GARDEN COLLECTING.

Last weekend I have been home at my parents place and they have the most stunning garden, full of flowers, which is now blooming. Early in the morning I went out garden collecting.

A little "picture" of straws and grasses. To me these colors are amazing, full of life and energy. I would love to use them as inspiration for weaving. 

Details of limegreen together with light rosa. Pretty pretty!!

Purple, red, rosa, lilac, silver, grey, white and black.

Geranuims which we call "Storkenæb". This is one of my favorite Summer flowers, as there is so many different kinds of shapes, shades and colors.

Leaf from the Conny Broe Geranium. The nature is amazing and full of delicate patterns.

Purløg in blooming. This little green straw you can eat.

Sun, lines and colors.

HEDEBO EMBROIDERY.

My new passion next to weaving is embroidery. I have start making it again and also collectiong items, especially white in white embroidery. It's my favorites.
I visited Greve Museum the other day and they have a large collection of Hedebo Cutwork, where white linen thread was embroidered on white linen fabric. So beautiful and with such a detail, both in the stitches as well in the designs.

The Hedebo ares is known for Hedebo Embroidery, as well as decorated furniture. Motifs from the Hedebo Embroidery can be found in the painting on the furniture.

All photos are taken by me through a glass.
Many of the photos are of decorative towels which is about 35 cm in width and 150-170 cm long with two or three borders. On holidays and feasts the towels hang on the colored, woven curtains on the alcove in the Hedebo livingroom. The girls made the decorative towels when they passed their communion. The towels became a part of the trosseau. Some of the decorative towels were inherited.

Also a lot of the photos is of a Knædug which is about 75 cm in width and 100 cm long. The textile is named from the pole, hanging over the oven in the livingroom of the peasants. In Danish this pole is called a "knæ". It was used for drying socks. On holidays and feasts the pole was decorated with the embroided "knædug".

The embroidery techniques used in Hedebo Cutwork have their origins in the oldest form of Hedebo Embroidery, namely the needle lace edgins on collars and cuffs of the peasant shirts from the 18th century.
The embroidery is simple and is made only in Danish buttonhole stitch.
Hedebo Embroidery is not just one form of embroidery but consist of seven different variations;
Hedebo edges, Counted thread work, Drawn thread work, Square cut work, Hvidsøm, Baldyring and Hedebo Cutwork.

On Greve Museum you can find information about Hedebo Cutwork and they have even made a special webpage for Hedebo Cutwork which is in english too. The webpage is fantastic with cultural informations, how to sew and you can even explore Greve Museum’s collection of Hedebo Embroideries. Amazing.

Detail of a decorative towel with Baldyring.

It's a very practised and skilful needlewoman who have made the piece. It's pieces such as this which inspired the architects Thorvald Bindesbøll, Anton Rosen and Martin Nyrop to produce their later designs in Hedebo embroidery.

Detail of a Knædug. Under the cross stitch there is a border of H hemstitching.

Cross stitch where often combined with Hedebo Cutwork.

Here a detail of a decorative towel, which shows a monogram, with the year surrounded by a wreath, and a flower arrangement on each side. It has been sewn in red cross stitch.

Detail of a Knædug with Hvidsøm and square cut work. This Knædug contains both pure net fillings, rose fillings and woven fillings, as well as fillings of cross-stitching. At the bottom, a plaited warp made of coarser fabric has been attached with small overcasting stitches.

The Knædug is given the date 1834 and the initials KID, embroidered in square cut work and surrounded by vines and leaves in chain stitch and satin stitch. KID stands for Kirsten Jens Datter.

Detail of a bought fringe attached to a knædug.

Detail of a cut work Hedebo decorative towel. The embroidery is a fine example of early work Hedebo, where the tradition of having horizontal borders framed with H hemstitching is preserved. Despite the great openness of the stitching, the embroidery is solidly worked and the different fillings in the spaces show a great proficiency and an experienced needlewoman.

Here is the detail of the narrow border with a row of hexagonal wheels, each consisting of triangular spaces with points and beading loops.

Detail of a corner of a serviette in cut work Hedebo. It's finished with scallops with circular cut spaces in every scallop. Here it's possible to see the Spider Web filling in the holes.

