The stimulating thing about doing these monograms/initials to celebrate a marriage is that it’s a good reason to play around with all sorts of different styles for the lettering – I suppose I should call them fonts but somehow that sounds too mechanistic for hand embroidered letters. Choosing a style for these letters was easy because the design appeared on the wedding invitation and its mixture of sturdy no nonsense letters together with construction lines rather took my fancy.
Once again I cut out the initials in white felt and laid these on a lightish weight white linen. This time Bondaweb didn’t work – or I was a bit too impatient and peeled off not only the backing fabric but the sticky bit as well! It didn’t matter as the felt letters were firm enough to stay put while I slip stitched them in place. I then embroidered over the felt in satin stitch using a light aqua blue embroidery cotton (DMC 3756). The construction lines were done in a single strand of a chocolate brown embroidery cotton, now numberless on a card in my random thread box. Each letter is about 5cm/2″ high – rather smaller than I usually do them.
8 Comments
Mary, thank you for your lovely comment on my blog. I could not reply as you are on ‘no reply’, and I could not find your blog at first until after some hunting around Google, but I got there in the end.
I have spent some time looking at your beautiful embroidery, especially those lovely flowers for the altar frontal. Your research on them, especially on the symbolism of the passion flower, is fascinating.
It is indeed a blessing to be able to be creative, and I am so glad to have found your blog!
Thank you Jane and sorry about not sending you a link – I got distracted adding my ‘M’ on the comment. How good of you to hunt me out. Keep up with your lovely work and fabulous watercolours.
This is beautiful, Mary.
I’m missing you in the Library already!
Naomi
That’s so sweet of you, Naomi. I’m missing you, Fiona and Rachel, the wonderfully clashing colours of the flower borders, delicious lunches (especially the celeriac remoulade), the sweet musty smell of used books as you open the library door and the afternoon light coming in through the pig pen window, and a few other things too… but I’m not missing cataloguing at all
Your work is superb.
How kind. Your work is very lovely too.
Lovely work Mary – I like the black with the white…
Thank you Lydia.