is super satisfying in both speed and geometry. It’s a double grid with little circles to anchor it which I’m calling ‘pips’ although I’m not sure that’s the official term. Stages as follows… First lines, along the direction of the twill:

Second lines, at right angles to the first, at a distance to make perfect squares:

Third and fourth layers, in a darker shade, crossing every other row of diamonds already laid down:

And finally the pips, little circles running under the first layers and over the top ones to pull the lighter shade to the front:

And to finish the day I did the first of 9 wheels, which will form a bunch of grapes at the bottom left of the design. These will be shaded within each wheel, and also gradually get lighter towards the bottom of the bunch…

And so this is the current state! Lots more to get through but it’s coming on…