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| Block 7, Nearly Insane Quilt visits Buckingham Palace, London |
Here is Block 7 of the Nearly Insane Quilt on a trip to Buckingham Palace.
We took a trip up to London at the weekend to visit the Coronation Exhibition, which was part of the annual Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace. The main attraction for me was knowing that Queen Elizabeth II's Norman Hartnell designed Coronation dress was going to be on display, along with some of the jewels. The dress was absolutely breath-taking, and it was lovely to see the construction and embellishment on a couture dress from the 1950's. Most of the pictures from the time are in black and white, so it was lovely to see it in technicolour - there was also a colour cine film of the behind the scenes being shown. No photos allowed unfortunately, so use the links in this post to see the official photos.
As a young girl I used to pour over a book we had on the Queen's clothes, which included colour photographs of the embroidery samples that were used on her dresses. As the Queen, I *assumed* that her dresses would be covered in diamonds and pearls. It was only a few years ago, when I visited Buckingham Palace for the Dress For the Occasion exhibition that I realised that the dresses were not decorated in real diamonds and pearls, but in the same bugle beads and mother of pearl that we all can buy in the shops. Some of the dresses from the 1960s even had plastic shapes for decoration! What an anti-climax. Nevertheless, it is always a pleasure to see beautifully hand crafted couture gowns, and there was also a display of the real bling that she wore to accessorize the dress on the day.
The Coronation dress had plenty of fine embroidery on it, including beading and goldwork done by the Royal School of Embroidery. The Royal School of Embroidery still exists and is based at Hampton Court Palace in London. One of the Fabadashery Blog Followers, Emily, is lucky enough to live nearby and often shares the progress of the embroidery workshops she attends.
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| Block 7, Nearly Insane Quilt |
As always linking up with Connie at Freemotion By the River, where she hosts a lovely friendly Linky Party.
NUMBER OF PIECES: 36
DIFFICULTY:3 /10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle, 3" (76mm) x 2 1/8" (54mm) x 2 1/8" (54mm)
LARGEST PIECE: Triangle, 1" (26mm) x 11/16" (18mm) x 11/16" (18mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS:
Little Spots Red, Pierres Famous Travelling Circus, Michael Miller
Tangled Threads in Apple Red on Cream, Mama Said Sew, by Sweetwater for Moda
Spraytime (Scarlet) by Makower #2800-R06
White spots on cream
