Oooo! Another GREAT collection of Appliquéd Tent Pictures!

http://www.rugtracker.com/2013/05/khyamiya.html

Go look!

Things I learned from looking at Tents!

I really did come back from Turkey (sigh) and if you've been waiting for pictures your patience is about to begin to be rewarded!

I didn't spend as much time in the Military museum as I had hoped, but I was there long enough to learn some very important things:

Scale

The main support poles of the tents really are tree trunks. Easily 14" or more in diameter and TALL!

This example is only a portion, possibly half, of the eventual height of the structure. I love that you can see the broken end which would go into a connector piece (up at the top) and that they had a connector and final on display also.








Look at the size of the hole the pole would insert into.




And to give some idea of the scale of that finial...




I also found it interesting that some of the double polled tent that I expected to be huge were quite moderate in scale, maybe 7-9 feet high, while some of the viewing pavilions were easily 18-20' or more! (Talk about making a person feel,insignificant.)


Sewing

This example was fully appliqued over every inch of the interior, but only on the edges of the exterior, lovely! Most interesting, the exterior was assembled from a great many strips of fabric, probably about 7-8" wide running from top to bottom. I also love the patching!







And then there is the visible stitching. I think I could relax a bit about my work. :)




Details

I noticed that the red tent had side poles. And that they ran in a channel in the walls and thus didn't show either inside or out. I didn't notice side poles on any other tent, so I can't claim it is common, but it is such a nice idea!

And then there were the netting windows with large decorative knots worked in another material (I think it was leather)



and the lovely grille work on the opaque window on the Sultan's bath tent



And the worked cord loops for stakes

More on Turkish tents

The Turkish Cultural Foundation has a page on mobile palaces with a bit of tent history and...more pictures!

http://www.turkishculture.org/pages.php?SearchID=753

Amazing how the web changes in two years!

Eye candy: Images of tent appliqué

Well, thinking about getting back to work on my Pavilion has gotten me back to poking about the Internet to see what I can find...

And the second site I looked at has the most wonderful tent walls!

http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2006/06/real-appliqued-tent.html

I don't know how old these are, and I don't really care at this point. Just...oooooh!

And here is the interior of a 17th century Egyptian tent

http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/islamicart&CISOPTR=119

http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/islamicart&CISOPTR=120&CISOBOX=1&REC=1

Blurry, but how a want a fancy liner!

And the there's this lovely Pinterest board:

http://pinterest.com/jennybowker1/tentmakers-of-cairo/

And another blog with Egyptian tent makers:

http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-weekend-in-cairo-part-2-tentmakers-of.html

It all rather gets my tent-making energy flowing again!

Clearly, I don't spend enough time doing research.

I just discovered that many of the Venetian museums have pooled their artifact collections together into a single, searchable, database at: http://www.archiviodellacomunicazione.it/Sicap/opac.aspx?WEB=MuseiVE&LNG=ENG

I searched for "tessuto" and found this!


"Arte spagnola
Tessuto Velluto chermisi tagliato ad un corpo con applicazioni in raso di seta prodotto dall' orditura di fondo in seta gialla e da una trama di fondo verde Tessuti
XVI 1500 1599 inizio
Ca' Mocenigo Centro Studi di Storia del Tessuto e del Costume "

It's very like the applique work I am doing on my pavillion and it's giving me some great pointers for how I can use the couched thread for detailing overall.

I'm such a happy camper!

Tasty nibble #4

I've been working on my hem.

OK. Back to work

My honey is away for a couple of days so it's a good time for me to buckle down and get back to work on the Pavillion. After I stitch the dragon panel for the front I am planning on assembling that side of the tent and finally committing myself to a plan for extending the bottom part of the bell on each end.

I've been saving some of my blue/green fabric to try and extend the banding on the bell too. We've yet to know if there will be enough to finish all the remaining spots where I'd like to use it (the mottoe on the bell ends, the bottom banding for the whole pavillion, and the dragon panel for the back of the pavillion) so my back-up plan is to visually weight the bottom of the pavillion by using black banding if it looks like I won't have enough.

