This is Coronation weekend. King Charles III was crowned on Saturday. Today, Monday 8 September, is a Bank Holiday in the UK to mark the occasion. There is much that could be said about the Coronation. This is a Textiles blog, however, so I will concentrate here on some textiles.
On Saturday, St Luke’s Church in Ramsgate projected the televised Coronation ceremony on a big screen. Members of St Luke’s (and St George’s, my own church) were invited to come and watch the event together and then share lunch afterwards. The church was decorated in patriotic red, white and blue.
The decorations on the pew ends were made by Colleen from organza, net and ribbon – so pretty!
Viewing the ceremony on a large overhead screen worked well and it was enjoyable to share the experience with others.
The colour photo on the cover of The Sunday Times on Sunday 7th May shows very clearly the elaborate decoration on the golden robe of state worn by the King. The garment was first worn by George VI and restoration work on this garment for this Coronation was done by the Royal School of Needlework.
The Princess of Wales and her daughter Charlotte wore beautiful matching embroidered textile headdresses by the milliner Jess Collett.
At the end of the ceremony Queen Camilla wore an embroidered ‘robe of estate’ designed by Bruce Oldfield. It was hand-embroidered with many personal symbols, images and names. Look closely at the left-hand side, just above the hem and you will see the depiction of one of her pet dogs.
After all that ceremonial stitched splendour, I’ll end with an image from Kirkcudbright in South-West Scotland. This is a charming textiles contribution to the Coronation celebrations by a knitter or knitters unknown.
In other news…this Friday, 12th May 2023, issue 52 of Make Modern will be published. This is what you can expect to find in it:
“In Issue 52 we MEET Indigenous sewing artist Crystal Two Hearts and her striking star quilts, graphic designer Corinne Sovey whose bright quilts bring us so much joy, and corporate business owner Jackie Gillies who quilts as the perfect creative antidote to her busy career. We MAKE big bold geometric quilts, and quilts with something to say! We chat about the importance of colour in DIY design, quilting for charity, creating great habits for quilters, stitching in the ditch with rulers, and we chat to five QuiltCon attendees to help answer ‘Is QuiltCon for you?’. And we MOTIVATE you to sew curves with confidence and bring you a whole gallery of inspiration for your next curvy quilt. All this plus tips and tricks from our expert quilting team to get us up and raring to quilt!”
My quilt pattern ‘Rainbow Ladder’ is in issue 52. I’ll share more about that next Monday. In the meantime, if you are interested in making Modern quilts and want to buy a copy of MAKE MODERN magazine or take out an annual subscription (or even a lifetime access subscription), click the link here for the details. (Please note that this is an affiliate link – if you make a purchase, a modest commission helps support my work providing free content on this website and in my monthly newsletters.)
