AEHM monogram (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Embroidery very easily lends itself to being regarded as sweet or cute and this is especially true of that done for babies. I run from the cute, sweet or twee as I would run from a serpent and I would be very fed up should anyone describe anything I had made in these terms. I come closest to seeing that serpent when I set to producing a monogram for little boys who are just about the best twee indicators ever. After lots of thinking and some experimentation I have come to the conclusion that monogram designs for little boys should stick to the less is more principle – either very traditional (no flowers, lettering minimally curly) or, if you want something a bit different, geometric patterns with clear unfussy lettering.
AEHM monogram: detail
This latest monogram is another out of the building block mould (like this) although here there is a touch of classical architectural building blocks as both the little boy’s parents are in the business of conserving old buildings and would be likely to enjoy pointing out primitive Ionic columns, triglyphs (vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze) and metopes (space between two triglyphs, the most famous examples being those in the collection of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum which were formerly on the Parthenon). Across the bottom there is a wave border which is also a classical decoration.
AEHM monogram: detail
The sun cast its spell over us yesterday which was fortunate as we had another tea concert in church and a sunny afternoon almost always means a bigger audience. It’s a shame more things don’t happen in the afternoon in church as at that time of day, the sun slants through the three south facing windows to greatest effect – whitewashed walls turn Mediterranean and, like that ancient Ready Brek advert, the glow seems to come from within.
AEHM monogram: detail
I rarely sit down without having a bit of sewing in my hands and on this occasion I had a bag of patchwork pieces for the altar frontal. I should mention here that on a previous occasion I had received a ticking off from the organiser for being distracting with my needle. Seemingly safe, at the very end of the row, behind everyone else and with my husband a shield for others I foolishly whipped out my patchwork pieces a little too early … and was seen. Now Euterpe (not her real name of course) had not been a teacher for many years without learning a thing or two about the most effective way to tell someone off and I was curious as to how the blow would fall. After explaining evacuation procedures in case of fire (“the emergency door is the one you came in by”), she requested mobile phones be turned off and knitting needles, etc, be put aside – we should treat live music respectfully, rather than casually as we might treat music on the radio at home. Euterpe then took her seat beside the pianist as page turner and it seemed to me that the audience between me and her parted ever so slightly to allow her heat-seeking missile of a gaze clear passage to the needle on my lap. Chastised and cowed, nevertheless a tiny stir of rebellion made me carry on sewing – but slowly and deliberately. As I continued the needle in my hand seemed to grew in both size and intrusiveness until no longer a needle, but a light sabre. Ridiculous, I gave up. Euterpe had won … and probably quite rightly too.
AEHM monogram (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Last night it was very cold here. Benson (a couple of miles away) recorded S.E. England’s lowest temperature of the night at 1.4 degrees C. The field behind us had been harvested the day before which seemed pretty late to us as the wheat was looking ripe and ready at the beginning of August. But grain from this field was going for animal feed so there was no great pressure to harvest it rapidly as they would for wheat grown for bread flour. Now the straw in lying in ridges in the field and we are waiting to see how this will be baled up. We loved the sunlight on the golden corn, the dark earth will be a bit of a shock and a reminder that we are into autumn.
AEHM Monogram framed
