Blossoming Tree - Has finally grown

Over the weekend something wonderful happened, I was sitting at home trying to think about what I might do for the day, watch TV, read a book, play a game? Then an oh so wonderful feeling came over me, the urge to cross stitch. I was so happy to see my desire to stitch those little crosses that I let it guide me in the choice of project. Thanksfully it didn't lead to a new start but instead suggested a WIP which had received no attention in a long while; Blossoming Tree by Sheila Hudson.

Blossoming Tree - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Now I would be misleading you all if I were to say that I managed all the additional stitching this weekend. I had put a small number of stitches into this piece between now and my last post.
Check out my last post on this to see the difference: ISHW Late Report.

I decided to start this project because I thought it would be a nice change from my large cross stitch pieces. While it is a small-medium sized piece, it never gave me the break I had been looking for, as the stitches are very scattered. The tree trunk and grass is the closest to block stitching in this chart.

Blossoming Tree - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

The stitches that make up the blossom effect wander all over the chart making it more time consuming and needing large amounts of concentration. This technique gives the tree a beautiful effect which I absolutely love but it just didn't satisfy my need for something easy and relaxing, which would deliver a relatively swift finish, between the larger projects. This resulted in it being put to the side for the best part of a year.

So when it popped into my mind as the project I wanted to work on this weekend I was delighted to make some progress on it. Even though it's a concentration heavy cross stitch, I have found myself really enjoying working on it and creating that wonderful soft blossom effect.

I am stitching Blossoming Tree on 28ct Brittney Evenweave in Snowy Skies from Sparklies Hand Dyed Fabric. I decided to use this fabric for this project as it was lighter than I had expected and I thought it would work well as the background for this project. I'm using DMC thread, though the completed stitch in the bookzine is Anchor, 2 over 2.

Let me know how you would tackle such a project, would you have used a different fabric or the Anchor threads? Use the comment section below to give your thoughts.

Update: The title of this chart is actually Blossoming Spring not Blossoming Tree as I have accidentally referred to it in this post.