Rotation Changeover - 2024 Rotation #3, Slot #4 (Not Counted Thread)

 After much frustration and an actual stab wound (crewel work is done with a sharp needle and it takes some doing to get an outline stitch through the layers of a dense long and short stitch), the feathers on my Vintage Crewel Eagle are completed!  Including all the highlighting and the outline stitches down the center dividing line of most of the long flight and tail feathers.  

I did not have nearly enough wool yarn to do the outline stitches of the quill shafts in the palest brown, so I color matched to DMC 612 and used three strands of the cotton.   I think the smoother, shinier floss actually does a better job of emphasizing the quill shaft than the wool would have done.      

There were three areas where the bright orange wool was used to put some highlights on the feathers - all in outline and straight stitches.   Understated, but effective.

The tail was just barely started at the beginning of the rotation.  Here's where I was near the start of this round.  (I think I was just one or two of the little fan shaped feathers into the tail at this point.  I forgot to take an official 'start' picture.)

When I get back to this project in the next rotation, I will finally be working on the foliage.   I have six greens - a couple of olives, a pine green, a dark, medium and light green.   As far as I can tell from the stich diagram and the cover photo, the top spray of needles is the farthest back, so I will be starting there when this project comes around again in Rotation #4