Historical Sampler - Laid Leaf

I hope I don't get as many searches on "Laid Leaf" as I do on "Naked Iris" (another post title that gets a lot of pings - for the wrong reasons I think)

Out of focus, as usual.

This is the larger of the borage leaves.

Because of the re-drawn pen outline, I did an outline in stem stitch with two strands of silk so I could see it properly

I chose a YLI silk to match my green GST.

I laid threads alternately (do one, leave a space, do another, go back). I read recently, somewhere, that this is to give greater strength to the stitches.

I then laid GST parallel to the existing laid stitches.

I've done one line of couching (that dark green that matches the sepals of the borage) just off the centre of the leaf.

It's a pity the photo didn't pick up the GST well when it did pick up the gold of the borage so well - it's pretty like this.

I couched on every thread. On the other lines, I will do every alternate horizontal thread and take this original line out. I wanted to secure the GST - being a wired thread, it didn't want to stay in position in a nice parallel manner and I wanted to get it in evenly positioned lines to start with.