And The Winner of The Official Buckingham Palace Guide Is

There could be only one winner this time as I can conjure no more copies for now. But thank you to all the many who entered the spirit of the draw and took time to share their history. By way of a little consolation I thought you might like to see this embroidered map of London made in 1951. If you look closely for Westminster Abbey, you will see a married couple with an attendant there. If you want to buy it then Locke and England are the auctioneers you need to contact - the sale date is 26 May and it is lot 141. Just click here for more details.

You told me last week about the number of years you had been stitching - some of you deserve length of service gold medals! Thank you for all your emails in which you not only told me how long you have been stitching, but also your first encounters with stitching - your emails made me smile they were so heart warming. One lady, Giovanna from Italy, still has her first big finish hanging in her kitchen: she made it for her crafts class at school in the 1972-1973 school year when she was 11. Giovanna says: Could anything be more 1970s?, My mum stitched the stem-stitch antennae, I just couldn't get them right...as you can see, it was stitched on linen: my mum got me started on that straight away - the youngsters who stitched all those wonderful antique samplers didn't have Aida!

Well, you really set me off reminiscing! Many years ago I can remembering stitching this piece on a sampler for my parent's wedding anniversary - like many of you I came to cross stitch through the lovely Danish pattern books of the time. This is from Gertie Wandel's lovely little cross stitch book of old motifs. And would you believe it? When I went hunting to scan a page to show you...

...I found 2 copies! Which means that next week we shall have a draw for this book also. Look on the blog next week for the details of how to enter.

And the winner of the Official Buckingham Palace Guide is Celeste from California.