Aemilia Ars Needle Lace Freebies

The Cultural Association "I Merletti di Antonilla Cantelli" has given a most wonderful selection of old Aemilia Ars needle lace patterns as a Christmas gift to their readers, students and followers!

This morning I received their newsletter in my inbox and with my heart racing I clicked on the link to read their full letter which tells the story that in the middle of the 1990s, Francesca Ortolani who was part of the religious order of the Sanctuary of Sacro Cuore in Bologna gave to Antonilla Cantelli's students some boxes full of large and small patterns for Aemilia Ars needle lace which had been used by the famous school which was headquartered at the Sacro Cuore beginning in 1912 which taught sewing, embroidery and lace to women.

Antonilla Cantelli being by then (the mid-1990s), a master of Aemilia Ars needle lace had begun her studies at the above-mentioned school which was well and widely known for the high calibre of Aemilia Ars needle lace made there. Antonilla had four students at the time of this wonderful donation from Francesca Ortolani and they were delighted to have their pick from the boxes of hundreds of patterns. 

Later, some of the students of Antonilla Cantelli formed the Cultural Association "I Merletti di Antonilla Cantelli" which continues to teach the methods of their master and to ensure that the breathtaking needle lace of Aemilia Ars is not forgotten. It is these ladies who have now decided to share a selection of their old patterns with us as a special Christmas present.

The 10 patterns are downloadable free from their website and have indications written on them (in Italian) for the execution of the lace.

If you should like to pursue Aemilia Ars needle lace but cannot get to Bologna to take classes, the ladies of the Association have published two fantastic books of instructions to help you. One is called "Bordi" [Borders] and one is called "Fiori" [Flowers]. You may still order them from Elena at Italian Needlecrafts until the 27th of December when she closes her shop. Elena also carries the lovely book of patterns and photos of Antonilla Cantelli's work written by her granddaughter Barbara: L'Aemilia Ars di Antonilla Cantelli.

For those of you interested in the history of Aemilia Ars needle lace, the ladies of the Association have begun to post original documents on their website under the "Storia" tab.

Italian Needlecrafts Closing

It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Italian embroidery supplies website Italian Needlecrafts will be closing at the end of December (last day to place an order will be December 27th.
:-(

For me this is terrible news. Elena has tirelessly provided me with exceptional service. All those lovely Italian linens and threads, the books, the patterns... well, I'm very sad. If I could figure out how to change the blog to all black, I would do it.

Puncetto Snowflake - Part One

Inspired by Renata's punt'e nù snowflakes, I decided to try my hand at a Puncetto Snowflake. Keeping in mind that I really shouldn't be trying to design patterns for Puncetto as I have nowhere near mastered the technique but you know, I was caught up in the holiday season.

I discovered that designs for Puncetto are not all that easy to make. You must keep it simple and small, otherwise you end up with a huge motif! My first design ended up having a base of 86 stitches... quite out of the question for a beginner like me to stitch, I don't even know how to do a selvedge of 86 stitches without running out of thread! Downsize and simplify. Ok. Design number two had a base of 48 stitches. Still too big for me but getting closer to a manageable size.

Since I had already done a 34 stitch base design from the Puncetto Valsesiano book, I thought I could live with design number three.

I seem to have the hang of doing small squares and small holes without much trouble now, so this design uses those. A small square is made up of two stitches doing two forward rows.

I then tried to stitch this up using DMC Cordonnet Special #20. Can you believe that I tried three times and broke the thread in various inconvenient places? Very frustrating. I thought perhaps my thread was old and somehow compromised so I switched to a different ball but the same thing happened! This time thought it was even more frustrating as I had gotten almost to the half-way point. This must mean that I'm pulling too tight! I also have the horrible habit of splitting the thread with the needle which breaks it. Argh!

I cut off my thread to get it out of the way at the top of the column but can you see where the thread broke? How do you fix that? Back to square one. This time I decided to take some photos along the way.

I couldn't find another ball of #20 so this time I'm using #40 with a #7 sharps needle. First the selvedge base of 34 stitches:

This is my selvedge or cimosa in Italian.

Those little bumps are my stitches and I've triple-checked them so that I have 34.

Now I have to do the left edge which consists of a small square, two stitches doing two forward rows (click on the images for a closer look).

First forward row of two stitches.

Return row of two stitches.

Second forward row of two stitches.

Next I have to do the small holes of the first row (in Puncetto you work bottom to top). These are small holes so I do a hooking on knot in every second stitch to get 15 holes.

First I need to hook on to my selvedge so this knot doesn't get counted as an actual stitch:

The hooking on knot which is call aggancio in Italian.

