Wednesday 11 September 2013

More Swedish stitchery

Last September, I posted 1950s Swedish Stitchery, about the beautiful embroidery in the book Hemslöjdens Handarbeten by Andra Delen.

Remember this?

vintage swedish embroidery
A Pinterest favourite

It's my most popular post by far, so thanks to everyone who has checked it out over the past year. Thumbing through the book once more, I remembered how spoilt for choice I was last time – there were so many lovely images I didn't have space to include – for instance, how did this amazing cushion not make it into the original post?

vintage swedish embroidery
Blåsväder (Windy Weather) cushion

I had a bash at translating the Swedish captions, but didn't get very far. Love the name of this one though. The hair!

vintage swedish embroidery
Windy Weather (detail)

I also found out that 'kudde' means 'cushion' and, hazarding a guess, 'mönster' means 'maker', but if there are any Swedish speakers reading this, I'd love some help piecing it together!

vintage swedish embroidery
Beautiful washed-out pink

I'd give anything to see this thing of beauty in colour – or even to be able to understand the caption...

vintage swedish embroidery
Is it a bell or is it a tree?

The birds on this Bird Wreath cushion go round in a circle, facing a green leafy garland. Just look at the detail in their wings:

swedish embroidery
Fåglar i Krans or Bird Wreath cushion (detail)

The one thing I find frustrating about old craft books in general is the lack of colour plates. but colour printing was such an extravagance, it's actually surprising there is as much of it in this 1954 book as there is. There are loads more beautiful images in here though, even in black and white, so watch this space.

vintage swedish embroidery
1954