A red Beetle at three quarters, seen slightly from below — the way you meet one parked and stop to look. The whole body is bright red with the highlight running along the bonnet and the wing, and the shadow falling under the sill. Everything else is chrome: the bumper with its two vertical guards, the trim along the rocker panel, the window frames and the line dropping down the centre of the bonnet. The headlamps sit sunk into the wings, with the fine fluting of the lens, and the amber indicator peeks above. Inside, the steering wheel shows through the windscreen and the seats are dark; the wheels wear silver hubcaps over a red rim. The lettering «Volkswagen Beetle» is stitched above, navy and deep red with its two rules: nothing to add. It is 298 x 210 stitches in fourteen colours, 35,773 stitches in all, every one a whole cross — no halves, no backstitch. And a good third of the work goes in a single thread, red DMC 666, so the bodywork moves along by itself. On 14-count it comes out at about 54 x 38 cm; on 18-count, 42 x 30.