Last summer when I visited Lacis in Berkeley, CA, I picked up some great embroidery iron-on transfer packs from Italy, via the company that produces them, Mani di Fata. I've long been a fan of many European needlework products and publications, and lately, I've come across a nice resource for Italian needlework supplies, including linen and threads for the various types of whitework and drawn thread embroidery that are popular parts of Italian needlework traditions.
Italian Needlecrafts is a retail website dedicated to... Italian needlecrafts! On the website, you'll find a whole selection of the aforementioned Mani di Fata embroidery transfers, with a nice variety of beautiful embroidery designs for household and other linens.
But of all the nice things on the site, this is really what I was after. Inspired by pottery designs from Ferrara, Italy, Estense embroidery is beautiful and colorful. A while ago, I saw a reference to this book somewhere online, and of course, I lost track of the resource! I was thrilled to find the book here.
Besides books and design resources, you'll also find some very nice Italian linen available on the website. Careful, though - the prices reflect the price for fat quarters, so if you're looking for a whole meter, you have to multiply the price times 4. Still, if you're looking for Italian linen for whitework, cutwork or Assisi embroidery, and you wonder what linen is used in all those beautiful examples of Italian needlework, this is the stuff.
I've added a few items from Italian Needlecrafts to my list, and when the budget is conducive to making an overseas purchase (shipping's a real bear!), I'll pick up a few things that I can't find available here in the US.
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