Nordic Needle and Punto Antico

I used to write the newsletter for my local embroidery group and so I subscribed to many needlework newsletters and messageboards as sources for the latest news and products to report to the membership. Years have past and I no longer write the newsletter but I'm still subscribed to the various needlework newsletters.

Imagine my surprise to open the April 8th Nordic Needle Newsletter and see that the feature article was on Punto Antico and cited my blog and article for Piecework!

It is rather startling to open an email and view your own photo staring back at you.

I'm very glad to see that people are interested in Punto Antico here on this side of the Atlantic, Nordic Needle is a needlework store in the state of North Dakota in the US. In the newsletter they provide links to a designer called Gingerbread Girl who has designed some contemporary patterns for using Punto Antico stitches (follow the links in the newsletter to see them). I couldn't find out anything about Gingerbread Girl so unfortunately I can't tell you about her or her kits.

There is only one thing I wanted to add to what Debi says in the newsletter. While it is true that Punto Antico has become most commonly practised as a counted thread technique, it is also still done as a freestyle technique in Italy.

There is a delightful book called Punto Antico disegnato by Giuseppa Federici which describes how this technique is executed as a freestyle embroidery. The text is only in Italian but the step-by-step colour photos are easy to follow and there are over 50 patterns, motifs and designs - some of which use Cutwork and Reticello designs to compliment the Punto Antico stitches.

You can order this book from Tombolo Disegni, send an email request to order.

If anyone knows anything about Gingerbread Girl designs, will you leave a comment below?