Starting a new project for the next A&S tournament that’s coming up. The theme is Love and Lust, and you can enter something for either or both sides. I’m electing to do just the Love side of things, and am embroidering a handkerchief favor that can also double as a cup-cover. I have it in mind to give it to one of the recent Queens who has admired my work in the past.

I started with a gothic blackletter ‘E’ monogram. The inspiration for this was the favor that Elaine gave to Lancelot, that he carried so nobody watching the tournament would know it was him. I think it was another ‘defend Guenevere’s honor’ kind of story. I’ll save my diatribe on the evils of the Lancelot-Guenevere story for another day, though.

This is the design for the rest of the favor, although I ended up rotating the swirls around the E, so it looks a little more balanced. It’s inspired by the capital from this page of the Gesta Hungarorum, written sometime around 1200AD.

Above is the monogram nearly complete (it lacks only the finishing lines at the ends of the strokes, so they don’t look so ragged. The red thread is DMC Cotton Floche, bought from my local embroidery shop, The Needle Works.

 Below is a pounce kit I made for myself, based on Mary Corbett’s wonderful instructions.

And, the results of the grey pounce. The top two are the pounce alone, the bottom left is pounced and inked, and the bottom right is the inked line with the pounce brushed away. It was remarkably effective. Now I rather regret buying that exorbitantly overpriced pounce bag on the left of the above picture.