Belt Favor

Most people who know me know that I'm ridiculously addicted to bright, vivid shades of blue. Cobalt and peacock/teal being my favorites. My dear hubby asked me to give him a favor to wear while fighting, so I turned to my stash for something to embroider on. I have a pretty large length of this gorgeous teal linen left over from a hood project I've yet to complete and is a looming Unfinished Object (UFO) from my past.

I recently submitted my device and badge up the chain through the Heralds of the SCA, and while I'm waiting patiently impatiently, I decided go ahead and use my device as designed.

I drew the badge onto the linen and stitched it using a chain stitch, which I must admit I was new to. I've done a ton of back stitch, stem stitch, and Holbein stitch cross stitch, long-arm cross stitch, and many other kinds of embroidery in my life, but never chain. So it took a bit to get the hang of it. I think you can tell from the finished project, but I like to leave things as proof of learning rather than pick them out and try to be perfect all the time.

Also, I didn't take a picture of the finished piece, so I stole this from hubby's Facebook page. I hope he forgives me.

Protege Belt

My amazing husband became protege to Baron Don Vilhelm Silberhammer at Solstice Court in December.  Let me back up a bit, for those not into the SCA.

There are those who receive recognition for their outstanding service to this historical study/reenactment group. Baron Vilhelm is one such who received that recognition, by way of an award called the Order of the Pelican.

Members of this order sometimes take on students, to learn the ways of service. These students are called proteges, and are recognized by yellow belts they are asked to wear. Vilhelm and Sven took on that master/student relationship in an official capacity in December.

Sven's persona is that of a Templar, who cannot wear buckles (according to the Rule of the Templar, the book on how Templar soldiers were required to live, dress, eat, etc.). Templars often wore rope belts - a practice Sven took on readily. When it came time to don a yellow belt, however, we determined the best way to make this happen would be a linen sash.

I added a section at one end of the sash with a symbol from Baron Vilhelm's device embroidered onto it. This helps determine who Sven is "tied to," and it becomes a part of Sven and Vilhelm's history together, perhaps one day to be passed on to someone else.

This is done in black silk, mostly stem stitch, on dandelion yellow linen. This section of the sash is lined, so the ugly back side of the embroidery won't show or snag on anything.

Other than the fact that their tongues sticking out kind of got lost in translation and ended up looking like lame beaks, I'm rather pleased.

Napkin Largesse

Or serviette, whichever you prefer.  I've spent quite a bit of time pricking my fingers lately, working on a largesse project.  I started by making a couple of embroidered medallions, which are done in satin and chain stitches. All materials came from my stash, so the embroidery was a mix of silk and cotton floss.  I then appliqued the medallions to hand-sewn linen napkins, made from 14"x14" linen scraps.

 

The gold embroidered napkins were given to Their Royal Majesties, Raven and Sajah at Solstice Court this weekend, within gift baskets full of goodies from the household I belong to, Sable Sun.  

Each napkin was carefully turned and hand-sewn, with mitered corners.  Of course, we couldn't leave out our Esteemed Barons and Baronesses of the Kingdom in our endeavors.  This happened to be an investiture event, meaning the Baron and Baroness of Loch Salann, the hosting Barony, were retiring, and the newly chosen Baron and Baroness were invested (the ceremonial term for receiving their coronets and taking their station).  The outgoing Baroness has a thing for dragonflies, just like me, so their napkins included some dragonfly appliques from my stash.  They are iron-on jobbies, for which I am ashamed but simply didn't have time to hand-embroider them.

Each of the Baronages in attendance received a gift basket including two napkins, and we also donated a basket that included four napkins to a silent auction.  This was an easy but time consuming project.  I could have done it much faster by machine, but there's something charming about little uneven hand stitches. It was also a great way to use up some of my scraps of fabric.

