Finished the magnolia stem with couched #5 passing gold, and the stem bud with pearl purl (or purl purl). It was initially fun working with this new thread, as it involves stretching it carefully to twice its length. But it doesn't turn the corner very well and I tried to help by stretching it a little more around the corners. It looks bad, I will have to redo it,  but then there is no guarantee I'll do better the second time...

The tulip stem is a Grecian twist. It took some serious convincing to sink the ends to the back! A sinking needle did not work. I taped the end to make a point, made a large hole with the tekobari, pushed on the top and yanked with tweezers on the bottom. Whip stitching the ends on the back was difficult also, I finally taped the 2 ends to the back of the fabric before I was able to whip stitch them.

I am all tired out after fighting with the Grecian twist; quitting early.