More than a little bit in love...

....HA fooled you. I told you, I'm not talking about him.

I am however talking about this little minx,

Look at her the dirty little madam.

Words cannot express how much I enjoyed doing this embroidery and seeing it gradually come to life. Although I think my idea to do her hair in chain stitch has paid off, there were several times when I was cursing myself, wishing  I'd chosen a much more simpler method of filling in. The bodice was filled in using brick stitch which was a great way of filling in and was pretty quick and easy to do, giving a really nice finished effect.

I promise I'm not completely neglecting the fact that I have to get on with Mum's crocheted blanket, it just occured to me that this bag had to be sent off in the post to its recipient so I needed to get it finished as soon as possible whereas I can be feverishly working on Mum's blanket until the night before Christmas Eve! (And most probably will be.)

Quick question for those who may have embroidered on to things before - should I find some way of putting a backing on the work? I've tried to be as neat as possible and tie my ends in very thoroughly but I'm worried that putting things in and out of the bag might ruin the stitchery. Am I worrying unnecessarily? And if I'm not and I should be backing it - what the hell do I use and how the hell do I attach it?!