Royal Blackwork

On my way to hang out with friends, I realized I'd be just sitting all day chatting, and would do well to do something with my hands during that time.  I grabbed a scrap of linen from my stash, and some skeins of silk floss as well as needles, beeswax, and a handful of period patterns, and set to doing some blackwork in my spare time.

I chose a spiral/diamond motif from this 16th Century Italian Blackwork samplar, and began stitching in a beautiful royal blue silk.  So far, I have completed enough for one camicia/smock cuff, and intend to do another as well as enough for a collar.  This will likely end up as a high-necked smock since I only have one and it's far easier when self-dressing to use one of those as opposed to a camicia and partlet combo.  Yes, sometimes the easy way out trumps versatility... though can you call hours of embroidery the easy way?  Not so sure...

This is blue silk floss run through beeswax, and stitched onto lightweight linen.  As the linen is not an even weave, and I do not use waste canvas, the motifs are not as evenly shaped as they would be otherwise.  I count two linen threads for each blackwork stitch.

I've had many people ask me how I can do that and still see.  Well, I don't see.  Hah!  Actually, I'm absurdly near-sighted but too much so for stitching without glasses.  The key is good lighting, and the angle of the lighting so you can see the shadows behind the linen to help distinguish between threads.  

The main difference between this piece and other blackwork I've done is that it is not reversible.  The motifs are not connected to one another in any way, and have a tiny square between each of them, so it's not worth it to try and finish off the threads over and over for a reversible look, particularly when it will be the top layer in a cuff.  When I'm done I'll show you the back side for reference.  It's sloppy, but not unbearably so.

Those who do not Craft, Shop.

Quest has come and gone, and was a most excellently fun event, despite the seriously craptastic weather.  Between wind and torrential rain, we were cold and wet all weekend.  But we had awesome company, great conversation, and a fire pit to ward off the chills a bit.

My goal was to get a photograph of Sven in his red and black tunic that I made last year (but yet to have a picture of), but alas it was not meant to happen.

I am partly done with one scroll that has been in my queue since April (shame).  It is to be given out at Uprising, so this weekend is slated to do a lot of painting.  Pictures will follow after it has been awarded.  This is my first experience working on pergamenata, and it has been interesting.  A full review to follow later.

I am super excited to share with you my latest shopping haul.

I have been massively in love with early Tudor styles for years, so The Queen's Servants was a must-have.  I expect it will take me quite some time to actually make something from it, but now I have the book in order to do so.

I'm so stoked about scoring a copy of Old Italian Patterns for Linen Embroidery.  This is a rare piece.  I struggle calling it a book since really it's a book shaped folder full of loose-leaf patterns that are tied into place. with this really cool bound envelope dealio.  Really, I should have taken photos of the inside...

I drooled upon Noelle's copy (and even made copies of a few of my favorite patterns, but they were destroyed in the craft studio flood a year and a half ago (the photocopies, not Noelle's original - I'd just die!).  It's a difficult "book" to find, and when you can find it, it's usually quite expensive.  That was my experience, anyway.  After a year or so of looking (and only finding it in the $100 + range), I found one for $30.  It took about 0.35 seconds to click BUY.  I believe there are a few more copies out there on Amazon if anyone's interested.

Blackwork Progress

Nothing new to report, other than this status image of where I'm at with the Italian blackwork:

Blackwork - New Colors

Having decided that I hated the colors I chose for the flowers in the latest blackwork project, last night I picked them all out and tried again. This time I chose a lovely plum silk instead of scarlet, and opted for teal silk instead of switching back and forth between peach and blue. I'm much happier with the result. Obviously I'm not quite done filling in the flowers over these vines; it is a time consuming process.

More Blackwork!

I have finished Serafina's blackwork! I have been recovering from surgery for the last few days and spent most of that time lounging on the couch watching TV and embroidering between ice packs and such. This is long enough for either a partlet collar or camicia front, so I can't wait to see what she does with it. It would also look awesome with added pearls and spangles (hint, hint).

