Stitch explorer April
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 7:00AMThis month the challenge is to look at another Italian embroidery style which is called Casalguidi. The Embroiderers Guild has featured this style in their magazine Stitch. Do take a look at its traditional form. This is a a highly textured form Italian pulled fabric embroidery worked traditionally on linen.
I have explored this stitch in more contemporary manner
I have directions on how to work Casalguidi stitch in my stitch dictionary. But it is not the stitch alone that makes it interesting. The design element that ties this style together and makes it interesting is a contrast of texture as usually the high relief work is set against pulled thread stitches. Without this high contrast it just looks like a grub on your fabric.
Lots of stitches can be used in conjunctions with this type of embroidery such as raised stem stitch, Woven Picots, Buttonhole Bars and dare I say but the stitch we had in February trellis stitch goes very well too!
Traditionally this style of embroidery was worked on linen but today embroidery can be pushed in different directions by using different fabrics and there are numerous interesting threads which can be used. Pearl cottons, Rayon and Metallic threads all have qualities that make this style ripe for reinterpretation and possible revival. As long as the thread is capable of creating structure it is suitable. Perle is ideal but I have often wanted to put aside some time and explore using some of the novelty knitting yarns with this style.
Take a look a the work of Janet M Davis as she has created many pieces of contemporary Casalguidi. Effie Mitrofanis has written a very good book on this interesting style of embroidery. It is called Casalguidi Style Linen Embroidery
If you need to use pulled and drawn stitches there is a primer and general information here. Also online is this lesson in pulled work . This tutorial was published on stitchin fingers Also see Part I - Drawn Thread Embroidery by Therese Dillmont (PDF) and Part II - Drawn Thread Embroidery by Therese Dillmont (PDF) which are free books supplied by the Antique Pattern Library
Have fun with this months challenge. I have established a Flickr group for those who want to use it. The name is Stitchexplorer
How to participate in the stitch explorer challenge
Stitch some samples that push this embroidery style
Blog it or put images somewhere online where people can see them. If you use flickr send them to the Stitchexplorer group
Come back to this post and leave a comment with your web address in it so that people can visit and see what you have done.
Note if when you leave a comment, if you fill in the form with your URL, it means that when people click on your name they will be taken to your blog.
The full guidelines for the challenge are here and yesterday I posted links to various places online where you see what people did with last months challenge
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Reader Comments (21)
Hi Sharon!
What an awesome way to build a snake! I had been thinking of a way to make a reptile and this looks really nice. Your little corn snake is terrifically lifelike.
Like millefiori but on cloth.
Hi Sharon,
The Casalguidi looks very interesting. Would you do the pulled thread work and then do the dimensional embroidery over that? Seems like you might need a real plan as to where the pulled areas will be before you start stitching. There's a very impressive picture of it that I found .
~LinMoon
p.s. Thanks for your comment on my Assisi panther - your great Assisi idea inspired a lot of fun for me!
I've seen this stitch also referred to as raised stem band. It's a popular way to do trees when doing stumpwork.
Oops, I forgot to format that link correctly in my previous comment. But you can see the picture if you click on the period after the word "found".
~Lin Moon
Hi Emily - yes it is similar to raised stem band but this is usually fatter - lwts say is chuncky!
Hi Sharon,
I LOVE this technique, and I can see why you would like it!
Your snake is awesome! Two questions for you: Did you use a variegated thread for your snake? With traditional Casalguidi stitch, you stitch the last layer of stem stitch from one end to the next without stopping and restarting. Looking at your stitching and trying to follow the colors, I'm thinking that the only way you could have achieved the change in colors is with a variegated thread... unless you came up with another way to do it. I also wanted to ask about the snake's head: when you got to the head, did you stitch it on a diagonal or is that just my imagination?
I'll enjoy learning this stitch.
Celeste -
Thanks for the questions. Yes I used a hand dyed silk thread that was variegated. I stitched the head on a diagonal.
Dear Sharon,
I have done the first three now and enjoy this challenge a lot. The Trellis stitches and Assisi embroidery as well Casalguidi are new to me. I love the Trellis stitch, I tried different threads and the look is always quite different from any other stitch. Thank you for this challenge and sharing your ideas!
Helina in Finland
After finishing my Assisi dragon I started with this new challenge. It's just the first step for now, but there will be more.
I have borrowed Effie's book on Casalguidi embroidery from the library and it is a great reference, lots of good combinations of the stitches used in this form of embroidery. Now to try some out, might use some on my assisi sampler which is still in process!!
I've been busy practising. First I have done some pulled thread work (I never did that before) and last week I made a circle in Casalguidi stitch. Now I will try to combine both. For pictures see my blog, http://borduurblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Stitch%20Explorer .
I learned this technique in City & Guilds. I like the contrast between the pulled background and the heavy raised work. I put a couple of samples on my blog derived from this stitch.
http://smockery.blogspot.com/2009/05/flower-power.html
and the one before
Sharon
Thankyou for this month's challenge. It was one I never thought I would attempt and was just the impetus I needed. I had lots of fun - although the small piece is not finished the Castalguidi stitch is.
The photos are on my blog http://maggies-textiles.blogspot.com
I really love Casalguidi, almost as much as I love stumpwork. I think it's the textural nature of the stitches that draws me to it. I've uploaded a couple of photos to my flickr account. The first is a traditional design that I stitched a while ago - the design is from EGA's correspondence course but instead of stitching it in monochrome, I stitched it with color threads. The second example is a stumpwork dragonfly - I used the Casalguidi stitch for the dragonfly's abdomen.
celeste
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celeste_embroidery/
April is blogged and flickred:
http://mindblogglings.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/playswithfibers/
My Casalguidi piece is finished. See my blog and the Flickr Stitch Explorer Group.
Only a few days late! Yes it is finished and up on the Flickr site. I have also posted in on my blog. www.carorose.typepad.com
Carolyn
Here's a link for my snake: http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=2105845%3APhoto%3A106108