Mountain Male-fern

The next sheet I'll be working on is of three ferns.  The design for these is based on mountain male-fern (Dryopteris oreades), though as they appear quite small on the Banner design, and unlike the pearlwort and wood avens flowers, they've been stylised to the point where they're not recognisable as any fern in particular.  In fact, as Fiona's design disappears into tiny leaves that look great as an image but would be impossible for me to stitch, cut out, and apply to a ground fabric, I've simplified them even further.

Here they are, transferred to the fabric:

I'm sure you can see what I mean - hopefully they should be recognisable as ferns, especially in the final version when the leaves will be a lot closer together, but they're generic ferns, rather than the mountain male-fern in particular.

Onto the stitching: this time, I'm using the two darkest shades of green in the Banner palette, Madeira stranded cotton 1411 and 1412.  I'll be using the darker shade in the centre of the leaves, where they join, so I used the paler of the two, 1411, to buttonhole stitch around the edges:

And a close-up:

These are simpler than the flowers, but a bit on the fiddly side!