Edward VIII : abdication sampler (II)

This is the second version I've seen of this particular sampler: I blogged about the first one here.  Or this may be the same sampler, reauctioned, as both have AMP 1936 on them, likely the initials of the maker.  Design area is 14inches x 18inches.

This one is very particularly about Edward and the abdication: it might seem almost disloyal to be celebrating the king who left the throne rather than focusing on the king who took on the job, but in the public view (with the press barons censoring/editing coverage of Edward VIII's wilder/less wise moments) he was an heroic figure, and his abdication a loss.

Sylvia over at Linens and Royals bought this one - read her blog entry here.  She says it's a Royal School of Needlework design, original price 7/6.

I still like the sense of the modern age in this sampler - industry, sport etc as well as traditional Union Jacks and guardsmen.  And the ?prescient inclusion of the three military figures representing army, navy and air force, with WW2 only two years in the future.

If you know any more about this design, please do leave a comment so it can be shared with others.

Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (IX) : Mollie Makes roundup

Mollie Makes magazine has this roundup of designs called the Best of Jubilee Stitching on their website.  Here's their information:

Anyway, here are our fave bits of British stitching inspiration. Long live the Queen and long live crafting!
1. We heart this cute and very British birdie! Designed by Catherine Young, and the embroidery pattern is available from Bumpkin on etsy.
2. It's not quite Buckingham Palace, but this felt jubilee mushroom is fit for a fairy queen. It's designed by Hippywitch, and it's the cutest!
3. What a lovely way to get a touch of the Cath Kidston look through your own fair hands. This set of London embroidery motifs, designed by Catherine Young, of Moda Fabrics fame, would be just right for the Jubilee weekend, and it's available as a pdf download from Comfort Stitching on etsy.

Lovely magazine, Mollie Makes, if you don't know it.  Definitely worth a look if you're even vaguely interested in crafting and making.

I particularly like the London embroidery motifs.  Embroidery, when so many jubilee designs are cross stitch.

All these blog posts documenting jubilee designs are tagged with 'jubilee', so you can use that to find the others if you'd like to see more.

Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (VII) : roundup

The Cross Stitcher magazine Making Spot blog has this roundup of Diamond Jubilee designs.

From top left, to bottom right:
Embroidery pattern, Bustle & Sew
Crown hoop design, What Delilah Did
Diamond Jubilee sampler, Nia Cross Stitch
Crown sachet, CrossStitcher 250
Celebration cupcakes, Bothy Threads
Emma Bridgewater, CrossStitcher 250
Crown in frame, Diane Machin
Stamp design, Jacqui Pearce
Corgi Union Jack, Miso Funky

As I suspected, there are more and more designs available as the Jubilee celebrations get closer.

Charles & Diana : wedding : heraldic coat of arms sampler

Two colourways of the one design for Charles and Diana's wedding.  Sylvia over at Linens and Royals has a tapestry of the blue version.  It features the Prince of Wales' feathers and the Spencer coat of arms.

I would guess that this was a kit or a charted pattern or both: the blue one above was described as a tapestry, the cream version cross stitch (and quite fine work which makes the detail stand out well and precisely).  Magazine pattern? From an organisation such as the Royal School of Needlework? Don't know.  It's a classic, elegant design that avoids being kitsch and would have required considerable time and skill to complete.

If you know the source of this design, or any other information, please leave a comment with any useful links you can provide.

Elizabeth II: coronation: Radio Times embroidered cover

How could any patriotic Briton, obtaining the Radio Times weekly to know what was on the radio (and television, if you were among the privileged few) who wouldn't want to make a special embroidered cover for your weekly magazine?

What is the Radio Times? "Radio Times is the BBC's weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It also provides on-line listings. Radio Times was founded on 28 September 1923, and originally carried details of BBC radio programmes in response to a newspaper boycott of radio listings. It was at one time the magazine with the largest circulation in Europe."

Isn't this fabulous? I'm guessing it was either a transfer or transfer and fabric kit (or fabric with the transfer already applied).  Maybe from the Radio Times?  Hmmm, I wonder if their back issues are archived online?

Gives proper gravitas to the TV guide, doesn't it?

Here's an image from an eBay auction (from which I sourced the above quote) of the Coronation issue of the Radio Times.  Don't know if it was the one which included this embroidered design (mightn't you want to make it ahead of time?)

I can't quite imagine anyone now making a royal commemorative embroidered cover for their TV guide, or book, or any magazine.  It's like the George VI embroidered chairback from this blog entry last December.  Of its time, and eloquent of it, and pointing out how times and houses and social history change.

