First of all was the padding of the body in the following two stages. As you can see in the first photo, the felt is simply stab stitched into place. The larger piece is then attached over the top to create a decent height.
The next stage was, following the rules of needle-painting, to outline the farthest element - in this case, the flatwork ear (the other is wired and raised).
The next stage was to shade in that back ear, for which I used three shades of bronzey-brown. Then I moved on to outlining the whole head and body ready for filling that in. The body will be stitched as normal just over the padding. This is where the piece has been left for now. The gap at the bottom is where the fluffy white tail goes.=) (I'll be glad to get to that bit....)
I meant to do only 15 minutes on it today before moving on to making a start on the stitching on the 'Sunshine and Flower' design, but it took an hour to finish shading the ear (from where I'd left it the time before) and then do the outlining! Never let it be said that embroidery is for anyone lacking in patience!
© Elizabeth Braun 2012