Did you think I had forgotton this project?

Nope!

4/24/2011 and we have dragons!

Aren't they cool?



Not even pinned down at the moment, but since the green man's body, arms and all the greenery below his hands *are* sewn on I'm not complaining.

I still need to attach his head, and all the dragon/greenery parts above the hands, then do the outlining and detailing in couched thread (black) as in the bottom section of the pavilion. Maybe another week or two of work since I currently quite distracted by the Italian Ren. Costuming Challenge. Which I am off to work on now (Red and white trapunto sleeves, here I come!)

Wow. Will you look at that? It's almost roof-like!

This weekend was mainly devoted to:
A) lazing around, and
B) doing our taxes

So I didn't get as much done as I had hoped I would. (What else in new?) Still, I revised my SCA name registration paperwork, did a lot of thinking about what comes next on the project lists, got some fanfic read, and managed to get the essential center portion of the roof applique ready to go. Not bad, really, for a girl who laid around in bed all weekend.

(Which was great, by the way.)

To show off the fruits of my labor here is a picture of the

Progress on the roof


(Photo: updated as of 4/23/2011)

Think I'll get this side finished this week?

Addendum: Photos after all

Apparently my pattern is to complain on the blog about how little I've gotten done...which then spurs me on into a burst of working on projects...and then I have something to post! I still have a long way to go but look at the roof of our pavilion!

The long view...



and a close up!

I'd rather forgotten...

how long it takes to prep applique pieces when they are full of itty-bitty curves and curliques and tendrils. Which is to say that I am still working on the front roof of the pavillion. Yes, I haven't even finished all the applique pieces. Yes, I haven't even pinned it all together, let alone started attaching the applique. Yes it feels like it is taking forever.

I started laying out the pieces I have finished because I was going to take a picture to prove that I was still working on the pavillion but right now seeing all those bits scattered in all that white space is making me rather depressed. So, maybe not.

In other news I have finished my first pair of slippers, updated the pictures on the 50 pairs of slippers project page, and started the artwork for my next pair. I find I continue to be facinated by moorish tracery so my next pair will continue the theme. I'm thinking to do an embroidered motif across the vamp of the shoe.

Something like this:

I've been really busy, and I've got something to show for it!

I've prepped numerous bits of applique for the roof, stiched 27 of the 28 eyelets in a light cotton gown for Pennsic (the butter dress), I've learned two new embroidery stiches, and, oh, my shoes...my shoes are stunning! If you look at the 50 pairs of slippers page you'll see what I mean.

Pretty, Yes?

They say the best is the enemy of the good. But, in my experience, the good is not the enemy of the best. I can hardly wait to finish this pair and try for something even better!

Photo updates!

The doorways are assembled at last.

Front













Back

My darling husband says that, from a phenomenographic perspective, my focus has shifted from the doorways to the tent as a whole and that is why I am having trouble appreciating what fine doorways they are. I want the whole thing to be done!

I am progressing on the applique for the front roof. I've added some close-up pictures of the process to the feb post on the process of applique if you are interested. Now back to work for me!

The doorways are finished! Well, almost.

As you know, I have been working on the black outlining for the top and sides of the back doorway of the pavilion, and the blue-green band on the bottom--or leading, depending on your point of view--edge of the awning flaps, front and back. I'm trying to get all the work I can done on each seperate section *before* I put them all together because each part will get *much* more difficult to work with as the other huge chunks of canvas get attached. (It's one of the basic rules of sewing: Finish what you can *before* assembly*) And I'm happy to report, success! By which I mean that the prep work is done...now I just have to remember how it is supposed to go together

hmmmm.....

I'm thinking no pictures today , sorry.

Update on the Mottoe

The second section of goldwork is finished! Amazing. I thought it would never be done and then--poof--FINISHED! OK, OK, I still have to do the black outlining on that section, and two of the doorway panels, but still, FINISHED!

