Shaded leaves

This is one of those posts that probably wouldn't exist if I weren't participating on NaBloPoMo. As it is though, I've pledged to post every day this month, and this is what my blog visitors get today! :-)

The leaves of yesterday's post did get finished, and while they're not perfect, they're much better than the first attempt. (Oh, by the way, I found a better "before" picture, and will be updating yesterday's post with it right after I finish this post.)

After these were done, I moved on to the panel of the etui that will eventually have grapes. The grape leaves are stitched in a variegated green in closed blanket stitch (sometimes referred to as buttonhole), with any gaps filled in later with satin stitches. Two of these leaves were stitched many moons ago, but I stitched the center one today. The remaining two will have to wait a few days until this project comes back to the top of the rotation later this week.