Side Flower Panels complete!

It’s time! I spent two days this week focused on my flower panels for my Bliss quilt. Mostly finishing up some bugs, but also making sure they are as full of details as I want them to be. I haven’t touched them in a while, but now it is hard to put them down. I just want to keep adding details. I’ve comforted myself today by remembering that I can continue to add details later if I feel the need.

So - what have I done this week? I did not add any more flowers. I had thought I might, but I don’t really see room for them. So, I finished all of the bees I had started. Often I will do all of the black parts on several bugs, then add the colors.

The bees are so cute. I think I will do a queen bee on the center panel, but that will have to get a little bit of testing. I know how to spot a queen bee in a crowd of workers, but will I be able to demonstrate that in embroidery? I think I can. There will be a test stitch first. I’m thinking about maybe doing a queen in the center, with a few drones around. I may deviate from cotton threads and add a little wool for the fuzzy drone bodies.

Next I finished off a bunch of partial beetles, and added a few extras where space felt needy. They are so cute. Maybe too cute. I did them in all of the colors from a box of thread I got from The Quilt District. Tara has her own Wonderfil box! (I’m so jealous, and because Jealousy is a map, maybe I should set up my own thread collection with Wonderfil.)

I did a little bit of detail work on some flowers. I like both using up all of the thread I cut and also making the flowers more interesting.

Finally, I added veins to all of the leaves. This one was just a whipped running stitch.

I need to keep in mind that there will be quilting stitches in the background, so there is a lot of texture coming, beyond what is already here. I do plan to stick with a matching thread over these sections, so just a monochrome texture. I will stitch behind the flowers, not over them.

This pic is on my patio in the sunshine. The colors are crazy! I’m 18 rounds of stitches in so far. The middle bit isn’t ready yet, and I’m not ready for it anyway. It will be added soon, I hope.

I love that I have been able to work all of my favorite techniques into this project. Watching it come together is so exciting.