Sardinian Knot Stitch in Inspirations Magazine

The new edition (#87) of Inspirations magazine is out and nestled amongst all the lovely projects you'll find a book weight project done in Punt'e nù embroidery from Teulada, Italy.

While a book weight is a break from traditional use for this embroidery, the pattern is authentic and features a pair of cockerels back-to-back with an almond motif between them. The pattern also features the pomegranate motif and the teeth border.

The book weight is also double-sided, done in the reverse colours on the other side:

You can use a book weight to keep your pattern books open when stitching or to keep your embroidery frame on a table while you work on an area that hangs out over the edge.

They make great gifts and are a nice size for experiencing a small sample of Punt'e nù embroidery!

Also in this issue of Inspirations is a lovely review of the English version of the book Sardinian Knot Stitch. This book is also available in an Italian version. Both books are available through Amazon.

Thank you Inspirations for doing such a beautiful layout for this little project!

Sardinian Knotted Embroidery - new book by Yvette Stanton

Today Yvette Stanton of Australia is launching her latest book: Sardinian Knotted Embroidery. If you're already familiar with Yvette's other books, you will know that this latest book can safely be purchased sight-unseen. Yvette makes excellent needlework books. After writing half a dozen, she knew what to do and she did it very well.

She is also a very talented designer and needlewoman. You will delight in her work and the projects she has proposed.

Sardinian Knotted Embroidery - Whitework from Teulada is Yvette's seventh needlework book and this time she has turned her eye on Italy. She and her family vacationed in Italy so she could better research this book and she was able to meet people who embroider this technique, see their manufactures and absorb the tradition and history of it in it's native environment. All of this shows through on every page as does Yvette's talent and enthusiasm. She takes your hand and stays with you every step of the way through learning Sardinian Knotted Embroidery - whether you are right or left-handed. Yes, you read that correctly. There are left-handed instructions for the embroidery as well as right-handed ones. And I'm not talking about just mirrored images, but real, helpful, achievable left-handed instructions as you see, Yvette herself is a left-handed stitcher.

The book starts off with a quick introduction and some background history, there is a bit about materials and equipment then by page 15 you dive right into the beautiful projects that Yvette has designed and stitched herself. There are 11 projects in all of varying degrees of difficulty and time-investment: the smallest item being a necklace pendant and the largest being a tablecloth. Even though the tablecloth is the biggest, it is simple enough that you can see yourself actually stitching it and not having it become a UFO (unfinished object). Yvette's photography shows off the projects nicely and it's easy to just sit and drool for a long while before picking up your needle and thread!

After the projects section are the instructions which fill the remainder of the book. There are not just instructions on the embroidery, but also on hemming which include planning, folding, mitred corners and three different hemstitches with complete right and left-handed instructions as well as a lacy edge treatment.

Instructions on the actual stitch are enhanced by tips, tricks and advice such as right and left-handed instructions on working the knot, changing directions, ending a motif, ending a thread, changing the thread, particularly tricky motifs and how to handle them, typical mistakes and how to avoid them but also how to fix them! All of these things have both right and left-handed diagrams to help you out.

Then there are instructions on damp stretching the work once you are done the projects and finally where to get supplies. A removable envelope of fold-out patterns is glued to the last page. Text in English.

You can purchase Sardinian Knotted Embroidery direct from Yvette's website where you can also get thread and fabric too including imported Italian linen. If you're contacting her right now, give her a few days to answer you, she is at a needlework event in Adelaide launching the book and teaching classes.

Sardinian Knot Stitch - new book English version

As I told you here, I've been working on a book on punt'e nù, a counted thread needlework technique from Teulada, Sardinia. In that previous post, I told you that I'd let you know when the English version was available... so it is now!!

Back cover

I've checked and Sardinian Knot Stitch is already available to order on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and the other amazon websites will show it in the days to come.

A sample page spread from Sardinian Knot Stitch

Sardinian Knot Stitch is the collaborative effort of four stitchers who set out to learn more about this beautiful needlework found traditionally on men's folk costumes from Teulada. The back cover above shows a close-up of the richly embroidered collar and just above you can see the cuff of a man's traditional folk costume shirt (click on the images for a closer look).

The book is 70 pages and covers some historical background along with technical instructions, some traditional patterns and then a few non-traditional projects of varying levels of difficulty, this being the most complex:

Cushion project from Sardinian Knot Stitch

Sardinian Knot Stitch is intended as a beginner's approach to the needlework. As punt'e nù has traditionally been local to Teulada and handed down by word-of-mouth, there has been very little written about it.

There is a group in Teulada now who has been working to bring this and other embroidery typical of the area to light with needlework shows exhibiting non-traditional pieces adorned with punt'e nù like towels, tablecloths and other household and personal linens. For more information about this group and/or visiting Teulada and seeing this work, contact the owner of this blog.

If you happen to be vacationing in Sardinia right now, on August 5th there is an exhibition in Teulada:

If you get to go, will you leave a comment below?

Sardinian Knotted Stitch - new book!

