Stitching Progress

I finished the background piecing over the weekend.  I wasn't so sure about some of the fabric choices and left this on my design wall for a few days to ponder.  I did end up changing some of the fabric strips.  I was aiming for a dull, light green background.

Today I separated the pieced fabric into two halves, and cut generous seam allowances.  In this photo, I'm trying out a few different browns for the tree trunk and some possible placement for the stems.  All these dark fabrics have been pinned --I'll stitch them down over the next couple of days.  I might play around a bit more with the "trunk".

I've spent an enjoyable afternoon today listening to CBC radio and stitching leaves.  On some of the thinner silks, I fused interfacing, marked out some leaf shapes, and stitched two layers with right sides together.

These aren't boats, they're leaves!  You can see the slit that I cut in order to turn the "leaf" right side out.

It's starting to look like I expected!  I pinned all the leaves I made today randomly to the stems.  

Here's a close-up of the leaves pinned to the background.