Medals
Here are some of the medals created by members, for more information please see the Medals section further down this page.
Covid Medals
Jenny
Jennie
Caroline
Mary
Rebekah
Elizabeth
Sylvia
Covid Medal Information
Some time ago whilst planning for the Hospital Heroes exhibition at RDH next Spring, Lesley had a completely crazy idea: Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could design and produce (in stitch of course) our own medal for our current hospital heroes on the frontline of this pandemic, and put one of these medals in the reception area of every ward and department of the hospital? (This means about 75 medals!). After inviting members to submit ideas of what should be included on such a medal the design is now complete. We now need volunteers to stitch this medal (possibly twice!!). This is your opportunity to express our thanks to our local NHS workers.
Here's the outline of the design for you to trace.
We chose a shield shape for the medal, because of its connotations of protection and shielding. The base colour of the shield is white, with a blue border (the colours of the NHS logo). The design for the centre features blue Forget-Me-Knots to show we will not forget the havoc that has been wrought, the sacrifices made, or the dedicated contributions of all the hospital staff. The ribbon is a rainbow which became a familiar sign of support for NHS workers, and the citation (Gold lettering on a red ribbon with orange reverse side) echoes the citation on the old Derby College of Nursing & Midwifery. It was carefully chosen to NOT mention Heroes as many hospital staff refuse to see themselves as heroes, merely doing their job in trying circumstances.
We would like the medal mounted on a background of pale green, pale yellow or cream please. NOT WHITE, as this will detract from the white of the shield. You may use any techniques you wish, to stitch the design, but please stick to the overall colour scheme. There is scope for flexibility in the shades of colour you choose.
To make so many of these medals we need all hands on deck please. Your template copy will be delivered to you with an A4 canvas (or 2!). As the Covid Medal will not be part of the exhibition, but a gift from us to hospital staff, we realised it would be better to present the Covid medals to the hospital separately from the exhibition work. Therefore we have set a Deadline for the Covid medals of 31st March 2021. This gives you a further 8 weeks after the exhibition deadline to concentrate on your Covid medal, so please work your exhibition piece first.
To commit to stitching a Covid Medal please email me (you should have received an email from me about the medal which included my address, if not please let Eve know by her email or derbyshireitrep@embroiderersguild.co.uk telling her how many you are prepared to stitch, and where you would like your design delivered. Delivery will be a few weeks away as we need to order the canvases. We do have some pale green sheeting if you have not got anything at home suitable for your background cloth. Please request when you email Eve and I will include a piece in your design pack.
The Hospital Heroes sub-committee thank all those who took the time to send in ideas for this medal and hope you like the finished result.
Lesley Clifford
Eve's Addition
Eve has been inspired to create these images of a bouquet of flowers as a way of showing our appreciation of NHS workers and is considering the use of appliqué, felt, cross stitch, patchwork, machine embroidery or hand stitch to create an additional A4 piece for the exhibition: Eve is happy for people to use the outlines below.