Later this month A. and I will be flying off to Stockholm again. A. for work, and I will be doing the necessary exploring of the city. I am already looking forward to visit the Nordiska Museet situated on the beautiful island of Djursgården. The city is made up of lots of small islands, and Djursgården houses several museums and monuments, including the open air museum Skansen, the ABBA museum, and the Vasa Museet (housing a beautifully preserved 17th century battleship that sank on its maiden voyage).
I’ve mentioned the Nordiska Museet before in this blog post, but wanted to tell a little more about it, as it was the inspiration behind my latest pattern and cross-stitch kit.
The museum is Sweden’s largest museum of cultural history. Their collection reflects life in Sweden from the 16th century to the present day. Walking into the museum, you will notice its friendly atmosphere and lovely exhibitions.
In the upstairs area of the museum one can find a huge selection of beautifully preserved textile crafts, ranging from costumes, bed linens, and embroidery samplers. It is the latter that I am particularly interested!
One room is filled with drawers and drawers of old fabrics, beautifully stitched and decorated by talented hands.
However, one doesn’t need to visit the museum to see a lot of their exhibits: visiting the website digitaltmuseum.se you can search not only the collection of the Nordiska Museet, but that of many wonderful Swedish museums. It is a great initiative that allows anyone to brows through the most beautifully made objects in the comfort of their own home.
As I was doing research for our upcoming trip, I came across a beautiful, long, and very old sampler. It depicted various religious scenes, but I was especially taken by the small potted plant in the shape of a heart, from which carnations bloomed. I took this theme, and incorporated it into my latest design.
The decorative borders on this sampler were taken from a small 19th century border sampler, stitched in red wool. I felt that they were the perfect fit to my own design, and incorporated them as they were.
All stitching featured in this blog post is stitched with my brand-new embroidery wool line, now available in my shop. The threads are all hand-dyed in my Yorkshire studio, using only natural dyes. Read a little more about those threads on the Modern Folk Embroidery Wool page.
3 comments
Hi Jacob. Just a note to say congratulations on your new embroidery wool line. The shades are beautiful and I’m sure it will prove to be a very popular line. Wishing you every success. Pj.x
Thank you Pj, that’s so kind! 🙂
Hi Jacob,
I adore your wool! So happy you’re making it! Such gorgeous shades! I cannot wait to stitch with it! I’ll be ordering some this week in that gorgeous pink color! You’re such an inspiration to me! Thank you! Oh and I love your new shop! http://sewfrenchembroidery.blogspot.com/2015/01/sneak-peak.html