If you didn’t see that I posted yesterday (about a set of links to free internet ‘palette construction from images’ tools), well, scroll down :-)

I’ve been making embroideries for friends for the last 8 or more months. I’m going crazy. I NEED to get back into the Elizabethan world.

While waiting for some purple thread for the Butterfly, I’ve started the next and final thankyou present – a marigold. I’ll post about that presently.

It’s not a big project, so I’ll be “free” in a month or so, maybe less.

I have my  Elizabethan Historical Sampler sitting there as a UFO. But the whole *point* of the Sampler is to try as many new stitches and techniques as possible. My health just isn’t up to that at the moment – it’s a bit hard to think and learn a lot when you feel ratty. The medical specialist programme I’m now on will guarantee I’ll feel pretty ratty until at least November – but I should be much healthier and stronger at the end of it :-) :-)
So I wanted something that I already had the skills to do, but was Elizabethan (and beautiful, of course).

I made a file of prospective projects, then I chose one after thinking for a day :

It’s the bookmark of a Cope that Julie gave me! The dragon will be especially fun! There’s some silk shading in his wings, the cross and the leaves above too. Surface couching work on the silver thistle (or I’m going to make it surface couched, anyway). Perhaps I’ll use kid for that red patch in the middle? Gold kid. I’ll need plenty of pearl purl, that’s for sure!

Lots of ideas! I’ll be using DMC for the Cope piece although I’d prefer to do it in silk, but it’s too expensive.

My initial choice was this motif :


http://historyofembroidery.blogspot.com/p/samplers.html
 
I just adore the colours in it, and like the lightness of the scrollwork. But it occurred to me that I’d just done lots of split stitching for the Butterfly wings, so didn’t really want to do a repetitive stitch project again so soon.

Meanwhile I’m be Butterflying and Marigolding away :-) I’m a big post behind on the Butterfly – He has a body, legs and antennae now.