Since I had Christine Bishop's book on Schwalm on loan I followed her instructions and used chain stitch with an outer row of coral stitching for the outline.Tthe dove's eye is still wanting. However I have withdrawn threads on my pulled thread sampler and intend to really sample it before another attempt. Perhaps that is what I should have done in the first place. Also this is perhaps not the best stitch choice for the shape. However I wanted to repeat the stitches and so learnt quite a bit from the whole exercise.
After I had got so far I decided that I wanted to see how I could vary the value either side of the central vein. This last photo is what I did - I have not done the stitching along the vein yet. It would definitely have been better to have stitched that vein before I started but of course I didn't think ahead. This is waht I have done using a doubled thread for the vein. Now I need to do a long curl stitch or something similar - still trying to decide.
