A Pennsic We Will Go...at least my projects do!

It was a busy few weeks leading up to Pennsic.  I was making items to be delivered to people there. I had a request for four Queen's Order of Courtesy roses for gloves by his Majesty.  I embroidered them using stranded silk on linen fabric. They are pictured below:

Her highness requested a stouter surcoat for herself to wear while she did combat archery in the battles.  I created one based off the shape of one of the Prince surcoat that is in the regalia.  It is constructed of linen with appliqued roses and the crown on both front and back. I used a modern iron on adhesive to adhere it to the linen and then used a blanket stitch on the edges to embellish it and aid in fraying prevention

Here are a couple pictures of her Highness Matilde wearing it into battle.

Another project that went to war as a surprise for their Highness's of the East were two pilgrim bags for their retainers to carry their daily necessary items in.  They are constructed of navy blue wool and embroidered with a variation of their arms on the flaps. 

I also sent two linen viking hoods with embroidered edges to a friend, but I neglected to get pictures of them before they were packed. At 1am, my mind wasn't function on all cylinders, LOL. 

While I am sad I was unable to attend war this year due to real life issues I was glad to have sent a little things to different people and make them happy.

I think Ill work on a couple of modern cross stitches for a relative and maybe knit a pair of socks or two...for now.

Middle Kingdom Gifts

I created embroidered covers for two blank books that were to be gifted to the visiting royals of the Mid Realm on Saturday as they attended the Coronation of Ioannes and Honig.

My original plan was to hand bind the books as well, but as these are intended to be used over their coming reign (which means through Pennsic War) my hand bound book would not have withstood the rigors of that type of use. So I opted for a commercially made blank journal, which has the integrity to take months of constant use they will get.

The cover fabrics were dupioni silk and the ground fabric for the shield embroideries was white linen.  The threads used were Splendor Silk twisted embroidery threads.  While I embroidered the arms on white linen as a base, the spine embroideries were directly on the ground silk fabric.  Obviously, the shield embroidery is Middle Kingdom arms of the King and Queen. Though they were Prince and Princess when given yesterday, their Coronation is to happen in the next couple weeks so I opted to do the full Royal Arms for King and Queen.  On the spines, I took facets of their personal arms to decorate them. Her highness has dandelions and their leaves on hers while the Prince has three white stars, a tigers head and the Augmentation symbol of a golden sun.

I enjoyed making these covers very much and hope their Highness's will get much use from them.

Edit: Found a picture of the books being given out:

Pennsic Gift Basket

Sometime ago I was asked if I could make two embroidered book covers for the Pennsic Gift Baskets.  Here is the first one. I embroidered the arms and covered an existing commercial journal that I found at the local office supply store.

 

Materials used:

 

Red linen

Gold pallions

Splendor silk embroidery thread

Red coats and clark sewing thread

Commercial lined journal measuring 3x5

 

 

Walk Down Memory Lane...



 

I was going through the bookmark file and I came across the link to an old shutterfly account I had. The last time I entered into it was 2011! While I was looking through the pictures, I came across some shots of embroideries and sewing I did that I had lost the original pictures to. So I'm posting them here for view and to keep track for my own records.  I am doing this from memory so bear with me on the history of each item.

 

 The first two images are of a wool hood lined in red linen with gold metal thread embellishments on it. I recreated this hood from an image in an illuminated manuscript from the 14th c.  The good gentle modeling it is Count Isenwulf from AEthaelmarc (when he lived in Eastern PA many years ago).  The gold metal thread I used was Japanese metal thread so, not a true gold metal but it was what I could afford at the time. It was couched to the wool with silk thread.

 

 

 

The acorn embroidered below was one of man that went onto a cushion for Dutchess Brenwen as her gift from The Guild of Athena's Thimble.  Members were asked to embroider an acorn that would be appliqued onto a cushion of a bench for her. The one I created was silk stitched onto linen. The cushion is also pictured beneath.

 

 

Below is my display from an A&S event that was held in the Shire of Eisental many many years ago.  The laurel hood was made for Mistress Lettice Peyton. It is a summer weight wool outside and a fine yellow linen inside. Each leaf was embroidered with DMC cotton thread (it took a lot and all these items were made when I was a stay at home mom so money was a factor) in split stitch. I outlined each leaf  and the stem with Japanese gold metal thread, couching it down. 

 

Also on the table is the embroidery for an apprentice belt I was creating as a commission. Above it is the start of an alms purse that was later damaged by a two year olds dirty hands and juice cup (ahhhhh kids). 

 

 To the right of that is a German brickwork stitched pouch lined in silk.  The stitching was done in silk threads as was the tassels and the cording.  The ground cloth was a counted linen fabric that is used in cross stitch but was PERFECT for this project as it was my first attempt at it this type of counted work and the even weave of the fabric made for the perfect stitch.

 

The purple hood was one I made for the boys with little ivy and leaves on the hem. it closed with a cloak clasp. The embroidery was done with DMC cotton thread, because...well...Kids!



 

 



 The napkin below was one of many (I did only one) that were created for Pennsic gift baskets. The napkin was provided to me and the instructions were to embroider a white heraldic rose onto its corner. I used silk embroidery thread by Splendor. The napkin was a linen with a crochet lace edging.

 

I look back at a lot of what I did and it really lets me see how far I've come. Lets me see what I've learned and how I would do things differently if I were to work on these projects now. 

 

My only regret is not having put that alms purse embroidery in my craft caddy that night. Ill have to get started on another one for myself one of these days.