Finally felt ready to tackle the problem with the stitching on my canvas work piece and so spent over an hour carefully removing the stitching that had taken me a whole day to put in!
It is always at this point that I wonder whether or not I have done the right thing, but there was no turning back now. The tutors suggested that I replace the original stitching with a twill stitch which did go in a little quicker and give a better coverage of the canvas. The only thing that I am unsure about is the shading as the stitch is much bigger! So now the face looks like this…..
And here is an overall picture of the whole canvas…
So now I have to await my next visit to Hampton Court – hopefully all the tutors will now agree as I don’t think I could take it out again!
Happy stitching everyone!
sweetfallenangels 
That is a cool stitch, but I see what you mean about the shading…good luck!
I know – but I don’t think I can face taking it out again!
lady’s face is certainly giving you a hard time!
Tell me about it!
I think it looks better, and as the coverage is better, that has to be a good thing. Faces are hard, as I know to my cost!
Aren’t they just!
Hi Deborah, I think this stitch has given you much better coverage and also the direction of the stitches is more aligned to what you expect for the planes of the face. Once you add that hooded eyelid across the eye it will come together. I can see from the photo that you still have the lighter shades for the nose to go in and this will also help with balance. Maybe the darkest shade of brown is just looking a little intense?. I can really emphasise with this struggle and I know that you want to get it just right but rest assured that it is coming along beautifully. Well done.
Thank you Sally – I can see what you mean about the darker brown shade.
I quite like how the face looks.
I prefer the before now that I have taken it out – but I think I would have been silly to keep it in against the advice of the tutors.
The new stitch suggested works a lot better ! You’ve got a lot of courage and patience for reworking this piece so hard. I enjoy cross stitch because of its simple “follow the instructions” side, I can just switch off and work in front of TV, but this… this is art 😀