So far - so good.

I overlapped these strips slightly, using Bondaweb to secure them to a backing of lightweight flannel material. As it is white I don't want any to show through.

The colours deeper and richer than they appear here and I now have to chose what threads to use for the stitching. I think a bit of machining first to help secure the bonding and then quite a lot of hand stitching. Before I get to the hand stitching I may cut the piece up into four and rearrange the pieces so that the strips form a pattern.

The greens are far more prominent in this piece than they appear in my photos. I used a rather nice deep gold coloured fabric with a metallic thread woven into it, so there was no need to worry about covering the background completely. I rather like the way little glimpses are seen here and there, though in these photos the depth of colour and the glint of metal thread seems to be lost.

This pic gives a good idea of the variation in widths of the strips.

This little section looks very landscapey to me - I must be careful how I cut it up so as not to lose that effect.

I'm off to choose my thread colours while the light is still good.

I caught sight of these little gems as we were going out yesterday. They look rather insipid here but in fact are a gorgeous deep pink. Inspite of galeforce gusts of wind these little cyclamen seem quite unperturbed as they are so tiny and hug the ground. It sounds far more like autumn than approaching spring out there. The wind is roaring and screaming round the house and through the trees, and the birds are having trouble flying but a few have ventured out to feed in the garden. I daresay the weather will have settled down by the time they are starting to build nests. No sign of any squirrels today - they'd need safety nets to travel above ground without risk of losing their footing.