Sew little Time

Coronation is Over

2006-07-20T06:47:00.000-12:00

Well Coronation is over... except for the sorting out of accounts to send to Kingdom.

Baxton looked very flash... and so did I - But I don't have a photo of mine!!

It was so much fun!!! AD and I were run off our feet the whole time - very busy, but somehow we remained outwardly unstressed (which has been praised). The hall looked fantastic. The kings and Queens were gracious. I love Queen Asa - we got on very well. Lady Contarina gave heaps of praise about the quality of the pouches and napkins to me - without realising that I was the one who made them... that was nice!!

My family gave up coping after 24 hrs and I got Willie back on Sunday - once he realised that there were people he knew and better yet..kids he was fine. I think he will be fine at Canterbury Fair. He also had a wonderful time playing horses with Asa, feeding Draco olives (which were passed backwards to L.Katherine) and had AEdward watching out for orcs and giants.

I won the WCoB competition... that was so cool!!! I also had Willie's shirt graded by Rowan - Journeyman WOO HOO and she also said that if I fixed the one negative (figures too small) on my klosterstitch then that would be MASTER level!!!

All in all a very successful event with praise piled upon the Canton (us in particular!!) and the mainland Lochacian's all saying how wonderful the Crescent Isles are and more people should come over.

We have also had offers for Master Del to come over for a dance weekend, and Lady Contarina to come over for a sewing weekend! Lady Contarina has aslo persuaded Lady Katherine and I to put a bid in for Guid Assencion day(which we will do for 2008 - I think)

The best thing about crown events... all the new friends you make.

SIGH!! It's finished and it was great!!

Third Place!!

2006-05-20T13:56:00.000-12:00

I came third place in the handsewing competition.... YAY FOR ME!!!

1st was Maggie - no surprise there
2nd was a lady who had a handmade kirtle with apparently stunning eyelet holes - can't compete with that!!

and 3rd was me!! with Willies yellow tunic - see entry - where have the months gone 9 March 06 for a pic of the young man in his tunic!!

I am thrilled, my first competition, and there were not 3 entries!!

Pavillion Update

2006-05-09T14:45:00.000-12:00

At St Georges 2 weeks ago - our pavillion had some what of a trial by rain!!!

On the Sunday it rained off and on and on the first down pour... MY TENT LEAKED!!! After that it seemed to be OK... that is until Tueday morning.

We awoke to pelting rain and turned the torch toward the roof to see an absolutely sodden roof ready to start sieving at any moment - or so we thought. I hopped out of bed to find my self in ankle deep water... not good - so we furiously started packing everthing up on the beds - Thank goodness for the beds!!! and then rushed Willie over to the kitchen tent. AD and Stephen packed up the car but we left the very wet tent - which Linda and John kindly said we could leave all the tents until they dried out. To my surprise... despite the wet and the flood the rain only dripped slightly through the roof - so it was still more waterproof than I expected.

When we went back a few days later, I found we had the same inside mould problem as we had in summer. But I have had a good talk to Master Stephano - who knows these things and have a list of tasks to help our poor tent survive a bit longer....

a) wash it at a laudromat - my idea, not his!! need to get most of the mould out!!
b) sew on fatter valance - this is fine as I want to get some extra canvas to extend the walls as well. I thimk I will turn the old valance into "sleeves" for a rope and hook the walls on in future!
c) make a lining out of Calico - good idea, it will definately help with the indoor damp problem - and I can just was the calico lining in the home washing machine!! I will do the roof and walls seperatley and to tie on.I think the walls will eventually become hangings!!
d) Water proof with a 3/1 wax and terps solution - that's good but I need a whole lot of wax - I don't think this will happen before Coronation some how - but I will add it to my list of things to do.

I feel a bit flat even though I know my pavillion is a good one and was bound to need readjustments - how ever if I find myself with a spare 3 or 4 thousand.... I will buy a Panther Pavillion!!!!!!

I am very pleased to say that Baxton's beds were fantastic!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

2006-03-20T10:35:00.000-12:00

Would you believe it.... My Husband forgot my Birthday!!!!!!!

To be fair he did get up yesterday and make me Eggs Benedict with Salmon yesterday - he couldn't really make it before work this morning. And he did buy me 10m of linen the other week - BUT this morning - nothing. Only after his breakfast, shower, putting the rubbish out, getting me to fix the seam in his work pants and sew his blackwork to the frame did he remember to say oh..Happy Birthday Honey!! - I may be 41 but I still like the day acknowledged!

