Unplanned planning

Yesterday's plans--to browse in three stores for large outdoor planters on my way to getting my second vaccination, then purchase the ones I wanted on my way back home--were dissolved by rain. The thunder, lightning, and steady rain didn't seem so bad to me, but the threat of tornadoes is probably what called off the appointments. I've been rescheduled for today (and all of the Modesta 2nd-vaxxers got moved to Monday).

So with a wet day ahead of me, I worked a bit on my mom's project. 

There are enough flowers and leaves basted into shape to start laying out at least one border to see how things look, especially with that extra curve added in the middle of each side.

In the process of laying these borders out, I finally noticed one last detail: stems! Sure enough, there they are mentioned in the supplies list:

It would appear my mom may have initially missed this little detail too, as it's been circled by her.

There's still a long piece of the vine green bias strip, so that'll make all the stems. The "Gray/Green Print" is really this weird multi-colored viney print in my mom's color scheme. It wouldn't look good as a stem. It barely looks good as a leaf, frankly.

I let this hang for some time on the design wall, letting my eyes roam over it and taking a picture so I could view it that way too. Things seem to pop out in photos that you never notice while standing right in front of it! What I found was my eye kept going to one section of the border that was too "light"--either color-wise or "weight"-wise. It needed something more. Rather than shift everything on the vine (yet), I added one more flower to see how that might balance things out (but only on the side, where I could reach easily):

Oh yes, that'll do nicely! It means making up four more of them (and grabbing that fabric when I get back to Oregon, because I didn't bring it home with me this time), but that's a drop in the bucket compared to all the work that's gone into this so far.

Don't see the change? It's in the top third of the side border.

Original border layout

Another flower added

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now my eye travels smoothly along the vine, without getting drawn to and caught in a section of nothing. 

I can't say with all honesty that I can't wait to start working on this (mainly because there's still a bunch of fiddly sewing and ironing left to do before the real applique work begins), but now at least I know it looks good and will be a satisfying project to complete for my mother.