In early 2015 I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London and I did a few sketches of Elizabeth I and Henry VIII etc. Shortly after, I started an embroidery of one of the Elizabeth I sketches. But then it ended up in a drawer while I was working on the Romantic Motifs book and the Mandala book.
A couple of weeks ago, I found the embroidery while tidying some drawers and decided I’d finally finish it. Which I did and now here she is as an embroidery pattern for you to stitch too. If you want to! :-)
Gloriana is in my Payhip shop.
I am so happy how she turned out. When I was a teenager, I used to read loads of books about royal/noble ladies. Real ones, not imaginary Disney type princesses etc. Any kind of historical fiction. The ladies at the local library knew my reading preferences so well, they’d actually put new books aside for me before I even knew about them!
Elizabeth I was always one of my favourites and I’m so happy to have made this tribute to her. I think she must have been pretty bad-ass to be a queen at that time. :-)
I have a sketch of Henry VIII that I also want to stitch, at some point. I’m also playing with an idea of doing portraits of all the reigning queens of England. We’ll see.
Your work is absolutely beautiful!