Round the Garden Exterior 2

The thread assortment above is my choice for the red tree in Exterior 2.  I used the red silk to whip stitch the leaves. The reddish brown Sew Sassy was used to embellish the leaves with thorn stitch.  The other four spools of Sew Sassy are for the vein of the leaf under the thorn stitch.  I continue the couched vein and create a branch using stem stitch which then becomes the trunk of the tree.  The trunk is therefore multicolored.  I am happy with the result.  I through in the gold for kind of a highlight color.  My sister is in the process of making a quilt.  She had four different background fabrics- three grey taupes and a tan.  We were joking that the Sesame street jingle "One of these things is not like the others"  applied to the tan but thought that maybe it was okay.  Turns out that the tan added a sparkle to the quilt because it did not blend.  That was a good lesson.  I am using random lengths of thread.  Wherever the thread length ends I pick up a new color.  I am pleased with the result.  I am also very happy I bought all that Sew Sassy on sale.

I used silk ribbon for the leaves.  I need to make more leaves, more insects a bird and some stitching on the light house.  I may want to use stabilizer under the lighthouse stitching.  I could not find the pattern for the bird and I have not decided how to work the insects.  I used a gold ribbon for the insect above the tree.  I only have a little left so I my want to use it in another quadrant.  I used black rayon perle  boullion knots for the honey bee rather than backstitch.  I still have not decided on the wings.  I have some organza 9mm ribbon that I am considering using.  I wish is was 4mm.  I do like the idea of using organza ribbon.  MaybeI I will look to see if Bucilla makes a narrower size.  I will come back to Exterior 2.  Now on to Exterior 1.  I am attaching the tree and I looked up how to properly pin a wool applique patch in a browser.  I did not find anything that addressed that issue.  All I saw was instructions for fusibles, fabric tac, and glue basting.  Interesting.