C17: Days 189-190 – Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

July 9, 2017

I knew yesterday that what I wanted to do would take more than the 15 minutes I’m supposed to be spending per day, so I saved it up yesterday’s time for today. Glad I did – it all took a lot longer than I anticipated! The first challenge was to actually figure out which box […]

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C17: Day 188 – Colouring in

July 7, 2017

I don’t have a huge library of embroidery silks, especially not actual silk silks, but I had already bought a selection of colours that I thought would work for this piece several months ago. It’s hard to pick colours off the internet, and not all of the ones that I bought quite fit, but hopefully […]

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C17: Day 187 – Curlicues

July 6, 2017

I don’t think I’ve ever written the word curlicue before, but it’s just screaming out to be spelt curlique instead. Missed opportunities there, English Language. Anyway, the knight and snail now have some.

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C17: Day 186 – Is the vine fine?

July 5, 2017

Further refinements to the vine, but is it fine, or just a crooked line?    

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C17: Day 185 – Refining the design

July 4, 2017

It’s still not quite there, but it’s improved!

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C17: Day 184 – A tale of two frames

July 3, 2017

I love my Millennium Frame from Needle Needs. It does away with a lot of the faff involved in setting up fabric for embroidery and is far superior to the embroidery hoop. The fabric slots under a rod in a groove in the top and bottom bars, and then the side stretchers extend to pull it […]

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C17: Day 183 – Potential vine

July 2, 2017

Quick stab at a vine, expertly helped by Grabbity trying to steal the stylus. Possibly too elaborate, though. Will have another go tomorrow, perhaps with Grabbity shut out of the office.

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C17: Day 182 – Knight & snail ride again

July 1, 2017

A couple of years ago, I embroidered a goldwork knight and a snail from the 14th Century Gorleston Psalter. The knight fighting, and ultimately losing, to the snail is one of many themes in the psalter’s marginalia, as well as in other manuscripts of the time. No one quite knows why knights fight snails, but given […]

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C17: Days 180 & 181 – The last of the calligraphy

June 30, 2017

Some numbers, some words, and some feeling rather grateful that I’m done with this month. Whilst I have enjoyed this form of calligraphy, I’m slightly surprised to find that I have no real desire to carry on with it. I’m happy to have done a month, but also happy to be leaving it here.

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C17: Catching up – W, Z, I, J, A, M, N

June 28, 2017

More catching up! The upstrokes on the W, M and N are particularly hard.

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C17: Sometimes, life gets in the way a bit – E, C, G, L, I, H, K, V

June 26, 2017

The last week has been really rather hectic, with visits to friends and family, so I’ve been rather more separated from my practice than I’d like. It might take me a while to catch up, but here are four pages of practice. I’m getting better at joining up lines without it showing too much, but it’s […]

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C17: Day 171 – O, Q

June 20, 2017

Nice and satisfying today.

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C17: Day 170 – U, Y, X

June 19, 2017

Today’s practice. Still finding it hard to get that big swishy bit on the left to come out properly.

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C17: Day 169 – F, T

June 18, 2017

The little extra thickness on the top of the F and T is formed by going over the hairline again with a slightly thicker stroke, which is far, far easier said than done. I think, also, that the loop ought to have been bigger.

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C17: Day 168 – z, p, basic stroke, P

June 17, 2017

I do have a bit of a confession to make: the instructions tell you to turn the paper upside down to draw the left-hand part of the lower loop for the z, and I’ve been far too lazy to. Instead, I’ve been trying to join it up at the bottom left corner of the lo0ps, with […]

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