Loveday crewelwork - green ivy

Even before I'd finished all of the tree trunk, I started stitching the ivy. I just couldn't wait to see what the piece would look like with more color added to it! The ivy uses only two stitches - stem stitch and straight stitch. Stem stitch outlines each leaf, it is used to create the vein inside the leaf and the stem that wraps around the tree.When working a plant in stem stitch, it's important to consider from which direction the thing you are stitching grows. In the case of the ivy, it grows from the ground up the trunk of the tree. I always work stem stitch from left to right remembering to keep the working thread underneath the line being stitched. When going around a curve it's important to orient yourself, so the thread is going the right direction. Through the years I've developed the ability to see the correct direction, no matter where I'm sitting in relation to the frame.If I'm stitching the stem which curls around the trunk, at the top of the curl just before it goes behind the trunk, I'm actually stitching for a few stitches From the 'right side' of the design to the 'left side' of the design. However, if I consider the curve of the stem and follow the line established earlier, I am still stitching left to right along the line of stitching. At the beginning, I had to rotate the frame so I was literally stitching left to right. Now I can think about the direction regardless of what orientation I am to the image...and it's a lot less work than turning the frame all the time!One of the things I like best about Nicola's artistic eye is her ability to see how just a few stitches  can be enough in certain areas of a piece. I wasn't sure that the straight stitches would work for the green ivy leaves - I thought it would look too sparse. I was wrong. The white really lifts the leaves and against the bright green it looks fabulous!