Modern Folk Embroidery - SAL 2025: Baldaquin Birdies - Booklet Chart

This monochromatic design has a total of 27920 crosses. It features only full crosses and is suitable for aida, linen, and evenweave fabrics. 

The cover photo of the chart shows a digital mock up of this design stitched with red floss on a light neutral fabric. Jacob recommends stitching this design with Roxy Floss Co Falu Red or Roxy Floss Co Pippy.

See Jacob's floss quantity suggestions here (you will want the amount listed for 8-yard skeins): SAL 2025 Floss Quantities

Marot was born in Paris into a family of Huguenots. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the rights to practice the Protestant faith in France and ordered Huguenot churches and schools to be destroyed. Many Huguenots fled, and Marot’s family was one of many who came to the Netherlands in 1685. Here, he became a naturalised citizen.

He started working in The Hague at the court of stadtholder William Henry of Orange, where his style became very popular. When William and his wife Mary moved to England (where William became William III of England), Marot travelled along and worked, among other places, at Hampton Court.

After William’s death, Marot moved back to the Netherlands and lived in The Hague until his death in 1752. For my design, I took inspiration from prints from the book The Works of Daniël Marot (published in 1705), now held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The inner cover pages of this booklet show prints from this book.

The design borrows elements from this book, reinterpreting Marot’s work and remixing stylistic elements popular in the Baroque period (early 17th- to the mid-18th century). At the top of the design is a decorative baldaquin (a cloth canopy often seen over altars and thrones). Under this are two parrots resting on a branch that seems to emerge from a large decorative urn with a floral arrangement. Two cornucopias (or horns-of- plenty) overflowing with fruit and flowers are on the sides. Architectural details and more floral elements are scattered about, filling up the rest of the design.