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Posted in embroidery, opus anglicanum
Tags: cats, cheetah, embroidery, goldwork, medieval, medieval embroidery, opus anglicanum, split stitch, the Christmas project, underside couching
trotting along with the sky
•January 9, 2026 • 1 Commentit really does help that blue and gold is one of my all time favourite colour combinations
sky
•January 8, 2026 • 3 CommentsI’d intended right from the beginning of this piece to sue the same pale arctic blue as I used for the puffinhttps://www.opusanglicanumembroidery.com/product/puffin%2Fopus%2Fanglicanum%2Fembroidery%2Fkit/292?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=4 but I only neeeded a few rows to see that it was just too pale and northern looking.
so I made the apparently insane choice to switch over to an intense peacock blue and I’m very happy wiht it
sunshine
•January 7, 2026 • 1 Commentthe original plan had been to do the sun in metallic gold, but in the end I went for this lovely eggy yellow because it just looks more equatorial.
traditionally in opus the underside couching is done vertically to the image unless you’re doing counterpoint couching, which goes both ways to form a textural pattern. techically this is a simple form of counterpount couching, but I chose to have the sun couched horizontally because i think the reason horizontal couching is avoided is because it can be extremely opressive and flattening to the image – so a horizontal couch goes with an oppressively hot sun in my mind.
headless
•January 5, 2026 • 5 CommentsI hope he doesn’t crash into a wall ebfore I have time to stitch his head
more zoomies
•January 2, 2026 • 6 CommentsI’m pleased, so far, with how this more modern use of the opus anglicanum dappling technique is working out – instead of doing the whole background in one shade as per medeival examples I’m shading the background around the spots, but still working out in traditional spirals
zoomie spots
•December 31, 2025 • 3 Commentsapart from the fact that Mr Trubble makes spotty cats very much a running theme in this house, one of the main reasons I decided to do a cheetah was because I was intrigued by using the opus dappling technique in a new way, so I’ve been thinking baout these spots since the very first stitch.
I have worked systematically through the image in my usual order of work, andI’m always telling people not to procrastinate, so deep breath…!
more zoomies
•December 30, 2025 • 5 Commentsthere was a day of not sewing because we went for lunch at the excellent PLough in Wombleton (yorkshire sprakling wine is truly superb).
then yesterday all I got done was three dodgy meerkats hanging around on the street corner, they’re probably nip dealers.
and gareth pointed out that the toy spotty cat I got him for his christmas stocking is almost identical to the drawing, so I think I’m just going to stitck that down to my canvas, call it a collage with found object and leave it there?
opusanglicanum 