ANY WAY we did have a good weekend - Willie and I went out with Mum on Saturday for brunch and I gave her the fugly bag I made

Cool ae!! The photo's are mostly of Willie with 1 of me and 1 of my brother - she loved it and insited on wearing clothes to match her bag.

AD finished the bed prototype yesterday - v.cool! and surprisingly very comfy. We are getting a thick piece of felt to put on top of the rope, but I think that is all we will need. The most expensive bit was the rope. I can't wait to use them at St Georges.

That's all for now... I am of to NOT do work but do some sewing for ME!!!

Pouches

2006-03-10T20:15:00.000-12:00

I just realized that I never posted pics of the pouches I made for the King and Queen - now Duke Cornelius and Duchess Morwynna

SHHH Don't show them - I haven't sent them yet!!

Must do that this weekend!

Also here is the one I made for Baron Sir Inigo's birthday a while back.

where have the months gone

2006-03-09T18:18:00.000-12:00

GOOD GRIEF!!!

my Last post was in January!!!
Where have the last 2 months gone.
We had a fantastic time at Leuwen Horst - it was very hot and sticky and I spent most of the time in my chemise and a surcoat. Willie raced around in his new tunic and nothing but his new tunic and looked very cute. We made the paper as we walked off with handfuls of carrot for the horses!!I am thinking of putting the tunic into the hand sewing comp for May Crown. I have finished Baxton's braies, but only in cotton. I am going to make some in Linen but that is way TOO expensive in Hamilton. But there is a shop in Otahuhu with 3.99 a metre Linen. We stopped there on our family day at the Auckland zoo and my lovely Husband bought me 10 metres for my birthday!! so he will eventually get his linen braies.
But not just yet...
things are getting very hectic with Coronation only 4 months away. Baxton is stressed and I have got too many projects to do.

I really want to make a new dress for Coronation, 15th Century venetian, just for a total change. I have had a really good look at the basic gathered kirtle and thought that once I have the bodice sorted, it will really be quite easy... most probably famous last words!! I had planned to make a basic green (for Cluain) gathered kirtle and bought the fabric for that in the January sales. THEN while I was at spotlight the other day I saw a nice yellow brocade for $5 a metre and decided that it would look nice as a fancy over the top gown. We'll see what happens.

Baxton wants a new Houplande for Coronation and we have been given a large amount of Green Velveteen, which should do the job and his Mum has an old brown fur coat in the wardrobe which I will raid for trim.

I have to finish Benedict's Banner, which is my next project to finish - after I have layed out the bodice and the convent stitch all ready to go.

and there is the convent stitch for the competition. I have the linen all drawn up with the design and ready to go. I have decided on a piece that depicts the values of the household du Glonn - Cammeraderie, Hospitality and Antiquity, I will put pics on my Kloster stitch page when it is ready. But now my issue is, I havn;t done embroidery with wool before, I am doing a test piece and am not at all sure of the results. It is too thick to do the fine detail that I want. I really want to just do it in cotton pearl - which would be easier and cheaper but not period and this IS after all a competition piece. I have asked the list for help, but I really am feeling quite desperate about it. It will all work out in the end and I will have something for the competition even if it is not finished.

Coronation itself is a huge project and as we suspected, some people are not doing the jobs they commited to, which leaves more for the rst of us to do. - It is still going to be great and I am sure that the hospitality of Cluain will shine through and surpass everything.

The other thing I am working on and will finish this weekend is a handbag for my mum's birthday. She has taken a real shine to those bags that looks like someone has thrown fabric and lace at. SO I emptied the scrap bag and have put this explosion together for her. I also had some transfer paper, which I printed photo's of my son and ironed them on to some lawn and have scattered those on to the bag as well.... she will LOVE it. It is her birthday next weekend and we are going out to lunch. I will post it when it is finished.

I will finish all these projects and we will survive hosting a Coronation and I am sure I will even survive living with the Steward, But I am going to really need a holiday in July - I think I will take my family for a winter beach holiday at Marakopa.

I have a Pavillion!!

2006-01-10T13:59:00.000-12:00

I decided that my Family needed a pavillion to call their own in about May. There are increasingly more camping events or events where bunking with a small boy in a room of others is just not practical. When I found painters light canvas drop sheets 9"x12" for $20 each at Bejanim Moore (Product placement) I decided to start planning.

