Sorry! I have been away - again.

Well, at least I went to the RSN at Hampton Court this time! An excellent few days with Jenny Adin Christie. I can highly recommend it. Mind you, it was awfully hot, but I shouldn't complain about being warm.

I have been working on my man since I arrived home and, as you can see, the hair is slowly growing. Tracy and I made the decision about the background when I was in Durham a couple of weeks ago - I am going to stitch the background (the paper is foxed in the original), but only very lightly and sketchily.

And now the other eye!

OK. Sorry about the long absence, but we have been away again. This time it was up the East coast of Scotland and then a little way along the North coast. We must have done something right - the weather was dry! 

Following that I had two days in Durham with Tracy trying to catch up and sort out in my head the way forward. On due consideration, the other eye (his right eye) needed a bit of a sort out.

I have put before and after shots below, see what you think.

Before

After

Home at last.

Yes, I have been away again - and the embroidery has suffered I am afraid. I have been stitching. I am working on a cot size whole cloth quilt for a friend's daughter's baby, so am definitely working to a deadline.

Anyway, below is a picture of my man as he was yesterday. It's interesting, the photographs give a different perspective on the piece. I took one look at the picture and took the eye out again. I also need to calm down the highlights I think.

I have started the hair and am using small diamond stitch. I am aligning the "tails" of the stitch with the direction of the curls, as far as possible. Then I am using a very free stem stitch to highlight the curls. What do you think?

I bet that you still don't know what it is!

This photograph is a few days old, but I didn't want you to have too much excitement all at once! Now the eyes are starting to appear it is a bit more obvious what the image is. 

I have to use a total of 5 different stitches. The face is definitely waffle stitch. The hair is small diamond stitch, swinging the "tail" to give the direction of the curls. I am not sure about that, but we'll see what it looks like.

This really is all about attention to detail.