Summary of article in Billed Bladet #31, 2018.
Written by Trine Larsen.
As you know a new antependium for Gråsten Palace Church was unveiled a couple of weeks.
The antependium which QMII has been working on for two years is to replace the previous antependium that was made by Queen Ingrid and which has seen continuous use since WWII.
QMII has spend 250 hours embroidering the new antependium.
It's no secret that Gråsten has a special place in her heart and attending church every Sunday, and sometimes inbetween in adult years, she has often sat and looked at her mother's work.
She said at the unveiling: "I have for so many years been delighted with the work my mother embroidered when she was pretty young and had come her and had gotten a special feeling for Gråsten and Southern Jutland. (Queen Ingrid was very fond of Southern Jutland, and the feeling was mutual.)
In a dark time (1943) she also embroidered a text into it, which pointed towards what everybody wanted back then."
The text on the old antependium read: Ære være Gud i det højeste. Og fred på Jorden - Which I think can be translated to something like this: Glory/praise be to God in the Highest. And peace on Earth. - Perhaps Faster B can help? ?
The antependium has for all these years been in use. The fabric has even been changed and the embroidery transferred to a new, but that's also a long time ago... Now it has come to the end of the line."
But it won't be completely discarded. The old antependium will be placed in a montre and exhibited in the church later this year.
The parish council had considered various option for replacing the old antependium and it was here Benedikte came in.
Back in 2017 QMII made and presented an antependium for the Lutheran church in Wittenberg, so Benedikte suggested that she made one for Gråsten as well.
QMII explained:
It was a great pleasure for me to try and make something that could again be connected to the church here.
But I chose to use other colors and other methods, because I can embroider with gold (threads) as my mother could. But I would like to use a color my mother was very fond of... and what I had in mind with the flowers are flowers who have always been of great significance to my mother.
The lilies is both an old symbol in regards to the church, but they were also in my mother's bridal bouquet, because they reminded her of her mother, whom she lost when she was very little.
The blue flowers, especially delphinum is among the flowers my mother was most fond of and which I'm also enormously fond of and which we are very delighted to have here and in other gardens I have the pleasure of being involved with.
And then there is of course the Gråsten-apples. It is perhaps a little unusual to use the apple in a church in that way, but the apple has after all a very old connection with our Bible and the concept about what an apple CAN be is not just negative. That's why I thought it was worth bringing it together on an antependium where we can also follow the ornamentation of the church with these arkantus leaves which intertwine so merrily all around."
So let's have a closer look at the details.
https://app.box.com/s/3wlk17r58zj3k512vf5w3c5rtsunktsn
The old antependium, with a peace-dove in the center embroidered with gold-threads.
https://app.box.com/s/o67i7xlz3qx1bzdcnuvijgbnl0puv92s
The akantus leaves flank the center motif of the antependium:
https://app.box.com/s/iytpilitb40qg3ayvyn2d6wsdqy2v1b4
Inbetween the akantus leaves are three little marguerittes, symbolizing QMII, Queen Anne-Marie and Princes Benedikte. Above them are Gråsten-apples and Delphinum, the favorite flower of Queen Ingrid.
There are also French lilies and a reminder of Queen Ingrid and Prince Henrik.
The center motif and The Spring of Life.
https://app.box.com/s/fuaht5v9jrh1d5lm83cpmfcc32tt6ovg
Yes, she is beautiful.
Mary (and Fred) have done an outstanding job of raising very grounded children in the face of the cameras. I wish people would take note of how tactile this family is in front of the cameras, because there is another royal family (hint: starts with an Sp 
