The first acorns

I’m figuring it out. Now I have about 1/4 of the acorn bands complete.

For those stitching along with me, here’s a few tips…

Do the satin stitch first on the acorn “seeds” and only use one strand even if you, like me, used 2 ply in other areas. You don’t want the acorns too puffy if you want to get the correct effect with the caps. Also you need the greater control of 1 ply when filling in the single strand outline. I say this as a die hard 2 ply girl. I tried it and it didn’t work no matter how careful I was.

I am finding the cap fill should be about 6-7 total rows of detached buttonhole, so 3 in each shade of brown. I am doing acorn 1 with the dark and medium shades and acorn 2 with the medium and light shades and alternating 1 and 2. All my seeds are the same color. The leaves alternate dark and light greens along with the caps,

Finally when doing the caps, you don’t want to attach the last row of detached button holes…I think it looks better for them to slightly overhang the seed part like a real acorn. I don’t have a problem with them flipping up or anything. Some tutorials tell you to be sure to tack down your last row to avoid making a little pocket but I think they are ok to be free, plus more naturalistic. This is going to be framed, not handled, so I think it will be ok. I just need to buckle down and do it!