Kate's Crow: finished!

Sorry for the long gap between posts - I went down with what might have been the norovirus, but which wasn't a whole lot of fun whatever it was. This meant a few days when sewing, and everything else, was out of the question. I'm a lot better now, though, and Kate's Crow is now finished!

Here it is almost finished:

All the silver chain stitch is finished here. I'm not altogether happy with the very bottom spiral, as it's not quite circular - I think that's down to how I've got the marked-up fabric on the frame, so I'm hopeful that when I take the piece off the frame, which I'm yet to do, it'll sort itself out. If it still isn't quite right, I should be able to pull it true when it's stretched and pressed, so it'll be fine.

After the spirals were completed, there was still one small but important thing left to do - the eye:

I filled the eye in with red stranded silk, using split stitch. This might seem like a minor thing, but I think it makes the whole piece, adding an unexpected dash of colour and giving the crow character.

That's the end of the embroidery but not of the story. I mentioned last time that I'd been in touch with an artist blacksmith about getting a fire screen made to frame it. I've since sent him the ideas I've had for a design, but I haven't heard back from him yet, so I don't know whether he'll be making it yet. I'll let you know what he says once I've heard more.