Standing nutcracker, 15

Finally!  Gunther has been moved down on the stretcher bars and what you see is what needs to be stitched.  I'm actually about 65% done since his legs are so much narrower than his head and torso.  I must remember to not stitch too narrow a base for him--don't want him to be unsteady on his feet.  I keep changing the percentage of area stitched between 65 and 70--the background around his legs is the questionable area.

Here he is free from the stretcher bars:

I want you to see his midsection better--this is the area that took me what I thought was forever to stitch.

I'm doing the horn and the gold trim on his waistcoat in basketweave.  I couldn't think of a stitch that would be anything but endless compensation on the diagonal lines.  Then the blue will be in criss-cross Hungarian.  I haven't decided if the French knot filler will be the same blue or a lighter shade.  I'll decide that tomorrow, says Miss Scarlett. 

This is what remains to be stitched, already attached to the stretcher bars.  

You can see my faint pencil line on each side of his boots, but I think I will widen that more.  I have been doing a minimum of 10 stitches of background (or more) and that is what I will do under his feet. 

Tomorrow I'll be flipping through the stitch books since I haven't even thought about what stitches I'll do for his pants and boots.  My stitching slows down when my mind hasn't decided what stitches to do, so I want to make my decisions as soon as possible.  The legs were out of sight, out of mind when they were flapping around unattached to the stretcher bars.  Now they are really in my face, forcing a decision.  Hmmm.