I can finally tell you about one of the projects that I've been working away on... for nearly the past four years! The result of intense study, research and lots and lots of blood, sweat and tears: Il Punto Annodato Sardo (Sardinian Knotted Stitch) is an instructional manual on the little-known needlework technique called Punt'e nù which comes from Teulada in southern Sardinia, a large Italian island off the western coast of Italy. 

Back cover

This book is the collaborative effort of four stitchers who set out to learn more about this beautiful needlework found traditionally on men's folk costumes from Teulada. The back cover above shows a close-up of the richly embroidered collar and below you can see the cuff of a man's traditional folk costume shirt. 

The book is intended as a beginner's approach to the needlework. As Punt'e nù has traditionally been local to Teulada and handed down by word-of-mouth there is very little written about it. Even Sardinians who live outside of Teulada only get to see it in some museums or on the costumes during religious festivals or on the rare occasion of an artisan exhibition. 

There is a group in Teulada now who has been working to bring this and other embroidery typical of the area to light with needlework shows exhibiting non-traditional pieces adorned with Punt'e nù like towels, tablecloths and other household and personal linens. For more information about this group and/or visiting Teulada and seeing this work, contact the owner of this blog.

A sample page spread from Il Punto Annodato Sardo

The book Il Punto Annodato Sardo is 70 pages and covers some historical background along with technical instructions, some traditional patterns and then a few non-traditional projects. 

It is available on amazon.it (and other amazon websites) but this first version is written in Italian. Very shortly there will be an English version and I'll keep you up-to-date when that is finished and available.

I must get back to work!

UPDATE: here is a review in Italian for those that would like it, and another one here. Also there are now quite a few reviews (in Italian) on the amazon.it website page for the book.

UPDATE: the English version is now available!

Sardinian Needlework - Puntu Vanu, Punt'e Nù and Punt'a Brodu

Summer always has me thinking of learning something new and I usually decide to tackle a technique that I haven't tried yet. This summer though I am thinking of getting to know some techniques a little better instead of taking on a new one.

Lots of Italians head to Sardinia for their summer holidays and since I can't do that, I've been revisiting some of their needlework techniques in the unusually sunny weather we are having at home. There is nothing better than sunlight for visibility when stitching so I've been out on my deck under my own ombrellone.

In the spring of 2011 I visited Sardinia and spent some time getting to know a few Sardinian needlework techniques like Puntu Vanu, a type of smocking and two techniques that are specifically from Teulada: Punt'e Nù and Punt'a Brodu.

I'm running into all kinds of difficulties not the least of which is lack of good eyesight!

Puntu Vanu is usually executed on percale cotton fabric as it is traditionally worked into a shirt or blouse. I honestly tried to perform an evenly spaced running stitch line on a piece of percale but I couldn't see well enough to do more than a few stitches a day without hurting my eyes with the amount of magnification I needed so I switched to a piece of Sotema Batiste cotton.

Using Rosalba Lecca and Ebe Ciampalini's book, I chose a simple heart pattern and then withdrew one ground fabric thread into which I stitched my first running stitch line.

The first stitching line of my Puntu Vanu piece.

It was tough going as even the fabric count on the Batiste cotton is quite high. Eventually I figured out that if I wrapped my finger in piece of dark leather-like cloth and laid the work over it, I could see relatively well and the stitches went more quickly (the leather-like cloth was sent to me by the lovely Elizabeth Prickett for use when making Ruskin Lace. Unfortunately Elizabeth has since passed away so I cannot ask her for a supplier or even what the cloth is made of. If you really want to know, you could try contacting the webstore).

As Puntu Vanu is a kind of smocking, the strip of embroidery must be long as it will be pulled so that the fabric bunches up to form the pattern. Roughly a 36 inch strip of the Batiste of this thread count will produce a 12 inch piece of embroidery. I'll update you as I stitch more.

Photo from: Luoghi e Volti del Punto Filza

For my Punt'e Nù practise, I decided to make a bookmark using some of the colours found on the traditional Teulada man's costume. 

I took some patterns from this blog where you can also find the instructions on how to execute this embroidery. While you're there search Puntu Vanu, Punt'e Nù and Punt'a Brodu for some great photos! 

I think I'll trim my fringe down a bit more. This was made on 28ct Jubilee cotton fabric using DMC no. 8 Pearl Cotton:

Punt'e Nù stitching

And for Punt'a Brodu, I've taken part of a pattern off of a lovely vase painted by Marilena Ledda that I saw while in Sardinia in 2011:

The work of artist Marilena Ledda

I'm still trying to perfect my stitching on this pattern that I proposed for the EGA magazine Needlearts, June 2013. In the magazine, I did the pattern using embroidery floss but here I've done it using DMC no. 80 tatting thread. I still need a LOT of practise!

I hope you have enjoyed "travelling" to Sardinia with me. As far as I know there are no instructional books on Punt'e Nù or Punt'a Brodu. The instructions (which start in Febbraio 2010) for Punt'e Nù on the blog I mentioned above are quite good - give them a try! The only book I know of on Puntu Vanu is the one I mentioned above.