The Yellow Drawing Room

I have been away for so long, trying to fix my back injury after my accident in January.  It has been almost 6 months, a very slow, frustrating process.  Unfortunately most of the time I can't work on my miniatures, but a little while ago, between surgeries, I managed to do a couple of things.  

As I was stuck in bed for quite a while, everything I could do had to fit on a small tray.  So the work on the music room and the kitchen has had to be postponed.

I started with a flower kit by Pascale Garnier.  They seem to be as rare as hen's teeth, but with many wonderful reviews, so I was very happy to find this kit second-hand on Ebay.  The detail is wonderful, and the paper is thinner than in most kits.

I have been making paper flowers for a while, but this kit taught me a few interesting things to make the flowers more realistic. 

 One, use really fine guage wire, or green thread stiffened with glue.  Two, dry artist's pastels applied with a brush give a very realistic colour.  And three, use very fine paper.  I have airmail paper, and some light tracing paper, and they seem to be about the same thickness as Pascale's paper.

The Pierre de Ronsard roses that I made really do look lovely, (certainly not like my RL Pierre de Ronsard, which is suffering from my lack of gardening this spring)  and I highly recommend Pascale's kits, if you can find them, that is!

After I made the roses, I made a small bunch of Jonquils (of course!  Sorry!)  I used tracing paper, and they really have the texture of Paperwhites.  I will make some more when I can.

Finally some irises.  The same way I always make them, but again using tracing paper, which is so much more realistic.

The tablecloth was made using normal white sewing thread and a piece of old cotton bedsheet.  Staying in bed made me so bored, I had to turn anything into a miniature! 

 I was so far from my usual sewing supplies that I used what I had with me in the hospital.  I tried whitework with pulled threads and some needlelace inserts.  It certainly helped me out of my medical misery doing such fine work!

It is so difficult to photograph this, but I think you get the idea.  When I got home (finally), I added an edging of vintage French lace.  I cannot crochet for the life of me (even though my mother has tried to teach me for years), which is a shame, as I would love to do an Edwardian crochet hem.

And then, of course, the matching napkins.  You can't see it, but each one has the initals of my family.  They look lovely in the sterling silver napkin rings, and I wish I had more than four.

I hope you enjoy these late Spring flowers, and that they bring you as much pleasure as I had making them.

Fingers crossed that my recovery keeps going well, and I shall try to post as much as I can,

Jonquil