Embroidery accomplishment

I finished the embroidery on my class quilt-in-progress. I'm so excited to be finished! The hand stitching was fun and I think it adds a lot to the whole project. There are running stitch and backstitch triangles alongside satin stitch clovers in all the colors I plan to use in the rest of the quilt. Here is what I started with, and here is where I ended:

I have never used transfer paper before this, pretty much just pencil on fabric (if anything). Wow! We got some Saral transfer paper (red and graphite) in our class kits and it worked like a charm. I am a convert. The lines turned out bright and clear with minimal pressing while tracing. I was concerned after I made a few errors in centering, but no problems; after some time and handling the lines faded away.

The biggest challenge I had was keeping the satin stitches registering straight with each other on the linen. I was trying to use the weave of the fabric to keep myself in line, but sometimes it was off kilter. It all worked out in the end though, and I don't expect anyone to be staring at it all that closely. That said, here are a couple close ups...

I can vouch that in this case tracing the pattern was a must. I started out free-handing a couple of these clovers and it was a) slow b) uneven and c) just plain miserable. I tore one out, left one in (see if you can guess which of the 8 it is!) and followed instructions. 

I continue to be happy with how this quilt is coming along, next step: patchwork and storm at sea blocks!