Monkey Puzzle Tree

Very late...but here's my work for Challenge #47 a quarter section of the tip end of a Monkey Puzzle Tree branch. This little monster is 20" x 20" and when the challenge came up, I thought that hand stitching this would be a breeze because it was so small...WHAT was I thinking! Actually, I don't often use a lot of hand stitching as embellishment so I had no idea how long it would take me.

I hand appliqued a vintage linen like cloth to a batik ground. I back stitched around all the leaves in purple perle cotton, doing a threaded back stitch around the core of the leaves in the center. I used a variagated perle cotton to stitch the long lines on the leaves in a running stitch (plodding stitch might have been more like it as long as it took me), then I shaded the leaves with a long-short stitch combo in variagated darker green DMC embroidery cotton.
You can see the real deal of the Monkey Puzzle Tree here. The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Auraucaria auraucana) is native Chile and Argentina, but is grown as an ornamental in more temperate areas of the US. This one is in Olympia, WA.

Here you can see my stitching a bit more. I did machine trapunto to give the leaves a bit more loft. The background was echo quilted around the leaves in a variegated red/navy/purple thread 1/4" apart.

I like the increased texture from the hand stitching, but I must admit, I wish it were faster! As usual, comments and critiques are always appreciated.