Isolation Embroidery Challenge

I've started a hand-embroidery challenge in my SCA group to try and help keep everyone feeling connected and motivated during the suspension of activities. The idea is that all the participants will work on one or more hand embroidery challenges over the enforced break, and share our progress on the baronial Facebook page. Then, when events resume, we display our finished items in person.

The tricky part was accommodating various levels of expertise and confidence, while still offering a theme that had something for everyone. In the end I settled on an open theme and open technique. People can work on heraldic items, UnFinished Objects (UFOs), items for upcoming competitions or largesse, or even those big projects that have been on the Wish List for some time - whatever they like. Sounds super exciting, doesn't it?

What it means in real time is that I’m faffing around deciding what to do for the Challenge (i.e. wasting time being overwhelmed by the possibilities of doing All The Things). In the mean time I decided I need to stop wasting time and that I really should try and finish this embroidered partlet I started for the baronial Heraldic Challenge.

Normally partlets are my favourite thing to embroider but I’m hating on this one because the pale lilac thread is really hard to see, so my stitching is sloppy, plus it is reinforcing how much my eyes have been impacted by medication in the last couple of years.

DMC stranded cotton seahorses done in split and double running stitch on a base of leftover cotton broadcloth due to financial limitations.