This favor was embroidered as a gift for Merewen of Cottesmore.  She and I became apprentices to Georg of Glacier's Edge, and exchanged tokens to commemorate the event.  The seahorse design came from Georg's personal heraldic device.

I embroidered the seahorse on linen in Paternayan wool.  Wool works much better than DMC cotton or even silk threads for the Bayeux tapestry stitch, because the coverage is more complete.  I first laid down satin stitches on the seahorse body, then laid the perpendicular threads, and couched them down.  I completed the embroidery by outlining the body in stem stitch with blue wool.  

After completing the seahorse, I moved on to the axe.  I did the axe handle in DMC floss in long-arm cross stitch.  The axe head is done in satin stitch with the long threads laid down in a trellis pattern and secured at the intersections with upright cross.  Once the axe was completed, I then outlined it in backstitch.

Once the embroidery was completed, I lined the favor with blue linen, since Georg's colors are blue, white and red.

 

PROJECT TOTAL: 30 hours