I made this tree-embroidery for a friend's new baby. I thought it would be nice to send a gift for her wall, instead of something to wear, which is what I usually do. And also, I love this free-form stitching so much, just seeing where my needle will take me.
In making this embroidery, I was partly inspired by vintage children's encyclopedias and biology books, with the detailed drawings of plants and animals on each page. One day, I'd love to do a kind of embroidery sampler based on that idea. I found one of those books recently in a secondhand store here, dated 1951. Here are some pages from it- I love the cover especially.