It’s been a while since I’ve posted another Hungarian embroidery pattern from Lilly’s Legacy! This one is really hard to name descriptively. It’s busy, it’s colorful, and for some reason, it reminds me of a circus. I think it’s the striped “pods” around the outside of the design.
Many of Lilly’s patterns weren’t necessarily intended as embroidery patterns, per se. They can certainly be used as embroidery patterns, as they are typical of the folk art traditions of Hungary, and this folk art translates well into Hungarian embroidery styles. But we’ve already seen patterns that were intended as wood inlay or painted designs. This particular pattern that I’m sharing with you today can be used for many arts & crafts applications: wood design, folk painting, appliqué, paper crafts, and – of course – embroidery. There is no indication on the pattern what Lilly intended this one for. All I can tell from the pattern is that it was painted in 1956.
See what I mean about the striped pods?
The pattern is busy and colorful, combining brights with pastels. When you look at the center of the design, you get a sense of a vertically mirrored image, with the point of reflection converging right down the center line.
For embroidery techniques on this particular pattern, I can see a lot of satin stitch and block satin stitch going into a piece like this. Some variation could be had by using chain stitch to fill, or other filling stitches, like Bokhara or Roumanian couching. In most examples I’ve seen of Hungarian folk embroidery where lots of filling is used, block shading or block satin stitch seem to be the dominant fillers.
If you were to stitch up a piece like that – say, to line a tray or to make a pillow cover or something to that effect – how would you stitch it? Any ideas for the pattern’s use? Fee free leave a comment below and share your ideas to inspire the rest of us!
Here’s what the line drawing of the pattern looks like:
And here’s a link to download the PDF version:
Hungarian Embroidery Pattern #10 (PDF)
And of course, any clever ideas for a descriptive name for this pattern are always welcome! I don’t think “Circus Pods” does it justice, do you?
Enjoy your weekend!
