Post-Spring Crown Reflections

My home Barony just hosted Spring Crown Tournament, and I played a very minor role in the stewarding team, so my time for some weeks has been taken up with paperwork and projects for that.

The big event is over and now it is time to go 'splat' and recover. (And go through the photos, jot down all the ideas inspired by wonderful people, and plan what is next on the to-do list.) Plus!- Start blogging all the projects that were completed before I forget and they end up stuck in the drafts folder forever, like so many others!

This was a really well attended event, with overseas visitors and a large and prestigious list of contenders. The event ran really well, everyone seemed to have a great time, and was full of beautiful and moving moments. (Plus lots of silly and fun ones.) I got to see old friends and make new ones. And regret not having time to catch up with many others, but such is the nature of big events, I guess.

There was a wealth of beautiful arts and sciences on display, garb to drool over, and displays of courtesy and chivalry (on and off the field) to be inspired by. Innilgard is renowned for it's plentiful good food, and the cooking team did not disappoint, with feast goers being seen in the evening walking around rubbing their bellies and moaning happily that they 'ate too much'.

There were two Peerage ceremonies, a Protege ceremony, presentation of gorgeous scrolls, and other lovely forms of recognition for well-deserved people. I got to see two friends step up as Heirs to the Throne after an exhilarating battle. And laughed as Knights in the stocks got pelted by sponges to raise over a thousand dollars for a cancer charity in remembrance of lost friends. There was beautiful dancing and a range of excellent bardic performances. I got given a personalised performance of interpretive dance in lieu of a rose in the Rose Tourney. And did I mention the drool-worthy garb?

All in all, it really was the sort of event that renews in every way. 

Split-stitch Embroidery on Linen Hoods

Another project for the big event; seam treatments and some embroidery on linen hoods.
The hoods were cut out and sewn up by my friends, I just had to flat fell some seams and do some hemming. Then it was time to mark out the embroidery. The cypher was designed by Sir Eva von Danzig.

 I traced the design onto tracing paper and marked around the outline with a really big needle. This left big holes around the outlines of the letters. I then pinned the tracing paper into place on the hood and drew over the outlines with a Frixion removable pen. The result was a line of dots marking the outline of the letters

The design is worked in split stitch embroidery in DMC cotton floss.

Split-Stitch Embroidery on Woolen Hoods

Here is a project that I worked on back in August to help some friends. They were running a big event and wanted a way to identify key people on the event team, like the Head Herald, List Keeper, Head Cook etc. They came up with the idea of different coloured hoods, and I volunteered to embroider some of the designs.

Marking out embroidery designs on wool can be problematic. Normally I would recommend tracing out the design with ink, lead pencil, chalk or removable felt tip pen or Frixion pen. Sometimes, using the prick and pounce method works well. None of these methods were appropriate for this particular surface as the wool was rather fuzzy and absorbent.

I printed out the designs that I needed, then traced the design onto tracing paper.

I (pretty thoroughly) pinned the paper into place on the hood. It is important to have the design pinned down well so that it doesn't move at all. I sewed over the design in a very small running stitch.

Once the design was marked out in yellow hand sewing thread, I carefully ripped off the tracing paper, trying not to pull or distort the running stitch.

This left me with a faintly marked line of stitching to follow.

I went over the running stitch with a double strand of embroidery floss in split stitch.

I was very pleased with the final result. The motifs stood out well against the green and black wool.