According to Queen Margrethe herself, as a child she hated needlework and preferred to draw. That changed in the summer of 1960, when Queen Ingrid and a group of friends enjoyed themselves at Graasten Palace with embroidering, while the sight of the beautiful, colored yarn sparked the young heir to the throne’s desire to sew. That quickly resulted in an evening bag, embroidered for her mother in an improvised, flame-like motif, a spectacle case for HRH Princess Benedikte and a chair cover for Amalienborg, all created without a pattern.

Since then, there have been – apart from the formal, embroidered church textiles – innumerable private embroideries, presented as gifts or used in Queen Margrethe’s own rooms. The evening bags and spectacle cases for friends and family members, Christmas calendars for all of the grandchildren, a three-and-a-half-meter Christmas tablecloth for Marselisborg Palace, cushion covers and furniture covers for the palaces, the Royal Yacht Dannebrog and hunting lodge in Trend, fireplace screens for Fredensborg Palace among other places, and even a dressing table for HM The Queen.

The embroideries are now made from patterns that Queen Margrethe herself has created on graph paper, generally based on the recipient’s monogram, wrapped with twining shapes. The colors of the embroideries are adapted, as are the motifs, to the person or to the space where the embroidery is placed.

Moreover, Queen Margrethe has designed several embroideries for the Danish Handcraft Guild, including patterns for calendars, cushion covers and dinner mats.

Queen Margrethe’s private embroideries have been exhibited at Koldinghus Castle in 2021.