Alpine Experience - Crewel Embroidery WIP

I have begun packing... 

... not for the Alpine Experience just yet, but for my teaching trip to Bangkok in a couple of weeks. Usually I end up in a bit of a mad packing scramble just before leaving but for once I have managed to be a bit more organised. 

All the kits for 'Over the Pond', 'Jewels of Summer', 'Joyous Dawn' and 'Sweet Honeysuckle' are all in bags ready to go! It took me most of the week to pack kits for the four 2-day workshops. It will be busy, but I am really looking forward to going back to spend time with my Thai stitching family.

I have been making a bit of time between packing to work a bit more on my Crewel Embroidery tree and the first of the large leaves is now complete.
This project is going to have quite a few different laid fillings. This is such a fun way to fill the larger, more solid shapes.

I started with a simple laid trellis for the main part of the leaf and stitched French knots in the grid. The outer edge is stitched in closely worked blanket stitch (buttonhole). I love this stitch for narrow edges! Stem stitch is used to neaten the inside edge and the is also used in close rows to fill the small leaf in the centre. 

I embroidered the turned over tip with long & short blanket stitch along the lower edge to make it blend into the main section of the leaf and then filled the rest with long and short stitch.

A few of the smaller sets of leaves are almost finished as well so this is where it is at.

Next, will be the large leaf on the lower right hand branch. I am thinking it would be nice if I was able to at least finish one large leaf a week....
We'll see how it goes.

Best stitches and a happy Sunday,
Anna