Ok - this time I worked it from the top down, and it turned out perfectly, except ......
I nearly went MAD filling in the cream.

I wanted to avoid a herringbone look for the centre, but there seemed no way to get around it.
I did it 4 times, and tried using very long stitches (as the design does)

but then ended up with a lot of very small stitches, and texturally it looked terrible.

So I ended up doing it 'herringbone' last night.

Ooops - haven't done the turnover at the left top yet

It looks very red- but other petals have the brown of the hood, and will 'bring them together'.
I do love the graduating reds - it looks great!