As you can see Willie got some new toys for his medieval fighters. But I did find out that 6 drop sheets would do the trick. I did a bit of research, and a lot of planning and changed the design slightly - to reduce the sewing required. I finally got the canvas cut after Christmas. I had been procrastinating as it was a VERY daunting project. I had hunted around on trade me for a cheap scout tent to try to avoid even having to do it... but no luck. NOW I had planned to be working on this a while and was going to document each step on my blog.... BUT I started sewing it on Friday morning and despite a lot of interuptions and breaks for family "FUN" I had finished the roof before bed time, I spent some time on Saturday sewing eyelets (rope eyelets... nifty Idea from an old scout tent). On Sunday we fiddled with ropes and poles and on Monday afternoon I finished the sides... so here it is!!

Not unlike the paper model I started with! I am going to paint a pattern around the edge of the roof- perfectly 14th century- and we still have to waterproof it ($59 from Trek and Travel) But to date it has cost a grand total of $278nz. The pole are mostly from an old scout tent and we will have to replace them in time but I have found some dowel at Daves emporium for $7.95 for the side poles and $13.95 for the centre poles which is about 1/2 the price of Bunnings, we think we will buy a couple a week until they are all replaced. I am going to write up my documentation as it may just come in handy some time... and others may be interested in it as well. Final floor dimetions are just under 3metres x 4 metres - not big but good for a camp, and I think it really looks the part to fit in with commercially made pavillions.
Baxton is going to make a box to store it in which will fit in the car and we can use as a table when camping. I dear say that it is not over as we will now want to gather other period stuff for inside... we have all ready discussed draperies!! - I think I will send my documentation to Cockatrice!!!

St Cath's

2005-12-19T13:51:00.000-12:00

well we got back from St Cath's over a week ago and I have been flat out since then sewing a new Gambeson for my Lord to use at Yule... but then it rained on the day of Yule so... no fighting and no using the new Gambeson!! I had to do this because at St Cath's Baxton overheated.... dangerously.... and was sent off the feild. I know he is a big guy , but I think the old gambeson was largely ay Fault, I think the new one will be better, but we are also looking at a totally cotton/linen one as well.

The AMAZING news is... at St Cath's I was awarded an Order of the Lily!!! I am so chuffed!! Baxton was given the Kings Sheild... but more about that on the family page!!

Also the pouch I made for the B&B challenge was given to the King and Queen as largesse. I saw the Queen wearing it on Sunday and comented on it. She said she loves this style pouch and wishes she could keep it, so I offered to make her one of her own. She wants one in her colours so when I got home I looked up her device and got very inspired... I will post a photo when I have finished. Baxton suggested that I also make one for the King. Once again... I was inspired by his device and I am working on one for himas well.

I have decided that when making pouches for individuals I will be guided by their device and my artistic interpretation, unless they specifically want something else.

signing off for today...
LADY Constance... Order of the Lily hehehehehehe

KlosterStitch???

2005-11-28T14:07:00.000-12:00

I only have 8 projects and 1 ufo left to do. I have started unpicking all the gold on the Baxton Tapestry because after all the gold work on the flag I can see an easier way to do it. One of the
project I want to do is an entry for the Mid-Winter Coronation. I have tried the technique on 2 of the slips on my Lords favour.

My problem is .... Kloster stitch is used mainly in hangings - I don't have the time or money to do an entire hanging. so do I

a) acknowledge this in my documentation, design a hanging as if I was going to one and sew only a small piece of it and turn it into a pouch. All consistant with the technique and period...
b) Forget the whole thing because I can't complete a period piece.
c) Call for help and Advice!!

I want to do a) as I think it will be better than doing nothing, and I have never entered a competition before and I really want to but I might first do c)...

watch this space as I think I will start a whole new BLOG just for this project!!!

What am I up to now???

2005-11-28T13:48:00.000-12:00

On to the next thing then... finished my Lord's Favour, It's only taken me 5 years to get around to doing it... I did start it in May, when I ran a class on splitstitch for May Day and used the Ildhafn patch as a demo. I didn't actually finishe it until after I did the flag.

