It all takes time

If you click on these photos you'll see what I'm doing.
I'm adding a little free motion embroidery on some of the appliqués. Here I'm just adding veins to the leaves.

Then I changed threads and stitched between each of the red fabrics on the flowers. The effect is subtle. The ones at the top of this photo have yet to be done and the bottom ones show the difference.

And this is what it looks like on the back.

Just a little detail to the birds.

And then a little tip for when you come to appliqué borders or any long strips. Roll up the work at each end and fasten with a safety pin. This way as you turn the work through 360° you do not run the risk of getting anything caught under your work. As you move along the piece, just reposition your safety pins.

Autumn arrived today and the cats are happy to snuggle down on a sofa in the conservatory.

Don't do what I do (or learn from my mistakes)

Remember how I had the idea to pad out/trapunto the areas behind the appliqué before joining the blocks together? Seemed like an amazingly sensible idea at the time. Well the idea is not bad, it is in fact a very good one given two things I didn't take into account. One is if you have to add more appliqués which go over the joined seams. You can see how hard it is to fit it all in the harp of the machine. When doing machine appliqué you want, no you NEED no drag on the machine when you are trying to control a stitch just less than 1/16" wide.
I wanted to use Quilter's Dream Deluxe to pad out the shapes. I couldn't find it anywhere in England but luckily Hancock's of  Paducah had a free shipping offer on and I took advantage of it. I have used it before and been pleased with it for this sort of thing but this time it seems to have more bulk and be less drape (this is probably my memory or it could be just the sheer amount of it I am using in this quilt).

The other problem it presented was how the bulk of this batting wanted to push the fabric over when I was doing the quarter inch seams.
And a third problem was I hadn't trimmed back my blocks to the completed size before adding the trapunto. There had been a good reason for this. I did not want the edges of the block to fray during so much handling, but it is very difficult to cut and line up accurately when half of the block has trapunto in place.....

So this is it all joined up with the trapunto cut out from behind (mostly)

I still have the vases to cut away.

I was very pleased with myself I remembered to mark the quilting lines on the vases before the trapunto. It would have been nigh impossible to do it afterwards with any accuracy. You have a sneak preview of my next border here. It might not look like much but just preparing all those lobes for these feathers took three days (and I haven't even started to stitch them yet).

And I need help. Does anyone have any idea what this shrub is called? It's up at the cottage and the builder has planted it.

It's five or six years old now and needs a trim but I would like to do it at the right time of year and using the right pruning method for it. I am at a loss without knowing what it is.....