I've  almost finished the crewelwork piece "Loveday", by Nicola Jarvis.  However, before we have a show and tell of my progress, here's a little something different.This morning I took time to play around a bit in my workspace. School work is still overwhelming and it was important for me to do something that was without purpose or leading to a result. Using pages from a magazine called "Daphne's Diary" (which is available in Germany I discovered!) I made pretty flowered bunting. Yesterday, Steve and I had hung up picture ledges on the wall between the huge windows next to my desk. These ledges give me space to put some of the things I make on display without them being on my worktable.After the bunting was finished, I played around with my things, creating a pretty tableau to look at while I embroider or grade papers. It reminds me that my true self is creative, and, even though I need to do the drudgery for a while, that hasn't made me a drudge!Now, back to the wonderful progress I've made on the beautiful Loveday Crewelwork project!The Tudor rose was the next motif I finished after the robin. The stitches used in the rose are chain stitch, padded and slanted, seeding, laid, couched trellis and couching.Each of the petals of the rose are worked in chain stitch, starting with the dark red on the outside and the brighter red on the inside.When the chain stitch was all finished, I outlined the centre with split stitch and padded it twice. I put the first padding stitches in the centre of the circle going in the same direction the final satin stitches will go. The second layer of padding stitches runs perpendicularly to the final satin stitches.After the top layer of satin stitch was finished, I then added the dark hello/golden laid trellis over the top. Finally, I put in the small straight holding stitches and the centre of the rose was finished!The small leaves in between each petal are worked in slanted satin stitch with the colours alternating between bright green and the lovely aqua blue. The large leaves are worked using exactly the same method as all the other leaves in this piece: slanted satin green leaves in the centre, light green seeding stitches in the white area next to the green leaves and edges couched with double thread. I just love the continuity the leaves give to the piece!Next time, the very last leaf!