Lady in a Forest Dress - Part 6

This is a continuation of 5 previous posts about the making of the Lady in a Forest Dress.  I continued to work on the background and add detail to the foreground.  This process is a bit of give and take as I try out some sections and pin the dress back in place; then remove the dress and keep working intuitively by adding more pieces.  When I had the general look that I wanted, I removed everything from the design wall and started working on the ironing board.

I laid down a piece of dissolving foundation, then cut "shrub" blobs of fabric, intertwining them as I went.  I added in some bark pieces, some branch pieces, and a little bit of the moss. When the foundation was covered, I placed a layer of Solvy on the top and stitched the layers together loosely.  Here is a picture of the top and the bottom of that sandwich.

The whole piece was soaked in water and allowed to dry overnight.  I actually made 2 pieces; one for the left and one for the right.  Here is what the larger one looked like after it had dried.

I played around with the placement of the "shrubs" and then stitched the pieces down, making sure there was some underneath the dress sections.  

Then, I appliqued the lady and her dress onto the background.  

The picture above shows some of the background quilting.

Stay tuned for the final at piece!