ammonite stumpwork wallhanging

Another embroidery that was made for a swap - I really love this one.

The padded ammonite is embroidered using bullion knots in the centre, then padded satin stitch using stitches as padding as the spiral gets bigger and satin stitch padded with felt on the outside (widest part of the spiral). It took hours and I loved every minute of it, I think I watched the entire first season of battlestar galactica whilst making this- that's how long it took!
The cross section ammonite is stitched on wool felt. I then constructed the wallhanging from a batik fabric I bought and some fabric that had been used to wrap some swap items I received. The sewing is a little wonky but I was pretty impressed with how well it came out. The offcut of dowel I had in the cupboard (the rest is a jolly roger flagpole on my sons ship-shaped sandpit!!!). I had to plait some bias binding to use to hang it as I didn't have any cord.
So now I know how to make my embroidery into wall hangings- how cool is that?!
I'd love some hints and tips though if anyone has any!

Thanks for all the comments re; going back to work. The boys loved nursery, which is a relief - in fact I am pretty sure I missed them far more than they missed me.  Work went well and it was nice to have some child-free time; I drank cups of tea whilst they were still hot, did tasks without having to provide a running commentary of what I was doing and went to the loo without an audience!