Apple Blossoms

It was going to rain so I took pictures to sketch from. For me, this is cheating, but there wasn't enough time to draw as I had to finish cleaning up the garden before the storm hit. And hit it did. Tunis was flooded. We got lucky although there was a lot of stagnating water in the low end of the orchard. And of course, the rain knocked off a lot of the petals. I found this particular photo striking with the dark background (I have no idea how I managed this photo. Luck).

After sewing the green plaid background to the drawing paper, I used a white colored pencil to sketch from the photo, which rubbed off easily. So I sewed the design.

Decided to work within the lines this time. Mostly because it was too hard to trace or transfer anything because of the dark background. Pinned fabrics down.

Then stitched them down. A cloisonné effect. Or I felt like I was doing a mosaic, that feeling one gets when doing a puzzle, fitting the pieces together. Very satisfying.

I found a light blue with a lot of white in it that worked well for petal shadows. Then the free motion stitching using 3 pinks and 2 greens.

The wording is much easier to sew when the letters are rather large and roundish. I work it upside down, seems easier. Need more practice. Maybe next time I'll just stitch the words without writing them first.
Photographing the dark fabric proved difficult. The fabric actually reads darker, almost black. Had to edit the photo more than usual.