Signed up for the IRCC II and updating A&S 50 projects

My event went really well yesterday. I think everyone that could attend had a good time, and we had wonderful turnout for classes. I learned a great deal in the moments I was able to carve out to attend classes. As a result, I now am excited to go read a 6th century Welsh epic and a couple of Norse sagas. Fighting went well, people had a good time playing our scavenger hunt and the bardic was so jam packed we ran out of feast (though not food) before we ran out of entertainment.

While everything else was going on, I also managed to snap a few pictures of some of the tokens I made for part of my challenge. The first is a bunny bag for my friend Lady Kristine Ragnaldsdottir,called the Killer Rabbit. It it both based on her heraldry and the Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python. That in turn is based on an incident in one of the Medieval French tale of Reynard the Fox. There is an incident of a hunter bragging of his escape from a fearsome rabbit. He spits in its eye and escapes to the tale. The passage is embroidered around the edge. The terrifying teeth made from rice pearls make me giggle every time I see it. Kristine has had the bag for about 3 years now, but I keep not getting a picture so made it a point to take one yesterday.

The other goofy favor from yesterday is a set of folly bells I made to be a protege belt for Lord Michael McCraney. The base is a black linen embroidered with polka dots. I appliqued a white felt cow to yellow wool and it is stitched in place with a herringbone stitch. The cow and the herringbone stitch match Dame Kadrina Tanskalainen's gown I made the trim for when she received her Pelican (it is another one of my 50 favors.) There are 24 bells going down the side. Kadrina said she will probably give him a larger cow bell to act as a weight on the end "when he deserves it." I actually made 2 basically identical sets of bells so she can have one for another protege when she's ready to take a second. I love the cow rampant and the cow bells. I also like the challenge of making something silly still be beautiful, elegant, and meaningful to the people involved; even as we don't take ourselves too seriously.

In other news, I sent in my entry for the IRCC II this morning as soon as I saw the announcement. It had been 6 hours since Bella opened sign-ups, so I'm far from the first. There are already 2 on the entrant's page and who knows how many in Bella's inbox. Hope there's room for me to play. I've started planning what I want to do, but keep second guessing myself. I want to do the Venetian open front style and am seriously concerned about how it will work on my figure, but we'll see. It will certainly be a fun adventure.