Autumn Leaves Needle Roll

My last finish of the year is a course I took at this year's Creative Festival. It's called Autumn Leaves Needle Roll and was designed by Kim Beamish. This is supposed to be an intermediate level Hardanger but a beginner should also be able to stitch it.

Kit

It was a 3 hour class, so we didn't get the chance to make a lot of progress. The fabric, although very seasonal and perfect for the autumn leaves, was very hard to stitch on with the lighting we had in the class room.

Progress during class

I mentioned that I had to unpick this project at least 3 times. Well the first time was all the buttonhole stitches I stitched in the class. I noticed when I was almost done with the top side that I had miscounted. And you can't miscount in Hardanger. So all of it had to go.

The second time I misread the chart where the lattice stitch is (right under the satin stitches). I added extra back stitches where there weren't any. Luckily that part was easy to undo without having to redo the X's.

The third thing I had to rip out was the first maple leaf I stitched. It's the first time I've cross stitched with variegated thread. Although I was trying to alternate my stitches I guess it wasn't enough. You can see that my second try is much nicer.

This morning I put in the final stitch and cut the fabric.

Front

Back

Here's a close up of all the different stitches. The top one is actually a Nun stitch. It comes out much nicer if you use a sewing motion instead of the stabbing motion. That's where the ribbon is passed through. It's followed by the Satin stitches (my favorite stitch right now, it's so soft) and finally the Lattice stitch.

And here it is all made up. It is very pretty and the reds are gorgeous.