A closer look at some slow stitching.

I've been doing some slow stitching on my Sue Spargo leaves project.  Adding a few layers and trying a few more stitches after viewing some blogs and photos on Instagram.  My friend Anna just took a workshop with Sue in Sisters Oregon at The Stitching Post and I was inspired by her. She has shared some pictures over the past few days on her blog Woolie Mammoth, you can check them out starting with her May 29th post. 

 

 I've been adding some cotton layers and need to add some more wool so when I take my workshop in a few weeks I'm ready to do some new stitches to the layers to add some creative visual textures.

 I've also done a bit of beading to a few of my leaves.

 I didn't quite centre my fabric applique onto this leaf so I decided to change the scale of the stitches to fool the eye.

 I wanted to try my hand at a trellis stitch and started stitching this leaf with 12 Perle cotton before I realized Sue recommends 8 size.  Rather than tear it out I decided to make it an open circle and did some double cast on petals in the centre. I did a woven picot at the tip and Palestrina knot around the edge.  Very delicate looking.

 I used bullion knots to couch some silken chenille around the edge of this leaf and then did some straight vein stitching and some French knots where the veins met.

 The yellow silken chenille was couched with yellow wool thread and the beads were stitched on with silk thread doing the beaded French knot.

 This shows some drizzle stitches at the point and some double cast on petals, the beads are attached using the beaded coral stitch.

 The blue/turquoise yarn was attached using a stitch made with Perle cotton and then a second Pistil stitch on top.  French knots on the body of the leaf.

 Bullion knots using a variegated thread, I cut the thread so the colours flowed from top to bottom.  Spanish knotted feather stitch down the centre of each side.

 I used the yellow Dazzle thread to do the Italian knotted border stitch and then went back and added French knots along the outside.

 Still working on this one but I was delighted that my thread was so close to this wool fabric I had a small piece of; the Pekingese stitch outlines the leaf.

 This is my interpretation of the woven trellis stitch and Rosette stitch I saw on Anna's Instagram feed.  I used 5 Perle cotton as it matched the colour of the leaf so nicely and I liked the mauve, yellow and green in the colour mix.  She used a larger gap between her Rosette stitches, but due to my heavier thread I kept mine smaller and closer.  Ironically you may notice the cream version was right beside but because of the difference in the thread weight and varying the length of the cream stitches they look very different.  You can see this better in the first picture on this post.

 Some whipped woven circles and some threaded back stitch using dazzle threads.

 Some Bullion knots using a variegated thread I found on a trip, don't know the brand but it has an interesting shimmer running through it.

 Knotted Italian border stitch without the French knots I did with the dazzle thread.

 Open fly stitches done with a soft green variegated thread.

 Couched white yard with blue bullion knots, Pekingese stitch with Dazzle threads and then cast on bullion stitches.

 And I think my favourite leaf couched yarn using Pistil stitches, varying the length of the stitches.

I still have a lot more leaves to stitch, there are 56 on this project and there may be a few flying critters added to the mix along with some that don't fly before it is done.  I may also do something fun with the ribbon stems and rick rack but maybe not.  Time will tell.

June 16...linking up with The Needle and Thread Network today.