Drawing to a close

It was time for some gentle crewel work this week. I love doing crewelwork and this particular piece is so charming. I've been getting Issac's clothing stitched so he now has his coat on. The coat is worked in three shades of green, all stitched using long and short stitch.Usually when we think of long and short stitch we think of long and short shading. However, long and short stitch is a great stitch to fill in large areas of a single color.The texture is less pronounced than it is when filling an area with stem stitch, as you can see comparing the dress on Harmony with the coat on Issac.The fasteners on his coat are done in satin stitch and the cuffs in long and short shading, with the darker shade of thread on the under side of the cuff to simulate the shadow that would fall in the light.His breeches are worked in satin stitch using a darker red thread. I must still finish the bottom of each leg and then stitch his shoes.It's interesting that, when stitching people, the wide variety of stitches often used in crewelwork isn't utilized very often. When the focus is on the detail of the person, the stitches need to be of lesser importance than the clothing, facial features and other details.The very last section of the design is the hillock on which Harmony and Isaac are standing. Here, I will get to use more of those wonderful stitches to make a small garden where they will stand forever.