{"id":16351,"date":"2026-02-17T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16351"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:01:18","slug":"progress-on-the-lady-of-the-mercians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/17\/progress-on-the-lady-of-the-mercians\/","title":{"rendered":"Progress on the Lady of the Mercians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BackToTheLady_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"267\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BackToTheLady_Watermarked-267x300.jpg\" alt=\"Partially completed blue border around the Aethelflaed Embroidery\" class=\"wp-image-16324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BackToTheLady_Watermarked-267x300.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BackToTheLady_Watermarked-768x862.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BackToTheLady_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I realise that you&#8217;ve not heard about Aethelflaed for a while. In fact the period of silence is partly misleading and partly calendar related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of the calendar &#8211; my Serious Embroidery Frame sits beside a table in the bay window in the living room, and that is the table that the Christmas tree goes on. We don&#8217;t put the tree up early (I usually scoot in at the last moment on Christmas Eve, as was the family tradition when I was a child), but I do start clearing that space and thinking of other things.<\/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\/2026\/01\/BorderFirstLayer_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"294\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BorderFirstLayer_Watermarked-294x300.jpg\" alt=\"The first layer of the blue border is complete. It's uneven in colour because it uses three different shades at once.\" class=\"wp-image-16347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BorderFirstLayer_Watermarked-294x300.jpg 294w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BorderFirstLayer_Watermarked-768x784.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BorderFirstLayer_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In fact, however, before I put Aethelflaed away for that period, I had made considerable progress. Even with the pause for resupply, I had managed to finish the first layer of her border. It&#8217;s harder than it looks, because I couch the coloured silk at either end, straight off the reels, to avoid having too much wastage from starting up and ending off and misjudging lengths. I find every section I do requires me to rediscover my rhythm, and until I do, I feel clumsy and tied in knots. I think the result is worth it, however. <\/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\/2026\/01\/ComparisonWMandA_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ComparisonWMandA_Watermarked-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"I've set the embroidery of William Marshall over the Aethelflaed Embroidery, showing how much more I have to do on her border.\" class=\"wp-image-16346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ComparisonWMandA_Watermarked-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ComparisonWMandA_Watermarked-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ComparisonWMandA_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Comparing Aethelflaed thus far with William completed, you will see that I have to do the Trellis Couching (which goes alarmingly quickly once I get a run at it) and then finalise the design for, and then work, the embellishments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bee Skeps, Beer Barrels, and Roses, oh my!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I realise that you&#8217;ve not heard about Aethelflaed for a while. In fact the period of silence is partly misleading and partly calendar related. In terms of the calendar &#8211; my Serious Embroidery Frame sits beside a table in the bay window in the living room, and that is the table that the Christmas tree&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/17\/progress-on-the-lady-of-the-mercians\/\">Continue Reading Progress on the Lady of the Mercians<\/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":[295,284,249,26],"class_list":["post-16351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aethelflaed","tag-medieval-movers-and-shakers","tag-opus-anglicanum","tag-silk-thread","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351","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=16351"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16356,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions\/16356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}