The portraits and dresses of Queen Elizabeth I are a maze of symbolism and symbolic motifs, many of which would lead us a merry dance into blind alleys. The important thing is that they do demonstrate that symbolism was all important, and that embroidery employed a silent language which, like ancient oracles, could be interpreted with a certain amount of intended ambiguity. We have looked before at the serpent which can signify wisdom on one hand or deception on the other. In the Rainbow portrait by Isaac Oliver of 1600, there is no doubt at all that we are intended to see the serpent on Elizabeth's sleeve. It could be a symbol of wisdom..... or it could be her birth sign. Elizabeth was born on 7 September 1533 which makes her, like me, a Virgo. Recent historical research has sought to part the curtains on Princess Elizabeth's early bedroom life and it appears that claims to her virginity are in serious doubt.
I made a resolution this year that I would be better prepared for Christmas. I don't know if November is too late to start, but it is better than January. Over the year I have been squirrelling away special little delights to give as gifts, so I am not starting from square one, which is a great boost. A couple of weekends ago, while looking through some 16th century pattern books, I found some lovely patterns for stocking clocks, and I thought what could be a better decoration for Christmas Stockings than some pretty Renaissance clocks? It took me a weekend to make these in between other work, so if you are looking for inspiration for a gift exchange, then here you are. I have made up some scrolls of linen and thread to go with little patterns I have designed, and there are punch spices, little tubes of gold needles, and then all it will need is a walnut or almond for the toe!
If you would like an Infinity PDF and JGG download to make your own for $8, just click here.
I have a great love for the tulips which figure at the top of this Goodhart sampler (G82). They led me to another sampler in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (T15-1952) and allowed me to posit an identity, Mary Basham, for the maker of the Goodhart sampler. It is always a wonderful moment, as some you may have experienced for yourselves, when some seemingly small clue allows you to 'return' a sampler or other artifact to its maker. There are a number of sources for the tulip on Mary's sampler stitched in 1778, but there is something about this one of 1730 - the subscribers' page from Robert Furber's Twelve Months of Flowers - which caught my eye. Possibly it is simply a deception of the tulips' placement at the top corners of a border framing a rectangular centrepiece, for no other florals are matched. 
Robert Furber was 'Gardiner' at Kensington and the illustrations in his catalogue were painted by Antwerp artist Pieter Casteels, and be inspiration to the Dutch-born still-life paintings Jacob van Huysums.
Or conceivably it could be the other way around? While travelling last month I came across again a book published in 1978 called Blue and White, The Cotton Embroideries of Rural China by Muriel Baker and Margaret Lunt. I think first time round, in my uneducated state, I had dismissed the book for what I considered very simplistic and uninspiring charted extracts, never bothering, as a consequence to delve into the text. My loss. But sometimes learning is a cyclical thing and it is only when you have come to appreciate something else that you can return and find hidden enjoyment in what you have previously discounted. There is a time for things to make sense. And I had had to wait until I had discovered the fabulous Amager stitched panels for these blue Chinese folk embroideries to make sense. Amager is a Danish island a bus ride away from Copenhagen. Until very recently it was a self contained, self regulating Dutch enclave which had been plucked by the King of Denmark out of the Netherlands in the 1520s and dropped down on fertile ground in order to stock the court pantry with good green vegetables as only the Dutch know how. They have such a totally fascinating history - they maintained their customs, their speech, their dress and embroidery over the centuries. When I visited Amager, I was totally struck by their wonderful indigo blue embroideries teeming with mermaids, lions, horses and angels. What most impresses me is the superb gestalt of their designs in which all these apparently chaotic motifs are positioned, not at random, but in such a studied way with respect to their neighbouring motifs that the overall composition comes together in a beautiful close harmony. This effect is enhanced by the internal patterns that powder the large motifs. It is incredibly distinctive, and although I have seen some of their motifs elsewhere - for example, the paired angels appear on Vierlander samplers - I have not seen that particular approach to design anywhere else. Until I looked more carefully at the Chinese cotton embroideries book again. This is very much work in progress for me at the moment. There was a Danish East India Company with warehouses on Amager which traded with South East Asia - and the question is, did one trading country influence another? The Needleprint Amager Panel 1797 Chart contains more history. Because of the present postal strike, I have decided to make a black and white PDF version available as a download for those of you who are unable to buy the physical chart at your LNS. Just click here for the Amager Panel PDF costing $10. By clicking on the little Chinese extract below which I have charted, you should be able to have a sufficiently large pattern from which to work. If you are a Needleprint Infinity user, you can click here to download a free editable version. (Remember you need to choose the option to save and not open the file as you can only open it from inside Cross Stitch Designer.) 
I was delighted to hear from Sampler Central today that the V&A Museum now have their sampler collection on-line! This is just what I dreamed of five years ago, now we can really start to put the sampler jigsaw pieces together to help with our researches. 
Thank you for supporting Carrow House with your purchase of samplers charted by Philippa Sims. Here you can see an example of the good work undertaken by the Norfolk Costume and Textile Association. This unique, embroidered counterpane needed conservation and the NC&TA raised the necessary funds of £10,980 to complete its conservation in 1997. Conservation is expensive and now you can see the significant role played by your purchases - every purchase does make a difference. But I'll let Philippa Sims who is a member of the NC&TA and a volunteer at Carrow House tell you its interesting story.
