Scrubs up well, doesn't it.

Here is my cleaned up design for the wedding present with grid lines and smudgy bits removed. You don't have to remove the smudgy bits, but I think it makes for an easier image to trace.

FYI, these designs are produced under a creatve commons licence, and came originally from Dillmont, Th. de. Bibliothèque DMC: La Broderie au passé published in 1900. This means you can dowload them and use them and any derivative works, (such as my cleaned up version) but cannot sell them.

I cannot reccommend The Antique Pattern Library http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/ where these books are stored highly enough. It is a treasure trove of lost arts, with enough ispiration to inspire a lifetime of crafting!

If I did it again I would probably load the foreground brush with a charcoal grey, the bits where I went over the lines in black stand out more than I would like, but it will do to trace.

Next step printing it out and transferring it to the antique gold silk.

Then framing it up, which I always find a bit boring, though it makes a huge difference to the end result, and I'll be ready to start selecting colours and stitching.

I'm feeling quite a naturalistic colour scheme here, soft pinks, blues and greens.

Wedding present design, which to choose?

Now that my shiny new lightbox has arrived, I have NO EXCUSE not to start on my brother's wedding pressie.

It needs to be doable by October, and I've chosen silk shading, though I'm tempted to add a bit of Goldwork.

I've found these three books in Terese Dillmont's Broderie en Passe (which is in the public domain and can be found along with many other stitchin related treasures in the Antique Pattern Library http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/completelist.htm and downloaded for free!

Here are the options

I rather like the symmetry of this one


But I think my brother and his new wife might prefer this one.



This one is currently my third preference, though it started as my first.