Late Summer Roses - update 5

I finished the felting and the stitching on the center panel..I clean-finished the edges by adding a backing.  I could have called it done at the point, but I decided to add beadwork to the panel.  I like the way beads add texture and detail, and I enjoy the meditative quality of sewing on the beads one at a time.  It's slow work, but that's ok.  I've begun by stitching tiny glass seed beads to each rose.

I like my for my work to grab your attention from a distance, then reward you for coming in to take a closer look.

I also made good progress on designing and piecing the background quilt that the panel will eventually be mounted onto, using the patchwork strips I put together earlier.

I don't like measuring things.  I can do it well if required, if the finished work needs to be a certain size or there are other considerations.  But the act of measuring and turning the dimensions into numbers, and then working with those numbers instead of directly with the materials, feels unnecessary and intrusive.  I've been doing this a long time.  I started out as a semi-traditional quilter (I never had the patience to follow a pattern), so I have a good innate sense of what's needed and how it will all fit together.  I square up and measure it all at the end.

And I am approaching the end of the design work, I'm soon ready to layer it and begin quilting.  I'm having a lot of fun with this one.

You can track this work back by clicking on Late Summer Roses in the right sidebar, or go here.