Wheatears continues amid other distractions

Cursed with the need to finish one work before I can embark properly on another, I'm pushing to finish the ears of wheat in order to make room for the molded paper/stitching piece in my immediate future.  

So here's where it is.

Picture taken in sun and shadow, hence the differing light effects. But in fact it's not varied in rl.


The main reason I did this was to try my hand at padding, using felt and stitching over it for a raised effect.  It was kind of fun, if a bit endless cutting out all the tiny felt shapes to fit the various different sizes and shapes of the wheat bits, technical term. 

They are all different, which is what gives a bit more life to the piece.  If they were all exactly the same, they'd look static, a look I don't like in stitching. This is the sort of detail that escapes the casual observer, but makes all the difference to how lively a piece is.