embroideries

Global Schwalm Sampler – Update (18)

Now on to the grand finale: I recently received a package from Hong Kong with 36 (!) carefully packed embroideries.

Mimi Chan is a perfectly trained embroiderer with body and soul. She passes on her enthusiasm to young people through free lessons. She teaches her great skills in courses for adults.

When she found out about the Global Schwalm Sampler project, she encouraged many of her students to participate – both beginners and advanced embroiderers. They all did their best.

Of course, I can’t present all of these embroideries at one time – that would go beyond the scope of my blog posts. Little by little, I will show them all – in the order in that I opened the individual packages.

Due to another lockdown in Hong Kong, Mimi had to temporarily close her studio again. The work that had been started had to be completed on one’s own at home and then laboriously collected throughout the big city. Since time was of the essence, many embroideries did not include a reason for the chosen motif.

What is in all the small and large packages?

Have fun exploring the wunderful contents, looking at the diverse design ideas and discovering all the interesting embroidered details.

#54
Elaine Chiu

#55
Vincci Ko

#56
Toni Lam

#57
Kennes Young

#58
Anna Chan

#59
Laurels Lung

You can see more contributions in Update (17).

Global Schwalm Sampler – Update (17)

Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has overshadowed the issue of climate change a little, but global warming still looms large.

Today all over the world, many trees are being destroyed from both natural disasters such as storms or floods, fires, and the beetle plague and man-made disasters such as the slashing and burning of large swaths of rain forests.

Australia experienced disastrous forest fires this year as a result of drought and heat.

#52
Ann Kennon from New South Wales, Australia created a small embroidery in response to the bad fire season of her home.

She wrote: “My inspiration of this embroidery is the horrendous period of catastrophic bushfires we experienced in Australia, particularly in my state (New South Wales), over our Spring and Summer. Eucalypts are the iconic Australian forest tree, and the total destruction of eucalypt forest in my state was many millions of hectares, with much of that in national parks. This devastation is very distressing, and although there is regeneration occurring, it will be many years before our forests look once more as they should. As well, there were many millions of animals and birds destroyed as well, which is heart-rending.

In the mid 1990s I created a small embroidery in response to a very bad fire season at that time. The enclosed embroidery is another such response, and is of eucalypt tree leaves and seed pods. Eucalypts, of which there are many species, are known locally as “gum trees” and the seed pods as “Gumnuts”.“

#53

Nicola (Nikki) Fairhurst, from the United Kingdom sent a beautiful, more traditional design with hearts and tulips arranged around a circle. Originally embroidering Canvaswork, she graduated top of her class from the Future Tutor course at the Royal School of Needlework. Schwalm whitework has been added to the subjects that she teaches.

She wrote: “In my design the hearts are linked together around a circle – as we all need to work together around the world to help defeat the Covid pandemic. I included Tulips as a reference to the part of England I spent most of my childhood – South Holland in Lincolnshire. In spring the fields are full of colour because of the tulips and daffodils that are grown commercially in the area.”

You can see more contributions in Update (16).

Global Schwalm Sampler – Update (16)

Elisabeth Erdmann from Germany, with contribution 13, has already contributed a very beautiful, Schwalm-typical embroidery to the Global Schwalm Sampler.
Now she has donated two more appealing pieces. She chose small and particularly tall designs, which she embroidered differently. The special sizes are excellent for assembling the sampler because they make it much easier to connect pieces without gaps.

#50

#51

You can see more contributions in Update (15).

Global Schwalm Sampler – Update (15)

Two more magnificent animal motifs were contributed to the Global Schwalm Sampler – both with a reference to the home of the respective embroiderer.

#48
An embroiderer, who wishes to remain anonymous, has donated an excellently worked contribution to the joint project. She chose a finch as the subject of her piece – the sparrow is a traditional motif of Schwalm white work and symbolizes fertility.

#49
This week’s other contribution comes from Rita Tilbrooke from Australia. She chose to embroider a unique motif to represent her homeland: a cute seahorse. She did an excellent job of converting the pattern into effective embroidery by choosing suitable stitches.

She wrote: “Sea horses are found in the waters around South Australia and we discovered some when on holiday in Port Lincoln a few years ago. They are unusual as it is the male who bears the babies and expels them through the valve on its abdomen.”

You can see more contributions in Update 14.

Today I can present eight new contributions.

#40-45
Six Italian friends who are passionate embroiderers sent their lovely contributions together. Their names are Piera Tavano, Fausta Galantucci, Maria Grazia Callerio, Rosa Cavallaro, Rosaria Coppino, Maura Fragonara.

They all used the same fabric measurement, but some oriented their designs one way and others another way.
They all chose the same main motifs but designed them very differently. The arrangements of stitches are also varied. So six similar, but unique, charming embroideries were established.

#40

#41

Piera wrote – roughly translated: “We are a group of embroiderers, and we live in Novara, a town located in northern Italy.
We are fond of embroidery, and we really like Schwalm whitework because it is very elegant and impressive.
When we read about the project, which was presented in March on Luzine´s blog, we immediately thought to participate.
Despite the difficulties of seeing one another and moving around the city, we managed to find a way to prepare 6 linen pieces to be embroidered and got to work.
We chose a heart motif and filled it with an openwork pattern because we thought to come out of this dark period with emotion and love, and we would find the light again. Tulips have given us faith in God and into the future, while buttercups will eventually give us back the meaning of life beyond pain and suffering.
We hope that our contributions will arrive in time to be included in the beautiful project.”

#42

#43

Siamo un gruppo di ricamatrici e abitiamo a Novara, una città che si trova nel Nord Italia.
Siamo appasionate di ricamo e ci piace moltissimo il Ricamo d´Assia perchè è molto elegante ed evocativo.
Quando abbiamo letto del suo progetto che ha presentato a Marzo sul suo blog, abbiamo subito pensato di partecipare.
Nonostante le difficoltà che c´erano di vederci e di spostarci in città, siamo riuscite a trovare il modo per preparare 6 piastrelle da ricamare e ci siamo messe all´opera.
Abbiamo pensato di usare il cuore lavorato a rete perchè con sentimento e amore usciremo da questo periodo buio e ritroveremo la luce. I tulipani ci hanno regalato la fede in Dio e nel futuro mentre i ranuncoli alla fine ci potranno restituire il senso della vita oltre il dolore e la sofferenza.
Speriamo che le nostre piastrelle arrivino in tempo utile per essere incluse nel suo bellissimo progetto.

#44

#45

#46-47

Hedwig Clausmeyer from Germany already contributed pieces #7 and #31–#35.

This time she donated two pretty little stars as possible space fillers, but they are too good for that purpose.

You can see more contributions in Update 13.