Just in time for some very unique Christmas presents...... and something original for that special Christmas party.
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Saho-san, Head Girl in Japan, has sensitively chosen such a clever and gentle palette of colours that speaks volumes about her. Many will remember seeing Saho-san's Japanese squirrel in the early days of the project. Saho-san says, 'My Mary was stitched on 40ct Lakeside Linens Luna, and Vikki Clayton silks. The project was a challenge for me: it was actually the first time I stitched on 40ct, first time to use silks, and first time to stitch a reproduction sampler, and first time to stitch a large Quaker project! And what a joy it has been! Participating in this Mary Wigham SAL was truly an epoch in my life, and such an exciting adventure. I enjoyed every step of it, from planning and choosing the fabrics to fibers, pondering over the colors in each motif. I felt myself being "freed", to draw out the creative part of myself, and to have fun in doing so, instead of just following the chart and directions, as I always used to do. What is even more wonderful was working as Japanese Head Girl. It gave me a chance to get acquainted with the stitchers in my own country. Each e-mail and comment I got is a treasure to me. It is nothing short of a miracle that I am pulling through; even if it looks as if I am the "Head", it is actually myself who is being guided through this journey of discovery, with many inspirations, brand new ideas, encouragements and such kind words.'
I am touched by Saho-san' kindness in incorporating my initials and the little Quaker Needleprint logo.
When I was young, the custom was that the bridal gown though worn but once would be cut down to make christening robes for the babies, so redeeming in part the frightening expense of the gown. Today, it seems that bridal gowns are for wedding days only, and then are put away, thrown away - or at best donated to a charity. Two hundred years ago the bridal gown, which was not necessarily white, but pale plue or grey, would have been worn until pregnancy, at least. Since Quaker marriages were simple affairs conducted without a minister, following discussion and agreement at the meeting house, our expectation is that Quaker wedding gowns would have been similarly simple. This Quaker bridal gown, having no frivolity of furbelows or lace is, however, very stylish and follows the fashionable cut of the day down to the pelerine or little shoulder cape. It was worn by Elizabeth Priestman of Newcastle (who did not attend Ackworth School) when she married on 27 November 1839 John Bright (who did). Little did she know on her special day how famous her husband would become, and that she would be dead of tuberculosis within two years. Their daughter, Helen, will be subject of a different story tomorrow.
The Gentleman's Daughter is one of my favourite books for the informed insight it provides into genteel women's lives of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. If you have not yet read this book, I thoroughly recommend you lay it down for some very enjoyable winter reading. Some of you might have read Amanda's review last week of the book Mrs Delany and Her Circle in which she probed some established thinking upon the usefulness - or not - of 'women's arts'. She concluded by stating that we have lost the ability to read the eloquence and multivalency of of the items women produced. And she extends this thesis further in her latest book - Behind Closed Doors.
It is really wonderful that when I pose an uncertainty, there is a wealth of information and expertise that comes back from you to help. So, questioning whether the flowers in the borders of the textiles which we can see in these pattern books were darned or woven, we need to thank our favourite weaver in the US, Marjie Thompson, and the Editor of Needleprint France, Paule Motton, for their helpful contributions.
There is a very interesting exhibition at the moment displaying Norwich Pattern Books which are fascinating evidence of the 18th century textile industry. The exhibition is in the Long Gallery at the Archive Centre in Martineau Lane, Norwich. It is sometimes difficult to remember the huge role played by Norwich textiles, and not just shawls, throughout the world when Norwich was second city to London. Norwich damasks provided a major component of the Frisian female's costume and there is a Norwich pattern book in the West Fries Museum at Leeuwarden. There is even a Norwich pattern book in Stockholm's Nordiska Museet. On 11 November Jenny Watts will give a lunch time talk: Exploring Records of the Textile Industry in Georgian Norwich. There is no need to book. You can find more information by clicking here.
Miss Polly's Progress has been something of a lament in our house. If you remember I embarked upon stitching an illustration from one of the first books written specifically for children, John Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket Book of 1744 which came with a ball if you were a boy, or a pincushion if you were a girl. The ball and pincushion had both a red side and a black side. If a girl did something good, then her mother or governess would put a pin in the red side. For something naughty, a pin was stuck in the black side. And...if you had 10 pins in the red side then you would be rewarded with a penny from Jack the Giant Killer - but should you have 10 pins in the black side, then Jack the Giant Killer would send a rod to beat you!I think I have about 20 pins in the black side but hope to redeem myself in time. 
I promised Karen I would make an Infinity download of the little ditsy motifs found on G44 of the Goodhart Samplers, and here it is for everyone to download free. (Remember you need to choose the Save option and not the Open option when you download because the file can only be opened in your Cross Stitch Designer). The Infinity file is in JGG format which means you can edit it, recolour it and make hundreds of your own designs. However, you need Cross Stitch Designer software to read it. (Email me if you have MacStitch.) If you don't already have Cross Stitch Designer software you can purchase it as part of the Infinity Starter Kit now with the bonus that it comes with a free editable version of the Beatrix Potter chart - and you can also download a free editable version of Mary Wigham - all for $20! There will be regular motif library downloads, free and for purchase, in this format, so it is well worth investing in the Infinity Starter Kit. Look at the masterclasses to help you get the most out of your Infinity chart downloads.
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