Finished the crabapple blossoms and the buds. I was trying hard to make nice round buds, as I was inspired by the perfect bud that a JE friend (Pamela H) made for her Wedding Shellbox. Alas no, they won't turn out perfectly round. I will need to practise, practise, practise!

Yoshi saying "You're at it again!?"

I don't take as many pictures of Coco as Yoshi, so here he is.

Finished the crabapple leaves today. When I started to bend one leaf, it got totally outside the outline, but since the bend was ok I let it go. I also redid this leaf 3 times.

Got stopped at this point with a question to the class leader regarding the braid couching.

Almost finished all the crab apple blossoms. May wait till later to add the chipped gold flower centers. It's something new and will be interesting.

The Eterna silk thread behaved perfectly today! When I was doing this in winter, the silk thread would pick up static, splay out and snag on the frame. I hated it then. Today the silk was so nice that I was able to use a 24-inch single ply and split-outline all the pink crab apple flowers, and the silk was still in perfect shape at the end, and it was not clinging every which way.

Details of crab apple padding.

Yoshi keeping me company on my other JE stand.

Didn't want to quit today! I was "in the zone". I am quite pleased with the way the crab apple blossoms are turning out. Partly it is because of the well behaving Eterna silk, and partly due to the glass laying tool shown here. I have only used the tekobari after starting JE, and I have never used a laying tool before. But this glass laying tool is wonderful! Not to mention beautiful. Its tip is smooth so the silk slides down easily, and it is not sharp! Sometimes when I use the tekobari if I'm not careful I'll snag the adjacent satin stitches and mess up the silk.