Antique Cross Stitch Embroidery

This is a finely cross stitched antique wall hanging.  I took it to the restorer as there were some small holes. She said that they used to spin paper into the cotton thread to save money. She also recognizes this as an embroidery made by ethnic Hungarians in the Ukraine who used to bring embroidery to Hungary in exchange for flour and bread which were hard to come by in the Ukraine at the time.  However I am more inclined to think that this was made by ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania... anyone any thoughts? I have included an image of the back  of the piece

Pretty vintage

This picture is from the Jan issue of the BBC Home and Antiques magazine. Lovely grey walls. The embroidered table cloth is one of ours, you can see more pictures of it on the website by clicking the title link

Traditional Hungarian Embroidery (2) Siogard

Colourful folk costumes from Siogard in Hungary; fantastic socks, slipper shoes and brightly embroidered blouses , waistcoats and aprons with pleated skirts. Veronika Vargaine Kovacs, has written a book on the embrodiery of Siogard and the embroidery museum that has recently opened there. Typical of the embroidery from Siogard is cut work bordered by blue and purple embroidery.

Traditional Hungarian Embroidery (1)

Today one of the very talented and patient women who embroider for parna gave me a region by region lesson in the traditional embroidery of Hungary.

The images above come from a piece from the village of Buszak in west Hungary, a village first settled 500 years ago and now with a population of 1200 people or so. Buzsak has a rich folk heritage.

In Buzsak embrodiery patterns are geometric and embroidered in red and blue with small amounts of yellow and green. The colours have to be absolutely spot on , a shade or two out simply wont do!

Transylvania

I have just arrived back from Transylvania. Here are some pictures of the house I stay in in the village. This is the "best "room and shows the traditional decorative bed, this is a particularly splendid one with lots of cross stitch embroidrey. The traditional pillows are piled high with the decorative part facing outwards. There are two mattress covers stuffed with straw, you can just about see the ends poking out , they are covered with two decorative covers.