Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (X) : Jubilee Silhouette

Something a bit different: this Jubilee Silhouette design is by Felicity Hall and can be purchased as a downloadable PDF.  Find out all about it here.  Price: GBP5.00 when on special, 10.00 when not.  Comes with colour codes for Appletons and DMC.

You could just take elements of this if you wished, for a smaller/different version.

Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (IX) : another roundup

Sandringham, another Diamond Jubilee sampler design from Riverdrift House.

Here's the website description:

Within a border of Norfolk lavender sits the Queen's country residence, Sandringham House, where the Royal family spend each Christmas. We have included Jubilee oak leaves and acorns and a newly planted sapling for the Jubilee Woods Project, apples and blackcurrants (grown on the Royal Fruit Farms for producing juice and cordial), Queen Alexandra's Summer House above the lake, Estate Christmas trees and a Norfolk Black turkey, tea and cake at The Stables Tea Room, pheasants, a Cromer crab, Union Jacks and some Royal pets!

Design uses 12 colours of Anchor 6-stranded embroidery thread on a white 14 count Aida fabric.

Pack includes a clear chart on an A3 sheet, instructions and a gold-plated needle.

The size of the finished needlework is approx 25 x 25cm/ 10 x 10 inches.

Price: £12.95

Find it here on the Riverdrift website, or on eBay.

This kit has been selling on eBay and is available as a kit or chart from seller wumplekin.  Description:

Kits contain needle, threads, 14 count aida, colour chart and instructions.

Size of the finished picture is 5" x 7" (70 x 98 stitches). Whole stitches only are used so these kits will suit all abilities from beginner to expert. The crown is stitched using Anchor Marlitt (to give it a shine) but enough ordinary thread will be in the kit for anyone not wanting to use this.

Price: £7.39

This one's from a magazine, but I haven't yet worked out which one.  Several eBay sellers are selling the magazine pages or colour copies of them.

eBay seller zara-karen-xstitching has kits for sale based on the Diamond Jubilee emblem.  There isn't a stitched example, only a copy of the emblem as above.

Description:

Diamond Jubilee emblem cross stitch kit.  My kits are all made up myself.  Kits contain Aida, 40 threads, needle and symbol easy to read instructions.  All kids come in clear resealable bags for storage.  My charts are from a disc downloaded onto quality paper.  Have authorisation to print.

Price: £16.99

Jubilee alphabet: another magazine pattern being sold on eBay.

Description:

Cross Stitch Chart - Diamond Jubilee Alphabet Chart
Full colour charts of the letters of the alphabet featuring 'Best of British' themes - the Union Jack, Big Ben, The Queen etc
Colour key for DMC, Anchor and Madeira threads
This item is 3 pages taken from a cross stitch magazine

A Diamond Jubilee cushion chart from Cross Stitch Collection magazine.  The finished size of the design is 10 3/4 x 12 1/4inches if worked on 14 Count Aida.

From Twilleys of Stamford. 

Description:

Each kit contains stranded cotton, aida fabric, needle, chart, alphabet and full instructions.

Brand: Twilleys of Stamford

Fabric Count: 14 Count Aida Fabric

Product Ref: T2890/0020

Size: 23 x 28 cm

Price: around £29.99

Another magazine pattern being sold as pages on eBay.  This design is about 6inches x 6inches.

A cheerful contribution from Bothy Threads.  Description:
Kit comes complete with 14ct Zweigart Aida fabric, pre-sorted thread, metallic gold beads, sequins, needle, pattern, full instructions and a colour picture to show the finished article.
This kit uses full and fractional cross stitches, back stitch and a few French knots
Finished size 32cm x 39cm
Price: around £21, available from various sellers including some on eBay such as acrosstownstitching .

As ever, if you know more about any of these designs, please leave a comment to add your knowledge.

 



Map sampler : British Isles with coat of arms

Map samplers have a long history, and antique ones are often highly sought after.  There are some twentieth century examples around.  I'd place this one early to mid-twentieth century in date.  In coming blog entries I will show you several others: at least three of which share stylistic similarities with this one, in the figures and the font.  Being fairly small, it just has room for a representative national figure for each of the countries of the UK, a Scotsman in his kilt, an Englishman in his hunting kit, a Welshwoman and an Irish woman in their national dress (curious, isn't it, this gender split? Easiest gender with which to distinctively represent each country - what's an Englishwoman's national costume? An Irish man's?).  Top left, the coat of arms; top right, a compass; bottom left, a scale in miles.

If you can shed any light on the origin of this design, where it was published/printed/sold, please do leave a comment with any useful links.

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 (VIII) : 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.