After completing the above project, I started on a new one. This is obviously a more complicated pattern, and I thought I'd give poly-chromatic embroidery a try. I'm doing this on a smaller scale than the piece I did for Serafina; this is one strand of silk, with two threads of linen per stitch, as opposed to two strands of silk for the red, going over three strands of linen (the black details above are only one strand of silk, as I wanted it to look more delicate than the red).

Yes, I messed up on the red flower. I'm going to be picking that out and giving it another shot. I'm also not in love with the peach color, which is actually lighter in person than the image shows. It's very difficult to work with because it's so light. The blue is also so dark it's hard to tell it's different than the black. Hrm. Perhaps I should take a trip to the Needlepoint Joint and pick up a few more colors. What do you think?

Blackwork Update

I worked on the blackwork while watching some TV last night (instead of reconciling gate from Quest - bad exchequer!). Once I add the black bits to these last three, I'll have enough for one cuff. So I guess it's time to decide if I'm actually making cuffs, or if I should carry on and do a collar. I really didn't have a plan in mind when I started this.

On a totally different topic, I got a wild hair this morning, and went in search of a copy of my favorite childhood book. It was a mother goose rhyme book, but it was illustrated so beautifully that it inspired me to be interested in art. I now know that the clothing in most of the pictures were Regency and Victorian era, and I would love to look at it with more knowledge and older eyes. There might have been some Georgian in there too, but I don't remember. Of course, searching for a mother goose book is like a needle in a haystack. It might be this version, but without seeing the cover or at least one interior page, I have no idea. The publish date seems a bit off to, as I think I remember it from being younger than that, but I could be mistaken. I know it had a hardcover, for sure. I've dropped a line to my momma to see if she remembers.

Blackwork

On a whim I decided to start some blackwork cuffs for a new camicia or smock. I was going to do this at Quest while sitting troll, but a combination of an awesome influx of volunteers and the event shutting down early, stopped this from happening. Therefore I started yesterday, in order to have something to do between changing loads of laundry.

I have never done any blackwork that's not monochromatic, so I pulled out some gorgeous red silk I've been saving for a rainy day. It just so happens that yesterday was quite rainy. Add that to some black silk, and a 16th Century Italian needlework sampler pattern, and I have hours of fun(The pattern I'm using is at a upper left diagonal from the large red pattern in the center-ish). My fabric doesn't have a perfectly even weave, so that changes it to look more diamond shaped than the original. I count threads rather than use waste-fabric. I've tried that method and I can't get the stitches to lay smooth and flat, and it's just so very fussy. I've been working on a blackworked caul for ages using waste fabric and I have struggled to finish it because of this. I'd rather have a slightly skewed pattern that can be interpreted as having *meant* to look like that, than deal with waste fabric.

The stitches on the far right were for getting a feel for the stitch length versus floss weight before starting my actual pattern. The "wrong" side of the embroidery isn't as clean and reversible as I would like due to changing colors, but it is improving as I go along. The picture is craptacular, but it does give you a feel for how far I got on yesterday.

I got a request to do a scroll for Uprising, which has a very short turn-around time, but I'm waiting for some more information on whether the recipient has registered arms or not before I begin.

Blackwork'd Caul

This weekend I got a bit of a wild hair to make a new caul - this one blackworked in black silk on linen. I found a scrap of lightweight linen in my stash that would do nicely, but it was not an even weave. In order to get nice, even stitches, I opted to use waste canvas for the first time on a project such as this.

I found a "filler" pattern that I liked in some photocopies of a book on blackwork. I will have to find a copy of that book, just for reference purposes. Whether it is an authentic pattern or not remains to be seen, but it does have the right "feel."

Between the larger motifs on the pattern are little X's, which I may or may not convert to a colored X or into spangles. I haven't quite decided yet.

All of this activity is simply a project to keep my hands busy while my brain percolates on a larger project. Pictures are forthcoming.