The Queen's Background

I hadn’t picked up the Queen in months. Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day stitching and finishing the background.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but there are three steps to the background: the tent stitch base, like what you can see in the veil area; the patterned stitch on top of that; and at each intersection is a cross stitch done with a metallic thread.  This last step isn't showing up in the photo, but it's done. There’s still so much to do before she’s finished …..