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Embroidery World Tour 2025
Prompts for the raffle for 2025 - countries.
For those wanting to do the Travelling Pages here is some information about each country’s embroidery/textile traditions to give you a starting point and some inspiration. It’s not an exhaustive list!
PLEASE NOTE:
You can do absolutely anything you want inspired by each country; you DO NOT have to do any traditional embroidery techniques if you don’t want to.
Instructions for the Travelling Pages
We will start in January, first swap in February.
● Each month’s theme will be the same as the raffle country for that month. You could do some artwork/notes and a finished piece based on the prompt. The notes and artwork can be as detailed as you want. All prompts are open to your own interpretation.
● Mounted your finished work on thin card/sketchbook paper, single sided, landscape, no larger than A5. Please sign your work.
● Put completed work and notes in a BLANK envelope and bring it to the next meeting; all the envelopes will be put together, and you will pick one randomly to add to your collection at home.
The next month’s theme will be swapped in the same way reusing the envelope you got last time.
● January’s prompt is China; you will do your piece after the meeting, and it will be swapped at the February meeting; February’s prompt will be swapped at the March meeting and so on. If you are unable to do/don’t want to do a particular month, then you won’t get a swap. If you make a piece but are unable to attend the meeting, then keep it and put it in your own book.
June: Egypt
Think Coptic woven textiles as well as ancient Egypt.
Stitches: blanket stitch, chain stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, seed stitch, stem stitch, twisted chain stitch and couching.
pyramids, hieroglyphs, scarab beetles, Tutankhamun, cats, ibis.
Stitches: cross, satin, running, chain, Otomi stitch (videos on YouTube, it’s a herringbone variation)
Bright colours, floral motifs, and symbolic representations of nature and folklore.
August: Norway
Hardanger (whitework): a drawn & counted thread technique Squares, rectangles, triangles, crosses, zig-zags, diamonds, 8 pointed star Stitches: Algerian eye, buttonhole, cable, picot, satin, running, wrapped bars.
Other things to consider: Traditional costume - Bunads, Vikings, runes, Northern lights, Munch
September: Morocco
Intricate patterns, geometric designs, floral motifs, and Arabic calligraphy.
Stitches: cross-stitch, satin stitch, running and double running stitch backstitch, chain stitch.
Roses, ceramic tiles, the hand of Fatima, Berber carpets, lanterns.
October: Panama (just to shake things up a bit!)
Chosen for Guna Mola, a type of multi layer reverse applique.
Animal and plant motifs in bright colours with simple embroidery.
Has a picture tutorial in her Stitch methods tab.
Or other Panama related things:
Harpy eagles, dove orchid, Wounaan & Embera traditional tattoos, devil masks 😬.
Panama has one of the highest concentrations of species on the planet.
November: Sweden
Huck embroidery on Huck fabric(? 🤔) Monks cloth (? 🤔) or Aida (! 😁), in other words fabric with warp & weft threads that ‘float’. Huck embroidery weaves the thread through the fabric; no knots apparently and no stitches showing on the back.
Vikings again! Northern lights again! Moose, lakes & forests, midsummer celebrations, reindeer, Sami duodji (traditional craft)
Dalmålning (Dala folk art especially the Dala horse)
Mountmellick: white on white embroidery; motifs based on plants found around Mountmellick: blackberries, dog roses, shamrocks, oak and fern.
Stitches: cable, stem, herringbone, coral, chain, couching, French knots, bullion knots, Cretan, feather, fishbone, fly, cable, satin, seed, long & short and…the tricky Mountmellick:
The Book of Kells, shamrocks, leprechauns, Newgrange, Giants Causeway, celtic knots, hares, green.