Queen Bee finished or not?

I finished the Or Nué Queen Bee last week - or the Or Nué part of the design at least.

I am really quite pleased with how it turned out as the honeycomb background turned out to be a lot more tricky to get to look nice and even than I had anticipated. It is by no means perfectly even, but I think I managed to achieve the effect I set out to.

Although this part is finished, it didn't look finished - if that makes any sense. It is kind of just floating on the fabric, not belonging. I am terrible at not planning and testing ideas before I start, instead I just dive in, head first and try to solve what-ever it may be along the way. When I started this it, I thought that perhaps it could be made into a brooch or something like that. Which is why I embroidered straight onto backed quilter's muslin instead of a nice silk ground. Despite it being small, it is still way too large for a brooch - well to my liking anyway. So what to do.....?

Set it into a paperweight perhaps? It does look very neat and the glass really brings out the detail of the stitching. The background fabric would need to be covered to for this option to look nice. That lead to the next idea...

Last year, after finishing my White Daisy, I filled in the area around it with very, very close rows of stem stitch. I know I am possibly slightly nuts, but I could easily fill in enormous areas with rows and rows of stem stitch. I love it - how you can create a super smooth surface. Perhaps I could do something similar with Queen Bee? Pondering the idea for a day or so it occurred to me - why not try and continue the honeycomb pattern onto the background?

It is when I get ideas like that after most of a design is complete, that I really, really wish I had thought of it earlier. If I had worked on layered fabrics I am not sure I would have dared taking it out of the hoop, but for this project I had backed the muslin with a woven fusible interfacing, which gives me a very sturdy and firm ground to stitch on. So out of the hoop it came and back onto the lightbox, trying to line up the honeycomb pattern to continue, keeping my fingers crossed that it would work...

... and this morning I finally had to time to get a good chunk of stitching done. I think it works - [happy face].

Enjoy your Tuesday,
Anna X