I am making progress with my ‘found’ blanket, and I have decorated another corner of it with some needle felted flowers. Again, I have used some more of the plants from my garden as inspiration.

The flowers I used last time were from spring  – tulips and primulas – and Spring seems such a long time ago now. This is a photo of the first corner I wrote about for that post.

The plants that I have chosen for this corner of the blanket are from the summer flowering groups. I have chosen alliums and some ‘red hot pokers’, as they are commonly known – the proper name is kniphofia, but I think red hot pokers sounds so much better! This photo is of some of my alliums, and pokers, but I have cropped the photo too much I think – but I hope that you get the idea.

I love purple and orange in the garden, I think they go together really well as a plant group.

I have needle felted my picture, and then wetted with water and the use of some soap to encourage better adhesion to the corner of the blanket. Some yarn is added to give the impression of stalks. I used some little scraps of orange felt for the pokers.

These orange scraps did not show up very well in the photo, so I have used a little orange acrylic paint to enhance the colour.

Now to decide what stitching to add, and hopefully add some definition. I used some french knots in a lighter colour of floss, on the alliums, in an attempt to highlight the little individual tiny flowers, that form each allium. These little individual flowers on the alliums provide food for bees, and make a lovely dried seed head to add interest later on in the season.

I used a fly stitch on the pokers, and I have couched the yarn ‘stalks’, both done for added security in the event of inquisitive little fingers in the future.

I am pleased with my progress on the blanket, it is really nice to take time to think about plants and seasons when doing something like this, instead of the constant rushing and wishing for the next lot of plants in the garden to show themselves.

I have two more corners to decorate, and I am making plans for that – well thinking about it anyway!

So, this photo shows both corners together, leaving me an impression of spring and summer in my garden.

My aim for the final two corners is to have an autumn and winter feel, perhaps with some seed heads and leaves.