Maybe the branches came from one of those kinds of trees that they train to grow in a spiral.  Hah!  Okay, I am no help at all.  

That's really pretty.  You have way more patience than I have.

I'm starting to get excited about finishing  this thing.  the embroidery is much harder on my eyes than applique I am discovering.  I need to take a break, sew something on the machine for a while.  But here is another one finished.  I was excited about this one as I wanted to try more satin stitch.  The little "crowns" turned out great, but sure did take a long time.  And my eyes!  Sometimes I could not focus even with my magnifying classes on.  Ah age.

This isn't from the original pattern - the pattern had Happy Holidays in plaid and I really wanted Merry Christmas.  So I found this as a coloring book page on the internet.  It was challenging to do the letters, but I decided if I could do needle turn reverse applique, I could tackle these.  I did "cheat" a bit and make the R's and A from two pieces to avoid having an inside circle.  And the embroidered chain was one I found on Needlenthread.com.  It looks cool but golly, it was challenging to get the loops the right size, much harder than a standard chain stitch.  There is essentially a knot in between each loop and if you mess that up it's like getting a knot out of your thread.  bad words a few times.  But it's done and looks pretty spiffy!

thanks.  regarding patience, I am starting to get tired of the embellishing.  too many branches!  I have a goal to finish at least one more before I go back to working on applique.

That is beyond spiffy!  Your work is amazing!

amazing.

Jo

Ditto Lynne's comment.

Beyond amazing to fabulous and jaw-dropping gorgeous.

thanks JO & Denise.  I was thinking as I worked on this, that I'm going to be very particular about this quilt once it's done.  Definitely will be a wall quilt.  I was imagining someone messing up my satin stitching, I'd turn into Godzilla quilter I think.

Wow! Impressive!