Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

L & P wedding monogram (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

It’s really time I came clean. I start out innocently enough using a word loosely but managing to communicate. I then end up using this word a lot and the more I use the word, the more irritated I become with my imprecision. Just as whenever anyone writes about the Bayeux Tapestry the first thing they feel bound to point out is that it’s not actually a tapestry (it is an embroidery but I’m sure anyone reading this knows that), so sometimes when I use the word ‘monogram’, a little smart alec voice in my head says, “but it’s not actually a monogram”. So, just to be clear, the embroidered initials shown in this post do not constitute a monogram. A monogram involves two or more initials interacting or interweaving with each other to form a single symbol or motif which is an independent design identity, complete in itself. Now, some of the wedding initials I have embroidered  do this but the ones in this post do not. It is, however, convenient for me to gather them all under the umbrella term ‘monogram’ and when I get round to having some sort of index for the blog all initials will appear there.

Felt letters as a base for embroidery

Now to the L and P. Having decided on the style of  these initials, I thought I’d to try to make the letters look a bit more 3-D. In the past I’ve padded out the letters with lots of lines of running stitches or used satin stitch slanting one way and then sloping the other way, but this involves a lot of  sewing without really getting  enough of the desired effect. This time I thought I would try drawing the letters out in reverse on Bondaweb (is this the same thing as what Americans call freezer paper?). I then ironed this on to white felt and cut out the letters. After peeling the thin layer off the back of the letters, I next ironed the felt letters on to linen and these were then slip stitched to the linen to make sure they didn’t move (see photo above) There was a bit of trimming of the thin lines to make them finer but that wasn’t difficult to do. Embroidery was then much easier and the effect was exactly what I wanted. If I had been braver I would have had the cornflowers overlap the initials but I thought for now enough is enough, so the cornflowers just twiddle around in the middle as if caught by a gust of wind with a talent for casual flower arrangement.

L & P wedding monogram: detail showing cornflower

I don’t like using hoops as I don’t enjoy stab stitch – up/down, up/down. I much prefer taking my needle down and up in the one smooth move i.e. actually taking a stitch and I find I produce smoother stitches this way. Backing my linen with ‘Stitch ‘n Tear’  helps mitigate against the problems of tight stitching. (You pull or cut away this stabilising fabric when the embroidery is finished.) This suits the way I like to work, although many frown upon this method. The world is however big enough for both big enders and little enders and it may be good to know that if you don’t get on with hoops, there is an alternative. (I was happy to toe the line and work with a frame with the cathedral embroiderers.)

L & P wedding monogram: detail showing cornflower

I enjoyed working with this lovely pale blue and it made me remember the last blue wedding initials I did almost a year ago and the post I wrote on Penelope Fitzgerald’s ‘The Blue Flower’.

Below is an elegant border of cornflowers from an Ashmolean book about Lucien Pissarro and his work for the Eragny Press. It would make a lovely embroidered border for the neck of a dress  or something similar and I though I’d include it to make up for my own woeful cornflower of a few posts ago. (Thank you Cornflower for mentioning my poor sprig).

Cornflower border (from: Lucien Pissarro in England: The Eragny Press 1895-1914; pub: Oxford)

I’m now off to London to visit my grandson who has 4 teeth but, not satisfied with those, is still  after a couple more. I may need to correct spellings and punctuation when I return. Hope I at least make sense with the above.

Without realising it for the last 2 Sundays’ biscuits I had returned to a type I had made before (The church biscuit: 6). The ingredients are a little different because this time I was adapting a recipe for coconut thumbprints.

I divided the mixture in two and froze half of it for the following week. The extra egg made it softer than those I made before.

I have now converted to metric measurements which are ubiquitous and permit of finer tuning than imperial weights. I hope this is acceptable.

Lemon curd thumbprints

Makes 40 not so little biscuits ( that is 2 batches of 20)

Ingredients

225 g unsalted butter

225 g golden caster sugar

finely grated rind of 2 lemons

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

100 g wholemeal flour

100 g plain flour

125 g ground almonds

FOR ONE HALF MIXTURE: lemon curd

FOR 2nd HALF MIXTURE: 10 morello cherries

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/ 160 degrees fan oven/ Gas Mark 4

Line 2-3 baking trays with non-stick baking paper (for each batch)

Morello cherry thumbprints

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time.

Now sift the flours into the mixture (the coarse bits of the wholemeal flour will remain in the sieve after the lighter grains have been sieved but just tip these in – we’re just trying to incorporate as much air as a possible into the mixture, which is what will have been done). Now add 75 g of the ground almonds and half the lemon zest (i.e. that of one lemon). Mix to form a somewhat sticky dough. (A half hour rest in the fridge is now helpful but not absolutely necessary if you’re in a hurry.)

On a flattish bowl mix the remaining 50 g of ground almonds and the zest of the second lemon.

Take a teaspoonful of dough (the size of a small chocolate truffle – it will spread in the heat of the oven), roll in the almond + lemon zest mixture and  make into a small ball which can then be put on the baking tray. (This applies to both the biscuits to be filled with lemon curd as well as those with morello cherries -the lemon zest helps cut the sweetness of the cherry). Now flatten this ball slightly and indent the centre (middle finger actually better than thumb or use the head of a wooden spoon if your nails are too long).

Now fill the indentations with the lemon curd or half a morello cherry.

Cook for 15-20 minutes  or until going golden.

Remove from oven when cooked but leave to cool on the tray as they are rather soft. Lift of baking tray with a spatula and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

If you need to transport these biscuits, and I do, put them in a tin but separate the layers with grease proof paper. (Kitchen paper is not a good idea as the curd and cherries tend to stick to it a minor disaster.)

I haven’t made these look very pretty but that didn’t stop people enjoying them – mind you, they’d fall on a chocolate digestive (which takes some beating) with equal joy as long as there was a good cup of coffee.