Renaming the Afternoon Project...

As you can probably surmise, from the subject of this post, the Afternoon Project has continued into its second week.  However, I have finished an entire side of the coif:

This is all done in split stitch, with silk on a linen coif.  I have been mulling whether I want to fill in the motif, or not.  While I think it would look more appropriate filled, I am worried that I might not have enough of the green silk thread.  I also fear that I would lose some of the details...I haven't written off the idea, yet, but we shall see how it looks once the other side is finished.

Afternoon Project, continued...

Well, I decided to expand the afternoon project...which is somewhat contradictory for it being an afternoon project, isn't it?

My daughter graduated high school this morning.  I desperately needed to keep myself busy, because my nerves were really bothersome.  So, I decided to add a knotwork zoomorphic animal to the coif.

I am using silk for all of the embroidery, and the coif is, of course, linen.  I just thought this little motif was too cool to pass up!

And, there are small tear stains on the coif (to match the blood stains where I pricked my finger while sewing it *blushes*), from crying during the graduation ceremony, today.  This coif is going to be my favorite, I think, because of how much of myself being in it!

Knots

Pintangle has started a weekly Wednesday feature, for the purpose of help out those of us with long term projects that lay unfinished.  http://pintangle.com/2012/06/20/work-in-progress-wednesdays-sewing-bee/

By leaving a link in the comments, you can blog about what has stepped in the way of your projects, garnering advice, encouragement and commentary.  This is a wonderful feature!

I have several projects that I have stalled on, putting them down until motivation kicks back in, but it can be difficult to go back to a project you have not worked on in a while.  So...how do you overcome stalls?  What do you do to keep on with a project that is taking a longer time than you expected, or is just a big project by nature?

An Afternoon Project

I was at the Western Homestead, and the project I needed to work on was at the Eastern Homestead.  So, needing to find something to do (idle hands are the devil's workshop ; )  I decided to make a new coif-St. Brigitta's cap.  Only, I wanted to embroider mine, so that I might be appropriate for the Viking Village.  

First step was constructing the coif.  I hand sewed all the edges, hemming them first, and then used the Vandyke stitch to join the two pieces together, using two strands of Splendor silk.

I found some trim designs from a dig at Birka, that I traced onto the linen.  Again, using Splendor silk, I embroidered the Birka design along the edge of the coif.  I added another wave like design for contrast, in a 60/2 silk thread from White Wolf and the Phoenix.

It is not fully finished, yet, but I am using it as afternoon fodder when I need a break from other projects.  Overall, I am pretty pleased!!

Opus Anglicanum, continued...

Well...it has been some time.  I have gotten out of the habit of blogging everyday and need to buckle down!  Silly things like school, family and such getting in the way!

On the awesome front, I have finished the embroidery on the opus anglicanum project!  (And there was great cheering throughout the land!)  This project has taken me 3 years, and quite possibly 50 hours of embroidery time.  As it will eventually be made into an almoner's bag, I still have to embroider the opposing side and sew it all together.  But, here is the finished front!

Now, I had some problems couching the metallic on this piece, as I used a 2-ply twist thread I had found at Michael's.  It was not as flat as a single strand of Japan silk, but it worked out okay.  I went over it afterward with a gold sewing thread, tacking down places where the gold did not sit well, and cleaning up the edges around the embroidery.  I am quite pleased, thus far!

Where in the World is Ren?

Well, the last several months have been...different.  I was not able t post as much as I would have liked, because of being busy with life, school, the universe, everything.  *sighs*  But I have been embroidering!  I hope to update later this evening with all of the projects I have missed posting about, so stay tuned!!