Embroidered Heraldic Patch for the Archery Championship Cloak

Recently I finished an embroidered heraldic badge for a friend.

Last year I made a woolen cloak as the regalia for my Barony's archery champion.

A friend of mine won the Championship and I offered to embroider his device for the cloak, as he doesn't embroider. The patch is just a small version of his heraldry, embroidered as a slip on a calico base and then added to the cloak.

I actually had two attempts at this because I was really unhappy with the first one.
I traced the design onto the calico with pencil and then I used a small piece of iron-on interfacing on the back as a stabiliser. I have found that this helps to stop the base fabric warping and puckering. I used a small hoop for this project.

This is the second attempt. I did something a little different, and used some small chain stitches as well as the split stitch that I usually use for these badges.

The flosses are cotton and also cashmere. The cashmere is the central stitching behind the tree. It is fairly delicate floss compared to the cotton, so we will see how it stands up to wear and tear.

SCA A&S 100 Challenge - Day 1

Some SCA friends have proposed an A&S Challenge in the style of the armoured combatant Century Drill Challenge (100 blows for 100 days). The aim is to work on A&S projects for (at least ten minutes a day) for 100 days.

The point of the challenge is to build habit and consistency, reduce the number of Unfinished Objects (UFOs) we all have, and (hopefully,) generate enthusiasm.

I have such a large pile of ongoing projects at hand at any given time that it is unusual for me to go a day without doing ten minutes of A&S work. I am hoping that the Challenge will help me to keep better records of what I am doing and blog more often. I prefer to blog items when they are finally complete because it all seems a little disjointed - especially at the beginning of a project and because I jump from unfinished project to unfinished project. But maybe getting into the habit of blogging as an ongoing process will mean more things get blogged.

Today I worked on some split stitch Championship patches for friends in my SCA group. I got two washed and blocked. They just need backing. Another two are still in the hoop.