St Martin Panel

 

Look at what I found! I have picked up the St Martin's panel again and this time I intend to finish it!

St Martin's panel progress

I've uploaded some progress pictures of the St Martin's panel to Flickr. The above picture shows the current state of things. I've finished the color fill stitching and I'm working on the outlining.

The next thing that I have to think about is painting on the faces. Lady Sabine Berard has generously posted some pictures from the Cloisters at the NY Met. In them, she has a great close up of a painted face from a piece that came out of the same convent: picture. In this particular piece the face is done in "encroaching Gobelin stitch" and painted on, but on the St Martin's panel they just used a regular brick stitch as the foundation.

Unfortunately, I haven't read much on what kind of paint was used for the face. From scribe's guild I know that gouache paint is a good modern equivalent for scroll work, but I'm not sure for painting on embroidery. I'm still looking for sources though, so if anybody knows anything, I would be most grateful.

General Update

Greetings intrepid followers! I had all intentions of making a fabulous post, complete with pretty pictures, but I seem to have left my camera in Rachel's car. So sorry. Instead, here's a more general state of the stitchery:

• Queen's gloves - I was asked to make the Queen's gloves this reign(!) and that is largely what has been occupying my time. More recently, I was also asked to do the King's gloves as well(!), so I will be busy for a couple of months. Both are being done in the German brick stitch with gold outlining. I'm pleased with the progress so far, and there will be pictures to come...
  
• Rachel's tunic - Rachel's tunic is almost finished! Hopefully I will finish it sometime soon so that she can actually wear it to an event :)
  
• St. Martin's Panel - The St. Martin's panel has taken back seat to the recent flurry of activity, so I'm afraid it is getting delayed a year for Kingdom A&S. I had good momentum this Fall, but November was kind of a crazy month and then the holidays really side tracked me. The extra time does mean that I won't be rushed on anything, which is really nice.
  

Also, I finally got a cheap little lap stand for my scroll frame and I must say that I *love* it. It makes stitching feel much less like a juggling act. The only downside is that now I'm eye-balling all kinds of expensive stands now. *laugh*

More progress on St Martin

Here's a bit more of the progress on my tapestry panel. I haven't done much the last few weeks, but I got a nice bit done earlier.

Some more stitching progress

Here's some more stitching progress. My stitching queue has been filled up now and I'm trying to work out how to juggle it. I still have the tunic to finish and now I'm designing gloves. I also realized that I forgot to do some follow-up from folks I met at Laurel's Prize, so I'm going to try to get that taken care of this weekend. Additionally, I have some armor repairs that I really need to do. Its harder to find shop time than stitching time - so I'll have to work at finding a way to that. Busy, busy, busy!

Panel progress

Some more stitching progress on the panel. I'm hoping to get a nice chunk of it done before Laurel's Prize Tourney this weekend. I'll be taking the panel and a pile of my embroidery, as well as the pattern swatches that I've done.

Panel progress

Here is the initial progress on stitching my panel. I'm really liking how vibrant the colors are, especially in contrast to the tan linen. I started stitching in a corner and am moving, but I think next time I will start from the center out. I'm afraid that I'm going to abuse the outer stitching while trying to get the inside stuff done. Fortunately I have three other corners free so I think I can still get the center without messing up the already stitched corner.

Source and sketch for St. Martin's panel

I've actually started my panel. I've got the frame dressed and the pattern traced, so now I just need to get started stitching. I've included a picture of the original from Bildindex below.