I’ve walked around this piece for more than a week! There are still several decisions I haven’t been able to make and that stopped me from doing anything. This morning I pushed myself to do something.

I’d chosen fabrics last week – today, I finally started creating templates for each element, cutting it out and fusing it to the base. The gents and the sign/bush on the left are simply laying in position – they’ll be among the last elements to be fused in place. But I wanted to get a sense of how they look against this background and I’m doing OK so far.

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The shop windows are the big challenge – the shops are both dark inside, but there is some light. I originally thought I’d be able to use organza to hint at the glazing, but it obscures what’s behind it – great for implying fog but not so good for glass windows. Small bits of plastic might work – the question is how to adhere them to the underlying fabric!

For now, my plan is to continue adding background elements – a couple more and then some thread painting to stitch the fused sections to the base and to add texture to the stones and pavement.

This is the original image to give you sense of where I’m going:

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