Then I need to get back up to the top making the same size hole as my square, so two return stitches on the loose thread which forms a kind of column (colonnina in Italian):

Repeat for the remaining holes until the last one:

Here we need to build our right side small square, so once again the hooking on stitch doesn't count when we make our two stitches doing two forward rows:

On our return trip (after the first forward row) we need to catch and include the loose thread, so think of it as another hooking on stitch which doesn't enter into our calculations but needs to be there. I pull a little tighter for these ones to give my hole a better shape. Click on the photo for a closer look, I've highlighted the hooking on stitch that I'm talking about in red.

Now we're ready to go back to the beginning for our next row. We need to set ourselves up though by looking ahead at the pattern to see which holes will be empty and which will be filled in the row above, as we will do one less knot for the filled squares.

I had to change threads so you can see my ends which will be cut off later when they are more secure.

Well, so far so good, no breakage. I won't push my luck, that's it for today. If you want to stitch along, I'll be happy to answer questions but please remember that I'm stumbling along myself. If you are a reader who knows how to do this, and you see something I'm doing incorrectly, please leave a comment below!

Puncetto Snowflake - Part Two 

Puncetto Snowflake - Part Three

Ivana Palomba and her thesis

For several months I have been trying to figure out the best way to tell you about a very important book which was published last spring in Italy entitled: L'arte ricamata. Uno strumento di emancipazione femminile nell'opera di Carolina Amari [Embroidered Art. An instrument in the emancipation of women in the works of Carolina Amari] by Ivana Palomba.

This book is the thesis written by Ivana Palomba for her degree in History and the Protection of Art Heritage, which she has achieved later in her life, returning to complete her studies and fulfilling her dreams which were interrupted by life as we can all understand happens especially often to women.

The publication of her thesis was a prize she won from the Associazione Le Arti Tessili [The Textile Arts Association], which now forms a part of the series of titles published on the Textile Arts by scholars with the aim of bringing to light Textile Culture and it's contribution to history, the arts and/or handicrafts.

The importance of this book is difficult to understand if you don't have much historical background. Anyone who has done any research on the textile arts and especially on women's positions in the textile arts knows that historical sources are very difficult to come by. Women in general were not traditionally mentioned or counted in data that was collected by historians, their lives, if recorded at all, were often recorded only with regard to their position to the men in their lives. This book is the fruit of many years dedicated to digging up any information available about one of Italy's most important women in the world of the textile arts at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century: Carolina Amari.

As Ivana says in her introduction: "the aim of this thesis is not only to return to Carolina Amari the honors of those arts to which she gave a new dignity between the end of the 1800s and the begining of the 1900s, but also to re-evaluate the work focalizing it as a lever of women's emancipation".

Almost nothing was known about Carolina Amari, yet she was instrumental in so many important institutions and organizations for women in Italy and also in the United States (more on that later!).

I would like to eventually tell you more about her and I understand that this book is very difficult to appreciate for those who do not understand Italian. But for those who do understand Italian and who are interested in the history of Italian needlework and it's protagonists, this text is an invaluable resource full of references. I hope to fill you in a little better in future posts.

There will be a special presentation of this book on December 3rd at the headquarters of the Associazione Le Arti Tessili at No. 4 Via Carso in Maniago, Pordenone, (in north-eastern Italy) at 11am followed by the inauguration of the headquarters at noon to be immediately followed by an Open House with lots of textile-related activities.

The book can be purchased directly from the Associazione Le Arti Tessili.

Puncetto Needle Lace Tips

I've been practising my Puncetto and it's true what they say, practise makes perfect. Well, not perfect but better! There are many pieces that I have had to abandon because I didn't count correctly, or because my tension is just too wildly different from place to place but slowly, slowly it's starting to look somewhat decent. I still seem to break or split threads quite a bit and am resolved to not force the needle in where it doesn't want to go so that I can avoid this most hardbreaking problem.

I have been diligently using my Puncetto Valsesiano book by Angela Stefanutto, Paola Scarrone and Carla Rossetti which I understand has been updated and is ready for reprinting but has been delayed due to permission difficulties with some of the photos.

I now understand that I should have followed the exercises in this book in the order that they were presented because if I'd done that, I would have understood the technique much better than skipping around and working "in the dark" so to say. If you start out and follow the (seemingly) boring first exercises, you actually understand the formula for making Puncetto work properly.

