Stitching and singing

My children have once again foiled me.  This time they out did themselves and destroyed my camera completely, so there will not be step by step pictures of the hood.  There was some whispering from my husband about getting me a new one for Valentine's Day, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be back to taking crummy pictures soon.  In the mean time I've been working on the hood.  It is back to being in one piece, so hooray!  I did, in fact, cut off my shell and put Aurora's wreath over the top of it.  Since my wreath is whitework, the three wreaths in a row are not very noticeable, so hooray again.  After I got the band completed, I did a bit of trimming and reshaping and then basted it back into place. The original version had a layer of green trim and then a blue braid I made on top of it outlining the embroidered band, but with the blue wool shell and green linen lining, the hood felt really heavy and looked rather clunky. So I ditched that idea.  Instead, I decided to bind the hood and mantle both in the green bias.  I finished stitching the bias on today and got started putting the braid around the edges of the white linen embroidered band. It's a simple double interlooped braid in blue silk and charcoal grey wool yarns. The color is pretty close to the blue wool of the hood, but I think it is adding a nice texture.  Not to mention securing the embroidery pieces to the garment. I should finish sewing the trim in place tomorrow.  Then I just have buttonholes and stitching the buttons on.

When I haven't been stitching, I've been reading John Walter Hill's Roman Monody, Cantata, and Opera from the Circles around Cardinal Montalto.  No, I still haven't picked a song to sing in May.  I am learning loads more about the context of the various musical movements and some of the influences and politics.  Not that any of that is necessary in order to sing a madrigal, but it's interesting.  I did pick up a selection of madrigals arranged for single voice and guitar standing in for lute.  I'm super duper rusty with no range to speak of right now, but the arrangements seem to be in reasonable keys for me.  I've been fiddling around with them a bit, trying to decide which ones I like. Then I second guess myself and try to decide if I really want to sing in Italian.  I had a class on Italian pronunciation for singers in college when I (very briefly) decided I wanted to major in Opera/Vocal Performance (you may begin giggling now.) That's been close to 20 years and I don't remember much of anything and my voice seems to belong to a different human being entirely than the one I was using at that point in time.  Doing something by John Dowland is pretty tempting since it is in English.  I don't know.  Something simple like Fuggiro tanto Amore by Luca Marenzio might be fun.  This is the only video I could easily find of it, so have a listen just to get the idea of it and see what you think.

A Gauntlet

Kingdom Arts and Sciences Competition is in just over 89 days.  Between now and then, I've got a couple of other projects to finish up, a Collegium to help run, and basically every weekend already has a commitment on it.  Guess I better get cracking.

So here's my challenge to myself.  I haven't entered since the year the twins were born.  They turn 3 this year. I've missed 3 years running.  I can't let a fourth go by. I will enter this year.

Looking at what I feel like I can manage is sort of sad, to tell you the truth, but I think I've figured out what my entries are going to be. Since I'm going for it, I'm trying for champion (not that I have a snowball's chance. . .) but I don't qualify to enter in the novice category since I have previously entered, so whole hog it is.  Kingdom requirements stipulate 5-8 entries in a minimum of 3 different grand categories.  Being well rounded is a good thing.  All entries are averaged for the final score.  I'm never sure if that is a good or a bad thing for submitting more than 5.  I guess if they are all equally solid, a good entry in a category where the judges were being generous might make up for an entry in a category that was judged a little more harshly.  Who knows.

My list of what I'm submitting has more than 5 things on it just so I can drop something if it goes south and not be back at square one.  Unfortunately, I don't have a single thing that is ready to go, but I think I have solid research on several items and some trial pieces and rough drafts, so I'll use the next 3 months to pull it all together.

Here's the list:

Research paper on the use of podalic version in the delivery of footling breeches.  The maneuver was first introduced by Soranus of Ephesus in the 2nd century AD and revived by Ambroise Pare in a treatise in 1549. It is almost never used modernly, at least not in singleton births.  It was used in the delivery of my daughter who was the second twin born in my last delivery.  The antiquity of the procedure that was used on me fascinated me so I dug and discovered. The paper is obviously colored by my own experience. I hope other people find it as interesting as I do, but there's always the possibility they'll just think it's icky and weird.

Silk patchwork cushion based on the Imprunetta cushion, an extant piece of patchwork dated before 1477.  I've been saving silk scraps for this for quite awhile and have done a couple of cotton mockups.  I was lucky enough to win a big envelope of silk taffeta scraps/samples from Trisha at Thistle Threads.  I've been following her blog ever since I discovered the Plimoth Jacket and really, really wish I was up for the challenge of stitching a stumpwork cabinet.  As it is I just have to drool at her blog.  She's been cleaning out her closets as she prepares to move and doing giveaways. The envelope of silks has convinced me that the timing is perfect to stop planning and just make the darn cushion.

A pair of Italian gloves.  I got the felt  mockups done last year on the same day KA&S is (May 4th.) The pattern is sized and I like the fit.  I've made a couple of disastrous pairs of leather gloves. Third time's the charm maybe?

 Another attempt at a tournament shield.  I like a lot of things about the last one and I think it will be part of the display, but there are some things I want to do a better job with.

A woodblock print of the full impresa complete with verse. I'm looking forward to this.  I've really researched imprese, but think doing one is a better demonstration than a research paper.  I did publish a newsletter article on the subject awhile back and considered writing something more along those lines. I enjoy carving though and poetry is a part of my persona, so the block print should be a great way to demonstrate how imprese work.  I just need to make sure I don't get too longwinded with the documentation since I tend to babble on the subject.

The rose quartz zibellino is going to be entered as well.  I need to polish him up a bit more and I want to re-do the halter and drop.  I need to decide if I'm going to enter it in carving or as a piece of jewelry.

Okay, so I've written this up and made it public so people can poke at me if I don't get anything done and try to avoid the event.  Let the countdown begin.