Category Archives: Embroidery around the world

Gifts from Portugal: Castelo Branco embroidery

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Hannah

After my last post on Castelo Branco embroidery, Méri mailed me two Portuguese magazines about it, plus some gorgeous silks (so incredibly generous of her!). I’m so excited! I will definitely be trying it soon! The first magazine is “Bordados … Continue reading →

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Follow up: Geometric chain stitch

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Hannah

So, several of y’all had more questions about the embroidery in this picture (previous post about the geometric chain stitch design). First, about the scale: The inner core of the design (consisting of the 4×4 block of squares) is 7 … Continue reading →

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Chinese embroidery: 100 children playing

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Hannah

This is a Chinese embroidery depicting the Buddha and 100 children playing. My mother told me she counted once, and there were indeed 100 children. I tried to double check, but I kept losing track so I’m just going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Embroidery around the world, Surface embroidery | Tagged | 16 Comments

Geometric chain stitch

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Hannah

So – another post on acquisitions from Thailand. Is this Hmong or Indian or something else? I don’t know! This design is very geometric and based on spirals, like the Hmong cross-stitch designs I showed earlier. However, instead of cross-stitch, … Continue reading →

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Indian Embroidery: Gujarati dancers

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Hannah

Deepa Balagopal has kindly let me know that one of the “Hmong” embroideries I posted earlier was miscategorized – the elephant design is actually an Indian design, although the cross-stitch is Hmong style. It’s long enough ago that my parents … Continue reading →

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Armenian embroidery

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Hannah

I’ve been reading about Armenian embroidery! The examples on this particular site are all based on complex interlacings of variations on the herringbone stitch. This results in somewhat stylized geometric designs, like the embroidered cross in the photo to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Embroidery around the world, Embroidery styles, Free resources online, tutorials | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Tutto Ricamo (Italian)

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Hannah

While looking at Italian embroidery the other day, I discovered Tutto Ricamo, which is an Italian site (available in both English and Italian) with a huge amount of information on Italian embroidery history, types of embroidery,  a number of tutorials … Continue reading →

Posted in Embroidery around the world, Free resources online, Historical, tutorials | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Kyoto Adventure: Japanese embroidery

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Hannah

Tuesday there were lots of people talking about the Japanese Festival of Needles (on stitchin fingers). So I thought I’d write about my experience with Japanese embroidery when I visited Kyoto. A few blocks from where we were staying, there … Continue reading →

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On Colcha Embroidery and Portugal

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Hannah

Méri kindly posted a very informative comment on my post about colcha embroidery. It turns out that “colcha” means bedspread in both Spanish and Portuguese. Furthermore, there is a traditional Portuguese style of embroidery which uses a similar stitch to … Continue reading →

Posted in Castelo Branco, Colcha embroidery, Embroidery around the world, Surface embroidery | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Garden of Swallows

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Hannah

As a follow up to my last post on colcha embroidery, Julia Gomez was kind enough to send in a photo of her incredible masterpiece, El Jardín de las Golondrinas (The Garden of Swallows). It won Best of Show at … Continue reading →

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