A rather long time ago, 2005 – shortly after I became a member of the SCA and started this blog, I made a small favour for myself. I tried to use some new stitches for this favour which I haven’t tried before – my very first embroidery technique with which I had started was Satin Stitch and I have used ‘just’ this technique for a very long time – but for this favour I really wanted to do something new, therefore I decided to try “Surface Couching”, “Refilsaum” and “Cross Stitch”.

About the signs and a little bit about the background:
A short time after I became a member of the SCA, which happened summer 2004, I became the “Minister of Arts & Science” (short MoAS, the blue/white sign with the candle) – and also “Webminister” (the red/white sign with the spider) of my local group – you can see the coat of arms of it at the yellow part (the yellow/blue section with the white horse).
September 2007, when I became the guild head of the Dragon’s Needle Embroidery Guild, I stepped down as MoAS and Webminister to be able to put my whole energy into the work for the guild.
Because of some serious problems between me and the Seneschal of the local group here in Austria, I decided to change my group and to “move” to the mailbox of a very good friend of mine in Germany – now I am a proud and happy member of “The Barony of Knight’s Crossing“.

…and because I am no MoAS, Webminister and member of this group anymore, I decided to recycle the patches of the favour – I already made a patch for my former group but before I throw this embroidered patch away, I’d rather send it to Fru Renika and donate it for the second part of last years “Coat of Arms Wallhanging for Drachenwald” project. Concerning the MoAS and Webminister patch – I took care of this favour and didn’t use it very often, therefore the embroidery still looks very lovely after all this years – I think I will put them on sale at my Artfire shop, maybe they can make someone happy who is a MoAS or Webminister now…

…ok, let’s start with the MoAS – Minister of Arts & Science sign – “Refilsaum” & “Stem Stitch”:

…the backside:

…and let’s continue with the Webminister sign – “Refilsaum”, “Klosterstich” & “Surface Couching”:

The black spider and the round red border is done in “Refilsaum“, the rather big red section is done in “Klosterstich” and the white section is done in “Surface Couching”.

…and here the backside:

…and here a close up of the back side to give you an idea of how much work this “Surface Couching” is – btw. at my website you can see a photo of the unfinished section while I still was working at this section…

…and last but not least the coa of my former group and the reason why I hate “Cross Stitch” (Kreuzstich):

I really hate Cross Stitch!!!!!! *lol*