{"id":15621,"date":"2025-03-11T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=15621"},"modified":"2025-02-23T16:58:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T16:58:04","slug":"not-quite-starting-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/03\/11\/not-quite-starting-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Not quite starting over&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/UnpickingAethelflaed_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/UnpickingAethelflaed_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"A pair of sharp scissors beginning to unpick parts of Aethflaed.\" class=\"wp-image-15610\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Well, what with putting her away over Christmas and then taking some time to make a decision about what to do next, it&#8217;s been a while since you saw Aethelflaed..<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BackToBeginning_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BackToBeginning_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"All of the wall unpicked!\" class=\"wp-image-15618\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And here I am, snipping and snipping away at all of the wall outlines, the blocks I&#8217;d already stitched, and even the pile of blocks ready to be reused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All gone!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MixOfMixtures_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"285\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MixOfMixtures_Watermarked-285x300.jpg\" alt=\"The wall near the horse's hindquarters and Aethelflaed's dress reinstated in paler colours, and without the dark outlines of the previous version.\" class=\"wp-image-15615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MixOfMixtures_Watermarked-285x300.jpg 285w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MixOfMixtures_Watermarked-768x809.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MixOfMixtures_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 285px) 100vw, 285px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And now, the section behind her and her horse is reinstated, using a mixture of blends and a couple of single colours. The tones are much closer together than they were originally, and I&#8217;ve also chosen not to use the dark outlines and dark &#8220;mortar&#8221;. This will help to create a more subtle background, while still having the pinky-orange of Cheshire sandstone. I&#8217;ve seen all these colours in various bits of Chester&#8217;s Walls &#8211; I&#8217;ve just chosen, this time, not to include the much darker browns and plum colours which are also there.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ShouldSettle_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ShouldSettle_Watermarked-257x300.jpg\" alt=\"Longer view, to show that the new paler colours settle back rather better.\" class=\"wp-image-15611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ShouldSettle_Watermarked-257x300.jpg 257w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ShouldSettle_Watermarked-768x896.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ShouldSettle_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>So much of representational art, whether it be painting or embroidery, comes down to a question of editing. What do I want to emphasize? What do I want to play down? How can I balance the colours, the shapes, the patterns, to tell the story I want to tell?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AethelflaedDressBorder_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AethelflaedDressBorder_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"The back panel of Aethelflaed's dress, including the bright patterend border has been filled in. The wall doesn't quite work against it, so I have some thinking to do.\" class=\"wp-image-15506\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Looking at the newly worked section from further away, I think I&#8217;m happy now that the wall will pull back as I need it to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I just need to keep going!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, what with putting her away over Christmas and then taking some time to make a decision about what to do next, it&#8217;s been a while since you saw Aethelflaed.. And here I am, snipping and snipping away at all of the wall outlines, the blocks I&#8217;d already stitched, and even the pile of blocks&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/03\/11\/not-quite-starting-over\/\">Continue Reading Not quite starting over&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[295,24,272,284,249],"class_list":["post-15621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aethelflaed","tag-design-elements","tag-designing","tag-medieval-movers-and-shakers","tag-opus-anglicanum","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15621"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15628,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621\/revisions\/15628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}