European Jamboree 1994 signature wall hanging

This was photographed for the #stitchingpirates Pirate pride contest. After much thought while being too ill to do much about it I decided that this was the piece I'm still the most proud of even after all these years.

When I first heard that the first Scouting European Jamboree was going to be held in The Netherlands I realised that *this* was my one chance to be a part of it - the only problem was that I was by that time already grown up and too old to be one of the many teens who were there. This left me with only one option to join in: as staff. Staff also had to pay to be a part of it - to help keep the costs for the kids down a bit and to cover the cost of water/food etc. and the staff training we were given. In the run up to it I had the brilliant idea to collect signatures of people I worked with, met and who caught my eye while I was out and about. As I was given the job of helping in the "Rental" team working in the hotel - aka army tents with army beds in them (some with mattresses and sheets and all) and put on permanent night shift this meant that, once I'd had some sleep I had all afternoon/early evening to go out and about and meet people and look around. It was a truly amazing experience, one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Before I left I bought a lovely piece of blue embroidery even weave - no idea what type it was, it's too long ago for that but it's 28 ct and since Zweitgart is the brand usually sold here it's probably made by them and I took a ball point pen with me (I know.. I know.. but well.. I knew it wouldn't fade) as well as a binder in which i asked them to repeat their signatures just in case i couldn't read it on the fabric. I also added the colour of thread they wanted me to use after showing them the available options on one of DMC's colour charts with a swatch of thread on it. The hotel people wanted a hotel on it as well for them to sign around so I started with that as they were "my" team. The bicycles were added by the bike part of our team as well as the girls manning the desk at the main office part of the site who took hotel bookings/bicycle bookings and organised rental cars.

I made a pattern of the logo and had cross stitched that before I got to the jamboree so people could see something before putting their name down, I actually did it twice as the first time it didn't come out right once it was on the fabric - I was quite upset at the time but also determined to make this happen so I didn't leave it to rot for long.

Piet Vennema who was done in black and is surrounded by stars didn't actually sign that - he sadly died in the run up to the jamboree of a heart attack (if I remember correctly) and I included his name as a remembrance as he was a really nice guy. The theme of the Jamboree was "join the stars" so I did the stars to show that he had quite literally done so. The person who took over the job and did it rather well also signed - Hans van Ark - he was a bit bemused at the time but was happy to do so.

I had a bunch of Frisians sign who refused to do so unless I promised to do an embroidery of a Frisian flag as well - which I did but it wasn't a good one, I decided to leave it as it had been a fiddly job and I just didn't want to do it again.

I did the logo of the county it was held in and the radio guys of that province signed next to it. I did the logo and name of the city it was held near. I made a cross stitch of a scout wearing a cub shirt to represent myself using the pattern from a magazine that was meant for a sailor - but then with some adjustments. Then I added the star sign of Polaris as that was the name of the staff section of the camp ground. I let people add drawings as well which I did my best to embroider in the colours they chose.

I have people from all over Europe on this - Spain, Switzerland, a Maltese *cough* Gozo film crew, English, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France to name but a few.

It took me a year to make this. I tried to make each name individual - not just by using the colours they chose but also by doing different stitches for each name. Sometimes I'd find out that I'd used the wrong colour for a name and then I'd have to remove the stitching, even though I knew the people who had signed would probably not remember I still wanted to make it perfect. It was a huge and daunting work and at times it was all too much so it would disappear into the cupboard for a bit till I'd worked myself up to do another round.

One of the worst parts was that just after I got back from the jamboree my scouting group decided they didn't want me as a cub leader any more as the other, younger, cub leaders had issues with my ability to keep the kids under control with no real effort (read I had experience with groups of kids and knew how to use my voice/expression to let them know it was time to listen - none of that all light and air "and now you have to listen kids.." stuff)  and they were somewhat jealous of me always coming up with new ideas for us to do (well I was doing packing all day - plenty of time for my mind to wander and think of new stuff) just after that I more or less lost all interest in working on this - I was also worried that I'd not be allowed to join the staff team for the World jamboree which was a year later, fortunately I was and so I was able to show this off in the lounge of the hotel

I had a devil of a job deciding how to finish this at the time, I didn't have much money and so I ended up using remnants from the basket of offcuts from the fabric shop. they were not quite large enough to go all round so I'd had to make things fit by doing 3 strips together and then fiddling a strip to the side in as well. I had a large piece of pale orange that I used as the backing. I'd slipped the loops to hang it with between the backing and the front but as I wasn't so good at sewing yet I'd had to hand sew some into place afterwards. It was another thing that got me down but I accepted that I wasn't so good at sewing at the time so just dealt with it. I did a couple of different edging stitches along the lines of the different fabrics in matching colours in an attempt to make it look like the way it ended up was planned.

Once that battle was done I then realised that the whole thing was a bit too empty so I decided to start adding stuff to fill in the gaps.

I added a tent just above the county logo to show that we'd been sleeping in tents. The clog boat was actually part of the Jamboree - first as part of the opening and then later for people to take photo's with so I decided to add a cross stitch of one as well. I stencilled flowers along the bottom and then added some stitching to bring them to life. I did the forget me nots using an iron on transfer and am still amazed at how well I did that, though it took an age and a lot of cursing to get it right.

I made a whole load of stars along the top - each with a different stitch and colour - though one was slightly misplaced and ended up being embroidered partly on one of the loops, not the best of places but well... I was running close to the date of the World Jamboree and lots of people were expecting to see it finished so I left it in place. I also included a moon to symbolise the many cloudless nights we had.

I sewed one of the patches staff were given to it as well - something official to show I was there. There is probably more on this wall hanging but its got so much going on it that it's easy to miss something.

When I see it now I remember how it was there - and how much fun we had both the European and World Jamboree a year later, they were life changing experiences and I came out the better for it.

I have no idea how many stitches and colours are in this - Lots is all I can say

The overall wall hanging is 47 inches high (excluding the hanging tabs) x 54 inches wide or 119.8 cm x 137.16 cm

You can view some close-ups here: 

Oh WOW I won! Thanks !!