Another Transylvanian church, more embroidery

This church is a few Km away for the church I posted about yesterday. 

The Kalotaszeg region of Romania is famous for this "irasos" or "writing" stitch, here blue is the colour.

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Transylvania, commemerative embroideries

Its been a while since i have posted here. I have just returned from a trip to the Kalotaszeg region of Transylvania, Romania and thught I would share some images of embroideries. First up is a church in the small village of Magyarvalko. A beautiful fortifed church on top of a hill in this tiny village.


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Beautiful, embroidered wall hangings from Transylvania

Hungarian Embroidery Sampler

There is a strong tradition of embroidery in Hungary and Transylvania.  This huge samlper was made by and given to me by Eniko who is a master craftswoman. It show 24 examples of embroidery, from a particular area of Hungary and Transylvania. The combination of stitches, colours and patterns are unique to these areas.

Its a wonderful piece and a great reference in identifying embroidery.

Parna costume- vintage floral

Pretty vintage florals from Hungary and Slovakia. See more on the parna costume website page here

About Vintage Grain Sacks

Vintage linen grain sacks vary in weight, texture and weave, every piece is slightly different .

Most of our grain sacks date from  before 1939, most are significantly older. Our grain sacks were woven in areas of Eastern Europe with a strong peasant culture. Families would grow their own hemp and or linen, harvest it, prepare for spinning and then weave. Hemp and linen was used to make clothes as  well as household textiles and sacks and cart covers for use on the small holdings. Stripes and or monograms would indicate to the village mill whose grain was being milled. The most common coloured stripes are red or blue. We source from a small number of villages in transylvania where toffee  coloured stripes were woven form thread dyed using  walnut kernels.  Hering bone weaves are more ommon in Romaina, sometimes thes fabrics are dark and very heavy and generally not as attractive as the fabrics thtat were made in hungary, the Ukraine and  some of the Transylvanian villages.

Grain sacks are beautiful textured, versatile fabric. Measurements are for the unopened sacks .  The sacks was made of one piece of  fabric doubled over and hand stitched at the sides  the opening hems. Some sacks have a triangular of rhombode peice of cloth inserted at the opening  with which the sacks could be more easily grasped and may have been used as a pouring spout. Each grain sack is double the stated length if opened out.

Our pinterest page shows vintage grain sacks in use for furnishngs