Queen's Order of Courtesy Glove

There was a call put out to the East Kingdom populace for more award medallions. Our royals have had a low stock on several awards for quite some time now.

One of the awards they needed more of was the Queen's Order of Courtesy. It happens to be particularly suited to embroidery, and so I set out to make one.

I embroidered the rose on linen using flat silk, mostly in satin stitch. I then appliqued the rose onto a white glove, and outlined it with silver passing thread.
I gave it to the Queen at K&S A&S and Bardic, and I think it went out in court that day!
More QoC gloves are in my future, I'm sure.

Knotwork Roses

I was asked to embroider two roses for Caoilfhoinn's decoronation garb. She was to be dressed in old Irish and have a cloak/shawl that I'm sure has a real name, but I don't know it.

The design was based on these fabrics. I used the same wool as the cloak is made from, intending for the roses to be appliqued on.

I wanted to use silk for this, but I wanted to use something with some fluffiness to it. Most of the silk I have is pretty fine, for needle painting and the like. My first thought was to use several strands of Splendor, but I couldn't find the right color yellow to match the trim that was going on the cloak.

Then I stumbled across Pepper Pot silk in my local needlework store, and they not only had a matching yellow, but also a matching blue! I win!

Pepper Pot is a fairly thick non divisible thread. It is super soft and squishy and I kind of just want to sleep on it.

Because I was using a thick wool for the ground fabric, I traced the pattern onto parchment paper and pinned it to the wool instead of trying to get the pattern directly on it. I knew I would be sad about it when I had to remove the paper but I think the trade off was worth it.

Roses in action.
Photo by Raziya Bint Rusa

My instructions were to make yellow flowers, with maybe some gold thread. I admit that I deviated slightly - I really want to get some blue in there! Of course, as any herald knows, red and blue don't have good contrast and would be difficult to see at a distance, so I just outlined it instead of trying to use blue in the flower.
The fluffiness of the thread worked against me. I ended up dividing the thread - even though it isn't intended to be divided, it does have three distinct strands. I used two of them for the small triangular areas.
I then sent them off to be appliqued to the garment. Both she and Brennan looked amazing at the event!

Rose Cloak 2

Thyra's rose cloak was such a hit that we were asked to make one for our current Queen, Caoilfhionn.
This one was smaller, with fewer roses, but this time they were blue!
I went with similar stitches to the last one, but the challenge here were the tiny leaves. I'm not entirely happy with how they came out - I was kind of making things up as I went - but from far away I suppose it's ok.
I forgot to take a picture before I handed it in, but luckily the Company is on the ball. Mine is on the left here.

Photo from the Worshipful Company

One thing that I screwed up is not realizing that one side of silk was significantly more silver than the other side. I was using the freezer paper on it as a stabilizer (someone else had cut it out), and by the time I peeled that paper off it was too late.

And the cloak in full!

Photo from the Worshipful Company

Photo from the Worshipful Company

Rose Tourney Report

The tournament was an absolutely beautiful day. I was worried at the beginning because it seemed very disorganized, and that tends to screw with my brain space. But turns out that I could mostly just let things happen and fight whomever I was paired against, and that was that.

Presenting myself to my rose, Duchess Katherine Stanhope
Photo by Sitt al-Gharb ha-niqret Khazariyya

I won 5 of my 11 fights. I was not upset about any of them, though. I generally fought well and was able to stay focused. And I didn't get paired up against any slouches!
And one of my opponents tried to sing at me, and I didn't let it phase me. I still lost that one, but that was because he was a good fencer, not because I was distracted.

Other things that stuck out for the day:
   - JP had to do a lot of thinking about the new guard to figure out what to do with it. I was amused by this, and didn't take proper advantage at the time. I should never have let him think. Afterwards he suggested taking my sword in a little bit, because the only real hole in the guard is my belly below my left hand.
   - I had a glorious back and forth with Owen, and eventually killed him, but in doing so I thugged him. So I need to keep an eye on my calibration when things get really intense. It is rare for there to be as much constant motion as there was in this particular bout, and I think that amped me up more than I'm used to.
   - We need to be more careful in authorizations about making sure people understand that a bit down the arm or inside the leg is still a kill. There was a potential kerfuffle that occurred.
   - I need to fight LT more. He does weird things and new guard did not work at all in that fight.
  - Fighting Jean Xavier, I managed a beautiful kill right off the bat. And heard from a bystander "She was using Fabris, that's like cheating!". This amused me, and also made me happy that people were recognizing where the guard came from.

I don't know what place we ended up getting (although I would love to), but our team had a lot of good fights, and it was a pleasure to fight beside them.

Rose Cloak I

For Thyra's second reign, after the worst weather I have ever seen at a Crown, we made her an exceptionally warm, heavy cloak.

Marietta designed it. I think it was the beginning of her ongoing foray into designing things for the Worshipful Company. I watched her color in many blue cloaks before the design was settled.

One thing she knew all along was that it needed to have roses on it (what Rose doesn't need a rose cloak?), and that she wanted them small enough that she could get people all over the East Kingdom to embroider them. She created kits, including with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to return the rose in. And it worked!

I didn't need to use my envelope, since she's my roommate. She just comes home from Worshipful Company meetings (I'm always fencing when they happen) and throws embroidery projects at me. Sometimes literally.

The only guidance we were given for these roses was that we should applique the small silk bit on top of the larger wool bit, do something in the center, and use only the gold thread provided for us.

I prefer to applique with blanket stitch - especially with silk, which will fray. So that part was a no brainer. I then filled in the center with laid work, which I enjoy and don't have many chances to use. The outside edge is chain stitch, and that bit at the bottom will bother me forever, even though I know that you can't tell on the cloak.

So we made her this wonderful cloak and where is the first time she wears it? Gulf Wars, in 80 degree weather. Because she is the kind of queen who will do that.

Oh also, on the back of a horse.

Picture by Cecily O'Donell of the Midrealm

She later got an opportunity to wear it at the more weather appropriate Mudthaw. Here there's a bit more of a view of the decoration, too.

Picture by Raziya Bint Rusa