Some things that I have learned are:

• Twist your thread in the direction you are going for each stitch. This helps tremendously and allows for longer threads lengths for things such as the selvedges where you don't want to have any thread joins. I found that I was spending more time undoing knots than doing stitches until I starting doing this for every stitch.
• No matter how tempted you are to not start a new thread, do it when you need to and plan where to do it. While blocks of solid stitching may seem to be the easiest place to change threads, they are actually the most visible place - you can always see the bulk of the secured ends. I have found that changing threads on the return trip over some empty holes is the least noticible place to do it.

Visible joining of threads.

Less visible joining of threads.

• Make an effort to do very tight stitches in the first couple of rows because inevitably, they end up being the loosest stitches and once you get to the top you'll notice!
• On your return trip over empty holes, look ahead to see what will be stitched in the next row. If you have other filled holes above, then do less return stitches so that you obtain the correct amount of stitches across, I'll show you what I mean:

In this case, I did two instead of three knots to accommodate the filled hole above. Note that this number of stitches applies to small holes and that the number differs for different sized holes.

• For even tension, when completing the stitch pull the thread up and then down in one fluid motion, this moves the knot to the lower part of the stitch and helps make all the stitches the same size and tension.
• If you are finding that you can't seem to ever get your selvedges (top and bottom) to be the same width as the rest of your work, use a needle one size smaller when you are stitching the selvedges and switch to the bigger needle when completing the work between the selvedges. This last tip comes from Stefania of L'angolo di Stefania who patiently let me sit at her house and mangle many attempts at Puncetto.

I find that I easily let my mind wander when doing Puncetto which leads to mistakes, you must stay engaged and be thinking about what you're doing! One day I hope to have a sample which does not have any mistakes or broken threads, for now, this is my goal!

Design Source - L'ornamentazione

There is a fantastic book of designs called L'ornamentazione [ornamentation] which was published in 1923 by the Hoepli Publishing House in Milan. Since it is now out of copyright, you can download it free from the Internet Archive.

The title page reads:
"82 plates, designs for alphabets, monograms, companies, insignias, initials, symbols, heraldic decorations, artistic embroidery and women's works, leather embossing, metal engraving. Motifs for decorators, engravers, jewellers, etc."

The photos above are just a sampling of the types of designs that are contained in this fantastic book.

Unfortunately I can find no information on the author G. Vendrame. Nor can I find any other publications by this author. If you know something about him (or her?) would you post a comment below?

The Hoepli Publishing House started with Ulrico Hoepli, a young Swiss who came to Milan in 1870. The Hoepli Publishing House would grow to become one of the most important publishing houses in Italy. It remains in the hands of the Hoepli family and is still publishing today. Many needlework and textile manuals were published by the Hoepli Publishing House at the beginning of the 20th century.

Do Italians do Cross Stitch?

In a recent email from a reader I was asked if Italians ever did any Cross Stitch and if so, what do their patterns look like?

The answer is a resounding yes!

Cross Stitch or Punto Croce or Punto in Croce as it's known in Italy is alive and well. There are many Cross Stitch designers that perhaps you already have seen their work and not realized that they were Italian.

Giulia Manfredini of Giulia Punti Antichi is the first name that comes to mind. Giulia is a wonderfully talented lady who designs the most delicious Cross Stitch patterns!

Giulia's friend Simona Bussiglieri of Mani di Donna designs Cross Stitch patterns with a decidedly antique flavour.

Simona often collaborates with Maria Teresa Vitali of MTV Designs.

Then there is Niky's Creations and the Cross Stitch designs by Nicoletta Farrauto.

Alessandra Adélaïde's designs are by now well-known in North America, as are those of Renato Parolin (link for Renato Parolin is to a fan-site of his finished designs).

Mariateresa Capo Berti has single designs or even two book collections of Cross Stitch designs. I have her book Tante Idee in un po' di Filo which has lots of lovely monochrome antique-french-style designs.

Laura Gabutti Lattuada of Passione Ricamo makes elegant Cross Stitch designs.

There are many, many others. Follow the "links" sections on any and all of the above mentioned sites for others that I have not mentioned!

There are two associations that I know of:
The Associazione Italiana del Punto Croce
Il Club del Punto in Croce

... and this Italian NING group, AmoRicamo which covers all kinds of embroidery including Cross Stitch.

If you're looking for some old Italian Cross Stitch Patterns, on used book websites, you can sometimes find a copy of Old Italian Patterns for Linen Embroidery by Frieda Lipperheide reprinted, translated and edited by Kathleen Epstein:

It is a lovely collection of folios tied up in a folder and secured with a black ribbon. There is much more than Cross Stitch patterns inside, but the Cross Stitch patterns that are there are decidedly Italian.