Darning the Leaves

See Anda? I got even more done! I did the darning stitches in the big leaves and started the satin stitches in the small ones. Those satin stitches were supposed to be cream colored, but I wanted them to look like real leaves, so I used light green. It's coming along pretty well, and I have more stitched than this picture shows.

Spiraling Corners

I did more string art this week - spirals in the two top corners. They took up a lot of thread but were fairly easy to do. The hardest part was working with the rayon threads. They're from Edmar and are meant for Brazilian embroidery. All I know is that they tangle often and coil around themselves, making these string art bits with them extra difficult. They look pretty, at least. I don't think I'd use them for a project of my design, though. I'd be more likely to use a silk perle or something similar.

Header Half Way

I'm over half done with the header now. Those letters are wide, so they take up a lot of floss. Easy stitching, though. There are only three colors of floss for the whole design.

A New Block

The CQ Embellishing group on yahoo is having a round robin. The theme is "my favorite things". The steampunk block I posted a couple of weeks ago is part of that round robin. I received Ann K.'s block a week ago and have started working on it. She has a LOT of favorite things, so it's pretty easy to put something on her block. What I've started on the light blue area is a small flower garden. The stems are stitched now, with whipped chain stitch. I've crocheted three small flowers for it and will be adding a button or two and some ribbon flowers for the rest. Then I'll work on a couple of seams.

Two Down, Two to Go

Two of the corners are now done and I've made a good dent on the third. These go pretty quickly, even though there are three different colors of blue in each. I'll be happy when I can go beyond this central square.

Band 8 Started

I finished band seven this week and started band eight. Only four more bands to go. Eight is a large one, and I tried something different for the top part - I took apart the plies of one of the colors of perle thread. It's very fragile to work with, so I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't pill - it just pulls apart unexpectedly.

Halfway There

I finished up my tenth installment last week and am now officially halfway done with this leafy sampler. Some of the motifs are completely done; some are partial; and I'm sure there are some surprises left. For example, I have no clue what's going to be going on in the corners. Maybe the next installment will have one.