July was a very busy month for my little family. It started with a three-day camping trip (the first with Little Miss A.!), and ended with a week-long camping trip. Both of these camping trips were Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) events. The SCA is a historical recreation group that I've been involved with since I was a kid, and pulled Captain Daddy into when we started dating.
Before the three-day camping trip, I finished Captain Daddy's leather quiver. I've got to get pictures of him wearing it, but it's an orange leather quiver, and since my mom gave me the leather, it only cost me about $15 (a pair of leather shoelaces and a cheapo leather punch). I have some leather left over, so I'm planning on making a matching arm guard at some point. This was my first time working with leather, and the best tutorial I found for making a quiver was here:
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=058989
At the three-day camping trip, I submitted the smocked aprons from my last post to the Athena's Thimble panel. Athena's Thimble is an embroidery guild in the SCA. They have 12 categories that guild members can be ranked in, starting with Working Knowledge, followed by Competence, Period Competence, and Expert. I paneled my aprons for Competence, which is categorized as "intermediate understanding of the form and proven level of skill in
execution, demonstrated by a completed piece of higher caliber." The three senior members agreed that they filled this description, making this the second category that I've achieved Competence in. My goal is to eventually get Competence in all 12 categories, and then start working on Period Competence (which must include a piece completed in a historical manner along with documentation).
After that, I spent much of July getting prepared for the week-long SCA event, which is called Pennsic. I had a lot of sewing to do, since the entire time you're at the event, you have to make an attempt at pre-16th century dress. This included making a bunch of clothing for Little Miss A., though my sister made a bunch for her as well. I managed to make enough clothes for all three of us, and off we went for a week of camping!
At Pennsic, I did a fair bit of lampwork, making glass beads with a torch and glass rods. I took a couple classes in that area, and learned a bunch about making animal shaped beads. I meant to take some embroidery classes, but didn't manage to, so I have some things I'll be doing research online for.
And now it's August! One of my goals in August is to start working on menu planning. I found a great website that takes online recipes and creates a shopping list, and I used that this week. I wanted to try some new recipes, so having a resource like this is great. Check it out here:
http://www.ziplist.com/recipes/meal_planner
I also want to refocus on some of my long-term projects, such as the Jacobean table runner and Captain Daddy's knitted vest. Pre-Pennsic prep tends to put everything else on the back burner, so I want to circle back around to these things. Finally, I want to try to fix, finish, or sew one SCA outfit a month, so that come next Pennsic, I don't have the pre-Pennsic rush. I think that August will be finishing the blue cotehardie, which just needs eyelets sewn in. It can be slightly tedious, so if I do a couple a day, I should be in good shape to finish by month-end.
Hope all is well out there in the land of the internet, and stay tuned for the next update, which should include pictures of some of the completed July projects!