If you have any clues as to the source of this design, please leave a comment with any links you can provide.

Elizabeth II : golden jubilee : little crown samplers

This looks as though it might be from a magazine cover giveaway, a little souvenir, inexpensive to package and quick to stitch.  Alternatively, the stitcher might have abstracted the crown and initials from a larger sampler, and chosen to just stitch these.  If you know any more about this one, please leave a comment to contact me.

The example below was a magazine cover giveaway, from Cross Stitcher magazine sometime in the golden jubilee year of 2002.  It's not the same crown, so the one above isn't adapted from the one below.  It is, you will note, a "luxury" souvenir gift!

I'm sure there will be similar offerings from the cross stitch magazines in 2012.  Only you won't get them if you subscribe to the magazine digitally via Zinio!  The magazine does provide the chart and instructions inside the magazine, so even if you don't get the kit of aida, thread and needle (and frame, if that's part of the giveaway) you can still stitch the cover giveaway designs.

Elizabeth II: coronation: floral emblem tablecloth

According to the seller, this was done in 1952 to celebrate the Queen's coronation (in 1953) on linen.  It features the floral emblems of the British Isles, and measures 40in x 42in.

If you know where this design was published, or any more information about it, please do get in touch by commenting. 

Wartime embroidery from World War II: four images

This embroidery was for sale last year.  It seems likely to date from the 1940s.  Would someone have stitched it much after the war had ended? But in wartime, would someone have had the thread and fabric to make this? Was it featured in a magazine or newspaper, and how would this have been affected by paper shortages?  It could have been based on a transfer, but that's guesswork only.

Anyway, it's a fascinating stitched insight to a particular time.

I can only make out three of the four tag lines:

where the Navy reigns, guard the streets, ?? and plough the land.  Under REMEMBER there might be a date on the blue banner.  The tag line I can't make out looks to be something related to the services, judging by the badges - Army, Navy, RAF?

If you know any more about this design, please leave information and link/s in the comments.

Union Jack needlework kits

Several designers have jumped on the bandwagon of the Union Jack's popularity as a design icon and created kits for tapestry, needlepoint and cross-stitch.

 This tapestry / needlepoint design by Candace Bahouth for Ehrman is not in the current range (she was ahead of the trend) but turns up on eBay from time to time.  It's called Albion.  The pictures show the printed canvas and a completed cushion.  It has the subtle colour variation that makes Ehrman tapestries have a pleasing depth.

I wouldn't be surprised if it reappeared in their range.

Jacqui Pearce of Granny Knits has several Union Jack  (and other British-themed) designs using cross stitch and tapestry / needlepoint, such as those below.

A beginner's cross stitch kit (link)

This is a detailed kit, the filigree work is all tapestry stitching, red aqua and white.  Find it here.

Jan Constantine has used the Union Jack in a multitude of her designs - click here to see her British collection (made designs, not kits).  She also has some kits, including this one.

It is sold as a tapestry kit here, and also as a downloadable pdf.

There was also a Jan Constantine Union Jack cross stitch design in Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 226:

This issue turns up for sale on eBay from time to time.

This Anchor brand tapestry kit can be regularly found on eBay.  I don't like it as much, as it's hardly subtle: (it doesn't, to me, stand up against the designs I've shown you above.  But I'll include it here to record its existence).

I've also seen a number of patchwork quilt designs employing the distinctive geometry of the Union Jack in quite a variety of fabrics and colours.

The 2012 London Olympics will no doubt be inspiring more designers to create patriotic works.  If you know more links, please leave a comment with them - especially for kits/patterns, not finished works, as the focus of this blog is handwork done by individuals rather than mass-produced patriotic items.

Elizabeth II: coronation: swags and flags

I'm not sure if the embroiderer of this design kinda ran out of puff.  Plenty of work done on the details - see the extra two photos with horses and coaches.  But there's a fair bit of white space...

And here's a different example, with the white space filled with roses and wheat swags and so forth.

The design itself looks professional - it seems highly unlikely that two different embroiderers made the same design without it being commercially published in some way. 

I can't help wondering, though, if on the second example, the word CORONATION and the date, wonky as they are, were the embroiderer's own addition.  I like their wonky individuality.

If you know where this design was published, or any other information about it, do leave a comment.

Elizabeth II: coronation: from transfer to sampler

So imagine you have a book of transfer patterns like this:

and another one like this:

What could you do with it?

Perhaps this.

From a private collection.

