Lots done, but not much sewing

We've had a run on getting things done in the garden, which has kept me out of the house and away from my needles! I'm currently on a six day holiday weekend (May Day and Saint George's Day are holidays and fell on Thursday and Tuesday, so we got the entire time off!) and we're working between the raindrops. The new front sidewalk is finished, a pergola has been installed in the front garden and it looks lovely with the grapevines over it. Now we need a bench to go under it. There are eight new David Austin roses in the central border, along with a new pink clematis to go with the original purple one (which is in full bloom). Half of the front lawn has been cleared and raked, ready to be and seeded with new grass. The other half of the front garden is partially cleared and if the rain lets up, it should be finished tomorrow. There's a new picket fence and gate enclosing the dog yard and there are now four raised beds and they are all painted white. It looks so nice! The peach trees have all been sprayed for leaf curl and are looking good - and they are FULL of little peaches! The apple tree and the quince are absolutely loaded too. It should be a bumper crop, of all goes well.

The only stitching I've done has been to finish a little white linen cap for Gwen. It has round braid ties in her mom's signature purple and white. She likes hats, so it should be a hit, hopefully!

Happy Easter!

It's just past midnight here in Bulgaria and the faithful will be starting home from church soon, carrying lighted candles to bring the light of Christ into their homes for the upcoming year. I'm sorry to miss the service this year, but standing outside in the cold, pouring rain when I'm still on medication for bronchitis seems like a bad idea, so I've stayed home. Instead, I've been cooking up a storm for tomorrow's Easter lunch. The eggs are colored, the coconut cake is baked and frosted, the Easter basket is full, and the ham is prepped. All I need to do tomorrow (or rather, later today!) is bake the ham and the scalloped potatoes, steam the asparagus, and devil the eggs and we'll be good to go. I'll add some photos  after the meal is over now, just to show how silly my cake is this year!



Down-stashing

Down-stashing is a little like down-sizing. I have already achieved SABLE* in both fabric and embroidery materials, so I'm trying to make some room in my work areas by using up what I have on hand ( at least a little!) Back at Christmas, I was able to cut out a pair of apron dresses for Constanza from wool I had on the shelf. They turned out very well and she really enjoys wearing them, so that was a big plus! But I was left with a big piece of the blue wool and a small one of the green. The blue is already queued up for another project over the Easter Holidays, but I needed an idea for the green remnant. Well, I spent this weekend finishing up my idea and it will go in the mail to my adopted granddaughter tomorrow.

Have a look at the apron dress for Gwen Makeblise!

I had all of the materials on hand except some of the beads and those came from the local craft store, It's designed with tucks in the sides, a deep hem, and shoulder straps that can be lengthened, so it should last her several years. It's wool with linen embroidery. The tablet weaving is from Catherine Weaver.


ETA:

And it fits!

*stash acquired beyond life expectancy

Birthday gift for Constanza

Lady Constanza turned thirty this year and one of her good friends, Lady Eleynora, organized several other friends and family members to stitch up a set of embroidered napkins for her. They all have her device in one corner and something important to her in the SCA in another. Mine featured a sheaf of arrows for her prowess at archery and the badge for Linden House, our family household. 

 

 

 

 

I'm not crazy about how the ermine spots turned out, but they are okay. The real question is why both of my children have them in their heraldry.  One, as you can see, has erminois. The other has pean.

 

 





 



A new sewing kit

I've wanted a period-appropriate sewing kit for events and have been slowly collecting the things I needed for one. I found a small willow basket, which I lined with linen. I made pockets around the edges to hold my sewing bits and bobs. Just for fun, I embroidered an edging on the pocket in red silk. Some of the things in this photo won't go to event, especially the purple and yellow needle book, which is made of aida cloth. Eventually I will make a blackwork needleroll to replace it.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the period snips, beeswax, thread bobbins, awl,

needle case, and blown-glass bottle of straight pins.

 

 

Oh my!

Well, I continue to work on secret projects - hopefully I will be able to post about one of them sometime soon. Another one will have to wait a while, because I went ahead and joined the second Drachenwald Arts & Sciences Exchange. It doesn't end until October, so it will be a long wait. 

I received a wonderful package in today's post.  It held this:

 

 

 

 

Isn't it pretty? I am still gobsmacked that I received this award!

Super Secret Project revealed!

     I was a part of the first Drachenwald Arts and Sciences Exchange, which just ended on January 31.  It was described by the organizers in this way:

The Drachenwald A&S Exchange seeks to encourage creativity and joy in the Arts and Sciences through organized exchanges. The first exchange opened August 11, 2013, and ended January 2014. We encourage all in our great Kingdom to consider participating, from our budding artisans to our honored Laurels.

The sign-up opened in August and originally, it was to be for 15 participants.  Because the demand was high, 18 were allowed to join. Over the course of the next several months, emails flew about personas, interests, tastes, and sizes. It was great fun. I have now both given and received, so I feel free to write about the experience. My recipient was  Dona Victoria Alcon de Castile from Polderslot. She has a late period persona overlapping the Spanish and English courts, so I chose to embroider an English-style redwork coif for her. I had good white linen in my stash, so I only had to buy red silk for the embroidery. I looked at several extant coifs on the V&A Museum website for inspiration, then used information from the Attack Laurel's website for sizing and construction. I selected flowers and animals to embroider based on my recipient's personal preferences, but all were reproductions of period pieces. I did carnations, foxgloves, pea pods, grapes, a butterfly, a parrot, oak leaves, and several other designs. I took them from the examples at the V&A as well as from my reproduction copy of Scholehouse for the Needle. I used stem, chain, and running stitches, depending on the section I was working on. In hindsight, I wish I had made the embroidery a little more dense. It came out looking balanced to the modern eye, but in period it would have been more crowded together. I also wish I had added some spangles, just for the effect. Here are some photos I took before mailing the coif.

 These are photos taken by Victoria after the coif made it safely through the vagaries of the Post. Hopefully I will be able to add a picture of her wearing the coif at some point.