Goldwork design

This is about as finished as my designs get and I make changes as needed as I go along...  I did clarify the leaves in the corners on the right hand side and  clean up the area behind the tail. I tried to tighten up everything for the all-over Art Nouveau effect. I spent most of the the time fussing with the lettuce type foliage across the bottom..  I'm hoping though it's still open enough for the patches to show through....that's my plan anyway... I will share how I transfer this complex design..

As I looked closely at the Wm Morris design I was able to find a wealth of leaves and flowers to choose from. It's the blue that moved the eye through his work and when I thought I had identified all the flowers I noticed the teeny blue flowers that holds it all together.

I feel there is a strong kinship between Art Nouveau work and the heavily embellished crazy quilting I love to do...

Remember two years ago when I had wonderful Will?  Well I have had hired help this summer again... It is near impossible to find someone willing to do hard work and who I can afford.  Scott has been coming on Thursdays most of the summer.  He has helped me clean and dismantle all the lambing pens and sheep shelters, spray weeds, clean out the large greenhouse, repair fence, add a racoon barrier to chicken house, build the railing on the deck, and clean out the alfalfa area of the barn.

The worst mess was behind the barn which used to be a large area (approx 400 sq. ft) covered with lath where we stored and sold the young roses.. One year when we had about 8 ft of snow, it all came off the roof of the barn and crushed the lath area into a jumble of wood... He has dismantled all of it and now I can cut it up for fire wood... AND THEN we commenced to prune and prune and prune.  This is the third time our pile has been this big.  That is an 8' deer fence behind it. DH hauls it to the county's clean green center to be chipped and composted.   I am incredibly grateful for the help....

For you bird lovers: the conical shape in the willow behind the pile is a red-winged blackbird nest which is waving in the wind constantly..