It's perhaps a pillow sham sort of size.  Maybe a table centre?  Not big enough for a table cloth, but too big for a single table mat for dining (and such things are more likely to be decorative than useful).  It does seem more likely to have been displayed flat, rather than vertically.  The fringe is woollen, in patriotic red and blue.  Perhaps it was a child's work? - one motif at a time and the satisfaction of seeing each complete to spur you on.  Even though patterns/transfers are being used, the individuality of the maker comes through in the choice and placement of designs and the nature of the stitching itself (more room for variation in embroidery than the more charted confines of cross stitch or tapestry).

It was rather fun to put the two together and see the origin/source of the stitched designs.

The collector sourced this sampler from the US.  Perhaps a post-war British migrant, nostalgic for home?

Sadly, like most of these British patriotic samplers and embroideries, there is no stitcher's name or any other clue to their identity.

Cross stitch designs based on photographs: the Queen Mother

I've got longer discussions of the pros and cons of photographic cross stitch designs in the two earlier entries in this blog.  For now, two examples of designs featuring Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

A 1999 design (ref 76951) from The Craft Collection, sold with chart, thread, 14 count aida.  Design approx 22cm x 38cm.  It has been stitched, with the stitched example illustrated on the cover of the pattern.

from eBay seller designs-in-thread, sold with chart, thread, aida (doesn't specify size) and 'colour picture of the design' (ie. probably hasn't been stitched).  Design approx 8in x 18in.  Cost  £22.95.

There are some nice earlier naive designs - outline faces, for example - on earlier George VI & Elizabeth embroideries.  Sylvia at Linens and Royals (see link in sidebar) has some in her collection from the 1937 coronation, for example click here and click here.

Cross stitch designs based on photographs II: Diana

There are a lot of designs based on Diana photogaphs.  As I said in my earlier entry, it's not too tricky to put a photograph through charting software or a website that does this, and bundle up the resulting chart and photo (plus or minus cloth/aida and threads) and call it a kit.  The designs below do not all seem to have a stitched example.  The photos provided to sell the kits often seem to be a photo of the chart, or a copy of the photo from which the design has been derived, rather than a photo of a completed, stitched example.  As I said in my earlier blog entry about cross stitch designs based on photos, I'd be cautious about stitching a design which has no stitched example.

Generally (for reasons of economy, as aida cloth is about half the price of linen and cheaper too than evenweave, and perceived as easier to stitch), the kits among the designs below are usually aida cloth, and usually 14 count, although a couple are 18 count, which would give greater precision (as it's smaller - harder to stitch unless you have a magnifier).

Icon that she is in the minds of many, Diana may or may not be grateful for the variety in representation/portraiture in stitches in the examples below...

from eBay seller pilgrimbazaar, sold with 14 count aida cloth, thread, needle and chart for £14.99. Design 27cm x 37cm.

from eBay seller pickles_1211, sold with chart, 18 count aida cloth, needle, threads and 'virtual-stitch' picture of the design for $US32.  This seller has a number of such portrait charts.

from eBay seller pickles_1211, sold with chart, 18 count aida cloth, needle, threads and 'virtual-stitch' picture of the design for $US32. Design 8in x 10.52in.

from eBay seller jannstitch, sold as a complete kit with photo, chart, fabric, thread for £19.50. Design 18cm x 26cm

from eBay seller pickles_1211, sold with chart, 18 count aida cloth, needle, threads and 'virtual-stitch' picture of the design for $US32. Design 8in x 10.88in.

From eBay seller rosegems21, for $21.95AU.  Kit with chart, 14 count aida and threads (and it looks like that photo is of a real stitched example).  Design 11.6cm x 15.2cm.

The next two are from the same seller and look a bit mid-century fifties artistish in style.

from eBay seller pickles_1211, sold with chart, 18 count aida cloth, needle, threads and 'virtual-stitch' picture of the design for $US29. Design 8in x 10in.

from eBay seller pickles_1211, sold with chart, 18 count aida cloth, needle, threads and 'virtual-stitch' picture of the design for $US29. Design 8in x 10in.

from eBay seller designer-cross-stitch, sold as a kit with aida cloth, threads, chart and colour image of finished design.

The one below, from a magazine, is the one I think Diana would be least grateful for... (not sure if they had a stitched example of this or just a (possibly hastily put together) chart).

from eBay seller snoopy282880, the chart only was for auction.

This is just a sample of what has been on offer.  Linens and Royals (see link in side bar) shows you more designs based on photos, that Sylvia has stitched - for example, click  here for a couple of other examples, a tiara one and an impressionistic one.