Fine Detail

Finally my bad back has allowed for a little stitching these past few days. I realize how invaluable my sketchbook work has been whilst I have been incapacitated.
I have been thinking about seed heads for a while and am working towards two exhibitions which have the theme "Memory". Remembrance Day and poppy heads here then worked using hand-dyed cotton, voile, machine and hand embroidery, oil paintstick and acrylic paint.

"In Flanders Fields"  11.5" x 8"

       In Flanders Fields

                      by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

In fine detail this wing shimmered in the sun today between the showers. It belonged to the hugest dragonfly I have ever seen in my garden. He enjoyed warming himself before the onset of the chillier evenings