I might--just possibly--actually finish this pavillion in time for Pennsic. (I sure hope so, or we'll be sleeping in a day shade!)

The Funny Thing About Giving Yourself Permission...

NOT to do something, is that it sometimes has the opposite result!

After spending last night working on the design for the back roof of my pavilion, I got up this morning and promptly started to work on the second section of the motto. Go figure.

Giving myself leave to do something else seems to have put it back on the 'fun' side of the scale and I am already halfway finished with the ribbon-work part of the task. I'm not promising this rate will continue but to go from 2 1/2 letters finished to 15 finished and several others started feels great!

Maybe there will even have to be pictures soon...

The Roof at Last!

As I predicted, the--apparently endless--stitching on the mottoe has gotten be be a bit more like drudgery than I can handle, so I am commencing work on the dragon applique for the roof sections of the pavillion. (And can I just say, WooHoo!)

I'm hoping the first panel will be comparitively simple--since there is not much more actual applique than there was on one of the door panels--but you know how I am...

Anyway, here is

A close up of the pattern for the front roof


I'm thinking I will adapt it to make the back roof. Maybe something like this:

Proposed back roof panel


I think it's not quie busy enough--maybe she should be holding foliage to feed the dragons? (OK apparently they are wyverns, but close enough for me!) Still a work in progress, obviously.

Wish me luck!

More on the Mottoe

I have been overcome by the coolness of the way black outlining makes everything seem crisper, and somehow clearer, and so I have completely neglected moving forward on the second section of the mottoe while I outline each letter of the first section.

Black outlining in progress

I'm finding that it works really well for me to have the cord on a tapestry needle and the sewing thread on another hand sewing needle. I knot the cord on the back of the work, bring it to the front using the tapestry needle, stitch it down with the sewing thread/needle, bring the cord to the back of the work again and out at the next section. If there is a lot of space between sections I knot the cord on the back at the beginning and end for security but it is still much tidier than when I used to start each letter with a new segment of cord. Works for me!

Better...Stronger...FASTER

It seems I wildly overestimated the time it would take to complete step two. (Especially if I ended up stuck at home with the stomach flu!)

The first 9' section of mottoe applique is finished. That piece is the section which will go over the front doorway just above the AIR and FIRE panels. After some elaborate calculations I have figured out where the text will fall on the 9' section over the back door, marked out the text, and started the applique work there too.

I hope to have both doorways finished by the end of this weekend, if all goes well.

The finished section of Mottoe






The second section















To give a better idea of the scale/construction of the Pavilion here is a photo of: the roof, mottoe and doorway panels laid out as they will be assembled

















and finally, a picture of the source design for the dragon on the front roof of the pavilion

Here be Dragons!...

OK, now couching down the black cord on the door panels goes really fast but the gold lettering on the mottoe? Not so much.

As you may remember, I am looking at about 29 feet of lettering. At my current pace of 2' on a weekend day and about 6" on a weeknight that would be....a long long time. About 2 months of a long lllllooooonnnnnggggg time.

My hands hurt just thinking about it.

...but... Oooooh!, SHINY!!!

So I will persevere. If I am a very lucky girl I will get better (stronger, faster) with this process also. I sure do hope so.

To keep myself entertained in the meanwhile, I have been pondering my approach to the top most part of the center section of the Pavilion. I know it is going to be 3'x9' with the upper 1' covered with a band of the same glorious blue-green fabric I have been using throughout. I also know that I am going to be appliqueing on a period motif of a man capturing dragons (on the front of the pavilion) and my adapted version of a woman capturing (luring) them (on the back of the pavilion). I've been putting it off because I wanted to be sure that I have cut all the large continuous pieces I will need from the applique fabric before I start on the little bitsies that make up the dragon motifs.

Since I'm going to need a break from all that mottoe stitching, I guess the time is near at hand.