This little heart (only 15cms) has been made for the Embroiderers' Guild 100 Hearts Project celebrating lives, lived and lost during the First World War. My maternal family, the Leonards, were farmers in Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire and so I have chosen to reflect their contribution to the war effort.
My design is based on corn dollies that were made as favours and talismans of good fortune. Corn dollies are more usually woven from stalks of wheat, but this Oxfordshire Sweetheart is plaited. I made mine from some gold braid, echoing the braid used on military uniforms. I fashioned the ears of wheat using bullion knots in cotton perle yarn. The poppies and cornflowers were common to both the fields of England and France and symbolise the loss for each country.
It will be donated to the Guild exhibition that will run later this year and will ultimately be sold to raise money for the Armed Forces charity SSAFA.
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