The favour is 5 slips stitched on to a stirp of fabric left over from our wedding garb. The first slip is the Ildhafn Lymphand, for the Baronial Militia and the Barony, #2 is a red rose - which represents me, #3 the Melita Cross of St John's - which represents the groups which or Canton (Cluain) came from - our roots and far prettier than the Cluain Bull... #4 not very period but the blue bear is the toy our son has to have with him every night and when he is feeling fragile - so Blue Bear represents William, #5 The St George cross - the company of St George. These are the things which inspire and motivate my Lord in tourney's. I am going to present him with it at St Catherines before he fights.

Ta Da!!!

2005-11-02T08:51:00.000-12:00

Finished!!! I picked up the fringing from Ralph on Friday and got my machine out on Sunday to sew it all together. The only machine sewing in the whole thing.
Ralph is having it blessed today and I present it on Saturday - I do hope the secret has stayed fairly safe.
There are still another 90 odd battle honours to go on... but that is not my problem!! I do however have to complete 2 small corner emblems, a Lion and a Pukeko. Ralph and I decided quite some time ago to make them smaller corner emblems rather than large supporters and they could go on later. There was just not enough time as they will also be in split stitch and will take a while. I won't get them done next year as I have been putting other projects on the back burner for such a longtime and I really want to complete some of those tasks. I am conducting a class for the regiment in Januaryand will show them all how to do the battle honours.
I feel so good, After 20 years of talking about it... the Regiment has it's own Queen's colours!!

The Crowning Glory

2005-10-18T10:20:00.000-12:00

I put the Crown on last night. It was a lot trickier than I thought it would be but WOW does it look good.

I can see the end in sight!!!

Flag 14/10/05

2005-10-14T21:25:00.000-12:00

Yippee, Yahoo!! I finished sewing the last of the embroidery last night, All that is left to do is put it all together and present it on Nov 5th to the regiment.

Alf's Flag

2005-10-14T20:40:00.000-12:00

The History
I joined Alf’s Dragoons in early 1992 and I recall talk of an embroidered badge for the Regimental Flag being bandied around forever. The first to attempt this project was Bridget, who joined the Nursing corps in 1993. After Bridget moved on, Michelle took up the challenge and it eventually found its way to me some time in 1999-2000.

The cross stitch which had been previously attempted just looked wrong, I tried a Florentine stitch and that just didn’t sit well either and to be honest at this time, that was the full extent of my needlework knowledge. I knew that you could do fancy embroidery stitches but I just didn’t know how or even where to go to find out what I needed.

As I pondered the problem of my lack of ability and how to provide the Regiment with a fancy type badge, Tania presented the regiment with an Appliquéd Badge for the centre of the Standard. At last the Regiment had a flag they could be proud of.

I still had a picture in the back of my mind of something else. I couldn’t do anything about it so I filed it away to be bought out at some time in the future.

In 2001 I became involved with SCA, a medieval recreation group who focus on not only fighting but the “Arts and Sciences” of the period. I saw people doing embroidery that I never thought could be done without a REALLY expensive machine and megabytes of programming. I watched and learnt and started on my journey.

I worked really hard on perfecting my skill and creativity with needlework and in 2003 I was accepted into the “Worshipful Company of Broiderer’s” as an apprentice and I had a whole new world of research and authenticity opened up to me.

NOW as Alf’s we tend to do things pretty much our own way, as long as we keep an air of Victorian life about us, there is no one to say… “that’s not period” and that is just how we like it. I learnt in SCA the value of understanding the context of historical articles and to honour the context of their creation. It is still OK to develop your own creation as long as you know, understand the authenticity and can explain why you did it your way – there is a lot of that in this project!!

The Initial Research
I set out to find a genuine extant Regimental Flag c1880. I thought this couldn’t be too difficult given that we were a Victorian Colony mostly settled by ex-military. It was a little harder than I thought, but finally found a beautiful set of Flags in the St Andrew’s Church in Cambridge. These Flags are often held in Cathedrals, churches and Museums when they are retired.

Design
After my first bits of research about, what colours were and the history of colours, Ralph and I put our heads together in mid-November 2004 and came up with the basic design of the flag. I started to put it all on paper on November 21st 2004.

The central roundel was of course our logo with the Alf’s 5th Waikato Dragoons Device in the centre. This was topped by a Queen’s Crown. The supporters, a Lion and a Pukeko flanked the roundel (later changed to smaller emblems in the corners of the flag, as the supporters were really too big and we found no evidence of supporters on a Regimental or Queen’s colours). Underneath was the Motto in gold, “God save the Queen, Wizard save the Empire” Some time in May 2005, Ralph said – “wouldn’t it be neat in Latin” so it became “Deus savo Regina, Veneficus servo Empire”. Towards the end of the project we decided that the Latin just didn’t look right so we changed back to what everyone knew. Fortunately before I started stitching.

