Apple tree fire screen - stem shading update

As I mentioned before, I wasn't at all happy about the shading, or lack of it, for the stems, and needed to do something to improve them.  Well, I think I have!  Or started to anyway - there's still a lot of stem to do.

Still, I'm happy with the approach.  I over-stitched the pale areas in a couple of stems at the top first with one strand of the middle shade, 2211, and then stitched over that with one strand of the darkest, 2213.

Here's the result:

I'm far happier with that, which is a relief.   I'll now go on and do the rest the same way.

Apple tree fire screen - all the stems filled in

Sorry for the long gap between posts: blame a combination of being busy at work and watching the World Cup.

Well I've (finally) completed the stems, and here they are:

I say 'completed', but the shading really isn't working at all and something needs to be done about that.  I have an idea what to do, but I'll have to try it and see if it works.  Let's hope so!

Apple tree fire screen - half the stems filled in

I've got half of the stems filled in in Madeira stranded cotton 2213, and I have to say it's not looking like I'd wanted it to.

Here's the loop at the top:

Hmmm... it's not right, is it.

Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I carried on:

No, definitely not right.  The palest shade looks too pale, far paler than it does in the packet, and the transitional shading between it and the darkest one is hardly noticeable at all.

Something is going to have to be done about this, but I don't want to start any remedial work on half of it, as it could end up looking unbalanced: better to complete the stems, and then sort them all out in one go, when I can see how the full piece is working.

Or that's the plan, anyway.  We'll see how it goes.

Apple tree fire screen - more shading on the stems

I've added a bit more shading, and have gone round the edge of all the stitching on the stems in one strand of 2211, the middle shade, and another of 2213, the darkest of the three:

Next time, I'll fill in the rest in 2213.

Apple tree fire screen - stitched stems

After my failed attempt to use Italian tubular mesh ribbon for the stems, I've reverted to regular stitching for them.  What a relief!

I'm using three shades of Madeira stranded cotton, 2208, 2211 and 2213:

I outlined the edge of the stems with the darkest of the three, 2213, in split stitch rather than stem stitch as I just like it better:

As the apples are highlighted as though with light coming from the right, the highlighting on the stems needs to work in the same way, so I drew on lines where the highlights should go (no photo, sorry).  Using two strands of the lightest shade of the three, 2208, I then added a couple of rows of split stitch in the 'highlight' areas:

For some reason it looks far lighter on the piece than it does in the packet!

To start to blend the shading in, I next went round the first set of stitches with another row, this time with one strand of 2208 and one of the middle shade, 2211:

More shading next time.