Embroidered Alphabets..........

                    Monograms and Ciphers
(Cipher is one letter, Monogram is more than 1, usually 2 or 3)

     April showers bring May flowers........... but alas, no rain in southern California!  I love to sit and stitch in the rain, and when I lived in KY, TX, OH, (we moved around a lot when I was growing up), there was always plenty of springtime rain!  I did not really appreciate it until I moved to CA and then there wasn't any!
     Even though there is no rain, this week I have been sitting and stitching.  I am working on my class projects for my new class proposals.  For once I am early (deadline is June 1, which is still 7 WEEKS AWAY!!!).  The project that I just finished is called Monogrammed Memo.
 

 



     It is made out of a gold silk dupioni with a gold and white striped silk dupioni for the pockets on the inside. 

     The inside is also made out of silk dupioni - a gold and white stripe pattern.  I also used the strip to make piping for the cover.

    My initial on the front has several different types of embroidered flowers, all made with bullions.  When I started working on this, I pulled out some of my antique embroidery alphabet books.  I have about 20-30 of these books.  They are all French and printed in the early 1900s, with all different styles of alpahabets.

 

     I scanned parts of one of the books that I thought i would share with you.  Here is part of the cover - you can see 3 different styles of alphabets'

 

     This one of the pages - you can see 4 more alphabet styles - along with border designs that run along the side of the page.

     More and more............sometimes it may be the same style, just a different size.

      This alphabet is a bit larger, with no floral accents.

 

     Even larger alphabet, this time with floral accents. 

 

Hmmmmm........even as I look at these again, I am starting to get itchy, stitchy fingers!  May be one of these days when I have a bit more time, I will start some sort of alphabte challenge - maybe a different style each month?  Maybe a different letter?  You can't see me, but heavy sigh...........I still wish I had a few more hours each day!



    I am pinning a ton of embroidered monograms over the next week on Pinterest!  Follow me on Pinterest and you will see them as I post them.  I am working my way through the alphabet - I finished A-E tonight and will work o some more tomorrow.

Happy Stitching,
Vaune