Embroidery frame mod

I've been wanting to do a full panel of the German brickwork and I now finally have the time to sit down and get it started. I did some math and most of the panels that I've got good information on are somewhere between 10 inches square (ish) and 12 inches square (ish). My embroidery frame only has an 8inch height and I wanted to put the full panel on the frame without lots of rolling and un-rolling as I stitch. The problem was easily fixed with a piece of 3/4 inch square hardwood from the crafters pile at the hardware store.

	Embroidery frame before modification (8 inch height)
	I got Rachel to drill a couple of holes and make the cutes. I took the bars back to my garage and finished them up so they'd be pretty.
	Finished! A larger frame :) The finished height is 13 inches.

Tunic trim progress

tunic-progress
Originally uploaded by helene83

I've finished a little less that a skein of thread and the back panel is almost done. After I finish this part, I need to trace the design on the rest of the tunic trim. Hooray for progress!

SCA Census

SCA is conducting a census / survey of current and past members. Log in and tell them what you think :)

From the website:
The SCA Board of Directors is asking past and present SCA participants to answer some questions about who you are, how and why you got involved in the SCA, and what you think about the issues we are currently facing in the SCA. These questions will help us to better understand where the SCA is today and help us to plan for the future. Your answers to the questions on this survey are important to us and will ensure that your voice is heard.

http://www.sca.org/scacensus2010/

Stitching trim

trim-stitch
Originally uploaded by helene83

Here's the first little bit of stitching finished last night. Its in DMC Cotton Perl #5 Ecru. The tunic is linen.

Tunic trim

tunic-tracing
Originally uploaded by helene83

Rachel and I sewed like crazy to get enough garb to stay clothed for all of Gulf Wars, but we planned to decorate stuff later. Now that I've got some time, I'm going to embroider the trim. This is my first victim - one of Rachel's tunics. I've picked a lily design off of a 13th century German painting.

Here is the first batch of tracing. I used a washable crayola marker to trace the design. My test swatches with the crayola markers washed clean, so hopefully it will work out ok.

Finished white work

More pictures of stuff that I have been finishing up post dissertation time :) Here is the white work that I took off the frame and started to finish some time ago. It's stitched in Londonderry white linen thread on a white linen background. This style uses many of the same patterns as the silk work that I have been working on, but has a larger geographic area and a longer time period of use. The pattern is a small (4.5 inches x 3.25 inches) notebook cover.

Buttons!

I've been rather busy finishing up my dissertation, but now that all of that business is done I am slowly returning to the joys of life :) I finished, defended sucessfully, and turned in the dissertation - so I will be graduating in August! Hooray! But enough of that, what y'all really come here for is dorky stuff like...

Buttons!

During the big crunch for graduation I haven't done any big projects, but I finished up some smaller, fidgety-type projects. Buttons have been all the rage on the A&S 50 mailing list (Home page) and I got caught up in the madness. They are perfect tiny projects and fun to play with. My biggest inspiration came from the pretty pictures on the Flickr stream for Kat_d_b, who is an Australian SCAdian. I also found some good information and pretty pictures at Guild of Tailors, Haberdashers and Mercers of Lochac and Karl Robinson's Etsy shop.

Here's what happened when I pulled out a couple of skeins of DMC cotton perl #5 and a bag of wooden beads:

They are a nice small project that is easy to put down and pick back up later. They are a bit addictive though...