At the Greve Museum there are several books about this amazing embroidery. I recommend these:

Udklipshede, Hedebo Cutwork by Jytte Harboesgaard. ISBN 978-87-988931-3-4

This book is a revised edition of Kniplingssyning fra Hedeboegnen, published by Borgens Forlag 1993. This book comes with ½ of the text in english and shows how the different kinds of stitches and designs are embroidered. Very useful.

Jytte Harboesgaard have her own embroidery webpage and the book is also available as an e-book.

Hedebosyning -en verden af variationer. Hedebo Embroidery -a World of Variations by Henriette Buus. Katalog from Greve Museum 2008. ISBN 978-87-89367-28-6

This book also comes with ½ of the text in english.

MORNING WALK.

I have an obsession, it's very simple and it's cemeteries.
I can keep on walking at the Assistens close to my home on Nørrebro in Copenhagen. There are no place like it.

This day I found my own letter K carved into a stone.

I love the strong yellow color, which has been paintet onto the little tag with numbers.

The Sun rises.

The old metal gates are so pretty, full of history and patina.

Lots of Geraniums is in bloom at the moment. This one is from the Phaeum family, called Samobor. It's a very tall plant with small flowers and the most beautiful leaves. I have some of them too at my balcony and in the backyard plantet in pots.

Not really in use any more, but they stand there full of grace and a lot of memories are with them.

BOBBINS AND SPOOLS.

At the moment, I'm working with these spools and bobbins at my studio.

Different kinds of paperyarn from Nakachuu and Trevira CS. I like to mix and match to get different kinds of textures and surfaces in the textile.

The handmade woven basket where I collect my spools. I bought it last year at the Kunsthåndværkermarked in Copenhagen. Soon a new one will be.

Todays breakfast, a cup of coffee with hot milk in my favourite cup from Royal Copenhagen.

And new updates on my textile letters from Flaurette and Sabine. Please have a look.

NEW EMBROIDERY.

My new passion next to weaving is embroidery.
It's so easy to work with, and I can take it with me everywhere I go, in the bus on my way to work or even now when the weather is so fantastic here, I can sit on my favorite spot at the Assistens Cementery and sew the embroidery stitches. So nice!

One of my first embroidery.
I like trying out new colors and stitches in a sample before making the big piece. To me embroidery is a new way of express my feelings and here I am also able to do something I have never done before in weaving; working with colors. Weaving for me is working with black, white and the shades of grey in between. To me it's the most beautiful way of showing the structures in the fabric. So this is a new way for me to try to find out how to work with colors and still show the structures of the stitches. Perhaps one day, colors will appear in my weavings too.
Perhaps, perhaps not!! 

In a way I am still addicted to the simple shades, here light grey and light green, close to each other. It's not easy to let go of something I have been working with for so many years.

I like beeing surrounded with flowers of all kinds, inside and now also outside on my balcony and even in my backyard.
I have bought these Astrantia Major, we call them Stjerneskærm and I find them so fragile with the little hopping stars in the middle. Also the Ranunculus is amazing. This one looks like a lace to me with it's edges that looks like a brush.


I have got a lot of new post in my textile letters. Please have a look and join if you want me to send you a letter full of treasuries.

PERUVIAN CEMENTERY.

I love cementeries.
The whole atmosphere, the quiteness and feeling of just beeing me is so strong there. In Lima there are so many beautiful cementeries and my husband have taken me to two of them.

You can find other posts about cementeries here and here.

This is from Callao with lots of fresh flowers. There were rows after rows full of these. So amazing.

From another cemetery in Lima which were very old. As I remembered I think my husband and I were the only visitors that day.
Around the cementeries you will always find small booths of flowermarkets and I always buy some flowers to bring with me simple to show respect, both to the buried and the people who come and visit there beloved family members.

The most simple gravestone I have ever seen, probably because the bereaved were poor and could not afford a real one. This really touched me so much and I believe it's the most beautiful and fragile gravestone I will ever come across.

In Lima there are many Chinese and especially Japanese people. I like looking at alphabets and how letters are written.

Two windows with colored glasses in beautiful patterns.

This little wreath reminds me of the beautiful and very pretty filigran silverwork I have seen been made in Ayacucho. 

My favorite photo of all, these plastic flowers and feathers covered with dust.

A beautiful gravestone in white marble with Maria and Jesus on the cross.

I want to end this post with these cute little girls who are dancing. So pretty!