As you can see things have been moving on with the shell, now you can start to see how it will look when its finished, I am really pleased with how the padding went, its given me the shaping that I wanted, and I am so pleased with how the colours are working. You can see all the ends that have to be taken though to the back and sewn in, this always takes a long time and is not a favourite job of mine! Can't wait to get on with the finishing details.

Look I've had time this week to get on with padding the shell, I got so in to it that I did not take a picture of the work half way though, so you could see the layers. Under the layer of yellow craft felt is two layers of carpet felt, yes carpet felt that old fashioned under-lay of brown fibres. You have to peel it apart and take out the plastic mesh in the centre, then make a template of the area that you are padding, round of the edges and sew it down.

You can see from the picture below just how many stitches you need to sew down the carpet felt, as it needs to be really firm to take the embroidery on top. I really enjoy doing it as its very free and easy stitching!
You can also see just how many metal thread ends I had to sew in at the back, luckily I have just the needle for the job, its a small curved needle, I only have one, so take great care of it.

I've finished the sea!!!!

Here you can see the added detail using purl pearl and bright check chips. Its great to have finished this first area, as I now know how I will work the shell, and really want to get started.
The shell will be padded with carpet felt and craft felt, to raise it above the flat sea.

I've just had some time to do a little sorting out and found some old samples of mine, This is a simple crewel work, worked in only four colours, two colours in each design, and using all my favourite stitches.

I love the laid work because its so pretty, and you can decorate within the lattice work however you wish. Looking at this makes me want to do some more crewel, but no I must finish the sea picture first, and anyway I really want to revisit as many techniques as time allows. I really want to do Blackwork again, and more silk shading, and top of the list this week is Stumpwork. So little time so many ideas!!!