Randje a week

August 1st I celebrated the 12th anniversary of Soed idea! So that will be a party in half a year…. 😉 A milestone that is inextricably linked to "Randje per Week". Now a household name in the embroidery world. I would like to tell you how this adventure started…
 

I had never met Annelies van den Bergh in person, but we read each other's blog. Annelies collects embroidered school patches and writes about them on her blog “Quilts and Siggies”. I invited her to give a lecture about her school patches. On 3 November 2013, Annelies will come to Vaassen with part of her collection of school patches, samplers and a showpiece. In front of a group of 50 ladies she starts to tell enthusiastically… 

During her lecture, Annelies mentions several times the different edges that can be seen in the school patches and that she actually "wants to do something with this". Afterwards, something starts to bubble with us and the idea for “Randje per Week” arises. Annelies starts - by hand - putting the different borders in her collection on paper and I work them out and make embroidery patterns from them. Soon 106 edges are collected together with a total length of 2 meters.

On December 9, 2013, the time has come. We have created a blog, (I think) I have a large stock of embroidery tape in stock and we are announcing our idea through our blogs and social media. My supply of linen tape is sold out in no time and many participants sign up. The tape cannot be dragged on and soon even the manufacturer is out of stock!

We will start on January 4, 2014 and the first edges will be published on the blog. Although hesitant at first, Randje is embraced by more and more people from home and abroad every week. More and more members are joining the Facebook group and the Randjes are downloaded by many every week. People who have not embroidered for years become enthusiastic again and embroidery groups and friendships are even created by de Randjes.
 

The filling in of the Randjes is also becoming more and more creative. At first everyone obediently follows the pattern, but soon people also add their own twist. Important events are incorporated in the Randjes, own color combinations, the most beautiful creations are made.

The randjes are becoming a real hype! It was not exactly measurable, but it was clear that people from all over the world participated in Randje per Week. When we published a booklet about the Randje per Week at the end of 2014, I sent it to more than 20 different countries!
 

After this many years of embroidery fun will follow. Randjes again in 2015, alphabets the following year, in 2017 Vakje per Week and Randjes once more in 2018. We have also published a booklet for each year. In the meantime, some of the booklets are sold out, but we have collected all Randjes in one book: "Alle Randjes Collected 2014-2021" This contains ALL 300 randjes that were previously published, sorted by height.

The crowning glory of our Randje per Week story is when we are approached by Museum de Bevelanden in Goes, asking whether Annelies would like to participate in an exhibition. A huge job because Annelies has to pick out samples "with a story" that are interesting enough for the museum, but we succeed and on February 21, 2020 the exhibition "The Original Randjes" will be opened by us. Unfortunately, the Covid virus throws a spanner in the works a month later and the museum has to close temporarily. The exhibition will be extended, but unfortunately a lot of people were unable to visit the exhibition. The exhibition does inspire another year of Randje per Week in 2021.

New Randjes
 

De Randjes are inextricably linked to Soed Idea and continue to attract! A while ago I bought three red school cloths on Marktplaats from one maker “Tona Janse” from Hellevoetsluis. 2 patches are dated 1908 and 1909, the third is probably from 1910. It is clear that this concerns 3 years of handicraft education. The patches mainly contain a lot of Randjes (and a few alphabets and series of numbers), which increase in difficulty. I could relatively easily put them together into one whole "Tona's Randjes" (coincidentally, my mother-in-law is also called Tona and she was a fanatical embroiderer!)

So I decided to start again this fall with a kind of Randje per Week, but then with "Tona's Randjes". After the holidays I will tell you all about it!!!
 

If you can't wait that long and you already want to gather material: the pattern is 201 crosses wide and 550 crosses high.

That is the following size:

28 ct/11 ply: 37 x 100 cm

32 ct/12.6 ply: 32 x 88 cm

36 ct/14 ply: 29 x 78 cm

40 ct/16 ply: 26 x 70 cm
 

So in all cases it is most convenient to order a piece of fabric measuring 50 x 140 cm.
 

The pattern is completely in one color (originally red but you can of course just take your favorite color) and you then need 12 skeins of DMC if you embroider with 2 threads.