Bordermarch Autumn Melees

This weekend, I went to BAM and had a great time! It was my first event to fight in battles and I had a blast.

I have posted pictures on Flickr

BAM Tunic

I need another tunic, since I'll be camping at my next event (Bordermarch Autumn Melees), so I've started a brown and blue tunic. Its very much been worked on in 10 minute increments, but its finally hit a point where its starting to look like a tunic. Once I get things to a point where they are "lap" work, I usually make more progress, since I can pick them up and put them down easily depending on what's going on.

I've cut out the tunic parts and sewn on the borders and am now doing the decorative embroidery on the trim. Once I finish that, I'll piece it together. I joined SCA in part to learn more about embroidery - and its worked. I've really enjoyed the German brick stitch work and I took a gold work class a while back, but now I feel that I must try more things. So, this is my first attempt at some basic tunic embellishment with various embroidery stitches that I've been reading about online (and watching a few tutorial videos). I'm not going for anything fancy (just some buttonhole borders), since its a first attempt and I have a deadline. I'm happy with the progress and pleased with how much a little simple hand embroidery really jazzes things up.

The tunic is a soft linen/cotton blend and I'm embroidering with DMC linen thread. I folded things up so you could see the trim that I'm working on:

Fighting tonight

Life has been complicated, but I finally made it to another fighter practice. I've managed to cobble together most of an armor kit, so I don't have to borrow as much. I had a good time and learned a lot. I need to do more cardio workout so that I won't get winded so easily, but I knew that already. Also, I am now an Authorized Fighter! Woohoo! I will get to fight at BAM!

Pattern #16

This little swatch got lost along the way somewhere, so I picked it up this weekend and finished it up. Behold, pattern #16! I'm going to have to do another round of charting, since this was my last un-stitched chart. I've got some other stitching to do while I'm in charting mode, so I'll get to keep stitching. I've got a tunic that I need to finish before the next event, so I have enough garb to make it through the weekend.

Pattern #15

Here's pattern #15! I really like this one. I think that you could use it fairly neatly as a border as well.

The interlocking red is stitched correctly, but the edges have several problems. On each point, some are clean points and some have little "V" notches to connect to a diamond. The points along the edges are haphazard in which have notches. I did manage to do them correctly on the middle row, so the pattern clicks. I'm considering re-stitching the sample, but I figured I'd post it anyway. I was just chatting away while I was stitching and did not pay enough attention. It was a lovely evening though.

The pattern is correct :)

Brickwork notebook cover

I just finished the stitching on a small notebook cover that I've been working on. I wanted to do another piece that was bigger than my little pattern swatches. I bought some tiny composition notebooks and am going to make some notebook covers. This is the first. Next step, sewing it together.

Today, you get a pretty picture :)

Event: Bryn Gwlad 30th Year

I actually got to go out to SCA! Hooray! Rachel and I day tripped the Bryn Gwlad 30th year event and it was lots of fun :) Life is finally settling down a little, and this is the first SCA anything I've made it out to in a long while. It was my first camping event since I've moved to Ansteorra and I'm glad I got to go. The site was wonderful, the people friendly, and the event smoothly run.

I'm at a strange point on projects where I have several in the pipes, but none finished recently. On the bright side, I'm making progress on several fronts and will have some stuff done soon. Some random things I'm working on
Armor:

• Coat of plates: Front and back finished, side plates cut. I need to rivet the side plates and finish the buckles.
  
• Helm: My $10 helm is starting to look like a $20 helm ;) I've ground off the worst of the crud and need to work on the finishing.
  

Embroidery:

• Finished pattern for next critters and need to transfer it to fabric.
  
• Nearly finished with brickwork for a small notebook cover.
  
• Nearly finished with stitching up the next pattern.
  
• Need to finish sewing up gold work scissors case.
  

All of which only leaves you with the promises of pretty pictures in the future, but no pretty pictures today.