Nasturtium roundel – stems and seeds

With all the outlining done, time to start filling in the design with long and short stitch.

I’m starting with the stems and seeds. The stems in particular are too narrow to allow for shading, so I’ve done them all in one shade of thread, Madeira stranded cotton no. 1409. As the stitching itself changes direction with the twists and turns of the stems, the angle at which the light catches it makes it appear to be slightly different shades even though it isn’t. For the seeds, I added a bit of definition with single lines of split stitch in 1410.

Here’s the full thing:

Nasturtium stems and seeds filled in with long and short stitch

And a close up of a stem with a seed at the end of it:

A single stem and seed, showing the detail

I’ll be working on the leaves next.