I have been reading that the English alphabet, as we know it, is nearing obsolescence for many reasons. Here are some for your consideration –

• The characters are cumbersome. It should not take the human hand more than a second to write any letter.

• If you need to take notes, you might write quickly but, later, cannot make out the scribbling.
• Current characters don’t cover all the sounds. There are more than 40 sounds already, and growing all the time. Letters must be combined to cover those murmurings like – st, br or th.
• When you embroider any letter, the time consumption is even greater. Some letters need underlay and the large letters are like a design in themselves. in themselves.

Holy Cow! Without the alphabet -

• Carving our initials will change a lot.

• When a new word enters into our vocabulary, will it be a squiggle on the paper?

• Monograms will be works of art. (They already are, but now they will be even more interesting.)

• Was Prince that far ahead of his time? (Love his work.)

Some people think what we called Gregg Shorthand to be a viable option. This method will allow for writing more rapidly. After all, we talk at a rate of approximately 200+ words per minute in conversation. Gregg Shorthand can easily keep up with that. We are faster when we are excited or making proposals, etc. The 'record' seems to be about 600 words per minute.  Huh? What did they say??

At least, good old Gregg might be a good starting point. Does anyone remember those lines and curves? Nevertheless, (wink) change is likely in our future.

These are just a few of the thousands of combinations of marks that create a word. I wish my handwriting was this nice!

                          

Well, whatever comes to pass, I decided to create a few words in my version of shorthand. I really hope you like them. In embroidery format, they are lovely to look at. AND, a few that are symbols with some possibilities in store for them.

stabilizer eight from The Avid Embroiderer.zip (258.3K)

I picked up a little photography tip that may be of interest to you - when you need a picture of something like an embroidery design, and it needs to be shot "straight" in the photo, place the item on the floor and use a tripod or just point and click with your camera. Ta Da!