I would initially complete the first 5 Battle Honours and encourage the Ladies and Gentlemen of the regiment to complete the rest in time.

It was then up to me to research, design and sew the individual pieces of the flag.

Central roundel.
This was by far the easiest piece to design. I just took the Alf’s Logo and blew it up, found a font the right style and size and trace it all on to the ground fabric.

The majority of the design is stitched in split stitch, with the lettering in satin stitch and a couching technique called Bokhara couching for the white.(although I think the bokhara stitches are wider than they are supposed to be) All worked in DMC cotton on a linen ground.

A black border will be couched on once the piece is on the flag.

Queen’s Crown
I did a lot of searches on line and in some of Ralph’s books for a suitable crown and found a number which helped me with the design.

I chose split stitch again for the red of the crown – slightly shaded. The gold is couched and for ermine I have used satin stitch. Once the crown has been stitched to the flag, the pearls will be sewn in place and stitching gold thread around the edges will finish the piece.

The threads are all DMC cotton and metallic thread on a linen ground.

Supporters
The supporters have been a bit of a problem since the start. I searched through many city coats of arms before finally settling on the lion from Herefordshire and the Pukeko from Hamilton.
The main issue I had with the supporters apart from – “oh my I will never get these done in time” was that as my research continued I found no evidence for supporters on a regimental flag in the way that Ralph had envisioned. There were often smaller emblems or mascots in the corners however and I finally convinced Ralph to accept this.

At the time the flag was presented the supporters had not been started, but they are still planned to join the flag – after I have had some time to complete some other projects.

The supporters will be stitched in split stitch in DMC cotton on a linen ground.

Banners and Motto
These were pretty much easier than the roundel, Simple ribbon shape with the lettering inside.

The motto is couched DMC metallic thread and as with the central roundel, finished with black cord once in place.

The honours banners were a little different, as I do not intend to sew all 95+ of them. This, we thought would be a good project for the ladies and gentlemen of the regiment to complete. I completed the first 6 and as many of the regiment have little skill in this area, I wanted to make it simple enough that everyone would feel they could participate.

The ground is lawn – cheap and easily available. The thread again is DMC cotton. The border is stem stitch, the lettering Split stitch and the gong is satin stitch. This is the only place on the flag where I have used 2 threads to sew. This will make it easier for novices to achieve a good effect.

Construction

The first thing I had to do before I put in the first stitch was transfer my designs to linen. To start I chose only the central roundel and the crown. I used the window as a light box – in retrospect I would rather use a transfer pencil as the fabric moves very easily.

I started with the central roundel and put in my first stitch on 10th December 2004.

Before long I got really tired of all that green and started work on the crown so I could add a bit of variety to the task.

These two pieces were by far the most complex and time consuming of the whole project and it felt like I was working on them forever. I am glad I started here because once they were done I felt like I had broken the back of the job.

It wasn’t too long before I saw real progress.

On the 19th June I finished the Crown and the roundel was finally completed on September 2nd 2005.

With the two main pieces complete, I advise Ralph and Annette to start hunting for flag fabric, and sat back to congratulate myself. Of course 3 days later I had a big panic when I realised that I was only 2 months away from the presentation… I had better pull my finger out!!

I started work on the banner on September 6th. This took a month – although I did have to take a break with the flu!! I finished on October 2nd .

But eee it did look very specky!!

I then began work on the honours banners, and just getting a weeney bit worried that I would not have the flag fabric in time. Nothing to fear, I got a call from Ralph and collected the fabric on October 10th. I laid all the pieces on the flag and was so excited I had to sew the first piece on THAT NIGHT!!

I then got right back on track and put the last stitch on the Battle of Hinemoa Park banner at 9.45pm on October 13th.

Which brings me to right now really - Have just spent the evening updating all my documentation.

And sew it begins

2005-10-14T11:05:00.000-12:00

I have really enjoyed reading other people's Blogs, getting ideas from them and seeing how they go about things. especially since I am a bit starved for stimulation at times. SEW...I thought it was about time I started a Blog of my own. I have things I want to share and it is a bit hard to post them on lists. last night I finished the embroidery part of a project I have been working on for the past year. and now I have somewhere to show my work!!