spreading the word

Schwalm embroidery - named after a region along the Schwalm River in Germany - is one of my favourite embroideries. I only "discovered" this type of embroidery when I came across Christine Bishop's book a few years ago. Her book is full of beautiful designs and I just had to have it, wanting to "have a go".
However I found difficult to follow her instructions, mainly because the illustrations in this book are hand drawn and not always very clear, and as a novice to Schwalm I did not find this easy. Some of you might remember me writing about it at the time.

I thought I better start with a sampler, which is one of the projects in the book, but eventually I lost interest, I believe due to unclear instructions. It just seemed like too much hard work and I wasn't really enjoying it. Or may be the sampler was the wrong thing to start with. I gave up at this point.

Some time after that I learnt about Luzine Happel, a German lady living not far from the Schwalm region.

Luzine is passionate about Schwalm embroidery. To me she is the "Queen of Schwalm". She has written number of books on the subject. Her instructions are very clear with photographs of the actual stitches.

I am still building up a courage to start working on tablecloth, which is a project in Luzine's book I have.

So why am I writing about his again? Because a little while ago I received an email from Luzine telling me about her new website and I want to share this with you. You can learn there about the history of this beautiful type of whitework, see many examples of old and new, and also many beautiful pictures from the region - all you have to do is click here and enjoy.

new schwalm book

This is another recent addition to my bookshelf, a book on Schwalm embroidery. It was recommended to me by Linda, a friend blogger from Australia. It was written by a German lady, Luzine Happel, who comes from the area where the Schwalm embroidery originates.
I had to order the book directly from the author, e-mail leuchtbergverlag@aol.com.
It is a very well written book, with very clear instruction and photographs. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Schwalm embroidery. I consider it better then the book I had already, by Christine Bishop. Although I will still carry on with the sampler from Christine Bishop's book, I look forward to making a tablecloth from Luzine's book.

what am I stitching now?

I have had this book for a long time and every time I looked at it, I just wanted to get stitching, but then I looked at the details... and I put it back on the shelf.
But last night I actually started. It is going to be a slow work, because quite a bit of it is new to me.
Schwalm embroidery is of a German origin, very similar to Hedebo from Denmark.
It incorporates various surface stitches, pulled fabric, drawn thread, needlelace and needleweaving. Traditional design is based on 'tree of life', which include hearts, tulips, the sun, pine cones, flowers, fruit, leaves, dove...
To practice as many stitches as possible, I have decided to make a sampler.





And there is the Fabric book cover, which I have been collecting bits for, but at the moment I just don't seem to have any inspiration as to the design. It would a shame to spoil the lovely piece of silk I have chosen for it.


I am also working on Tail Feathers quilt, see post 9th April.