Illustration Stitchalong piece

This quarter we did a free choice on the illustration stitchalong and I chose to stitch up a Matt Sewell illustration from the book Our Garden Birds. I thought it lent itself to wool embroidery- these are all Appleton Crewel Wool threads. The bright sunlight here shows where I've used two colours together in the needle for a blended, tweedy effect- it's actually a lot more subtle in real life. This little guy is so cute it is begging to be made into something else- I think it might end up on a tea cosy or something.
This round of the stitchalong has been a bit quieter than the Edward Gorey and Tim Burton ones but I think more people will join in next round for Dr Seuss stitching!!

woodpecker still in progress!

, a photo by Sewphie T on Flickr.

Thanks for all the advice on how to salvage this piece. I decided to fill stitch the background and I think I like it but I'm not totally sure so I have decided to have a break from it. I'm sort of tempted to go mad with texture on this piece ... we'll see