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I promised to write more about Dala-Floda embroidery tradition, TAST week 13, Satin stitch week. But instead of writing myself I will link to some blog posts of interest, by a friend, who has written far better texts than I can do.

Embroidery on wool, with loosely spun threads, that makes a soft and textured surface.

His name is Lars and he is a talented knitter, who also has a broad interest in traditional textiles. (The picture above is from his blog.) He has just started to learn embroidery.

Lars writes in English and has published lots of pictures. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Dala-Floda is famous for more than embroideries. Follow the links below, and you will see. (All links are opened in a new window). You can also see the kinship with my ”Flowers of Paradise” print used for my TAST stitching.

Four days in Dala-Foda
Roses and embroidery, crochet and knitting in Dala-Floda, part 2
Roses in embroidery, crochet and knitting in Dala-Floda, part 5
Cources at Dala-Floda
Embroidery sampler – Påsöm
Embroidery in Dala-Floda – Påsöm
Treasures in Dala-Floda

Do you want to see more? Make a Google search for pictures. I suggest some Swedish words to use, that might give you a good search result. You can easily copy and paste, even if you don’t understand the words: Dala-Floda broderier, Floda broderier, Floda Hemslöjd, Påsöm.

There is also a digital museum at http://digitaltmuseum.se. You can try the same words for searching.

Here is a link to a photo book with wonderful pictures: Påsöm från Björbo

I hope you will find pictures of embroideries from Dala-Floda inspiring.

I am learning new stitches every week and I am using the wonderful print, Flowers of Paradise, from Dala-Floda, Dalecarlia, Sweden, by Karin Holmberg, for practicing. Karin has given the old traditional embroidery technique a modern twist. She became well known among embroiderers in Sweden for her traditional embroidery on a simple hoodie.

(These photos are from Karin Holmberg’s blog)

She has made the print I use for my TAST stitches, inspired by Dala-Floda stitching and knitting tradition. I made a visit to Dala-Floda Hemslöjd ( Dala-Floda Art and Craft Assosiation) last summer and found the print in their shop. When all flowers are filled with stitches they I will make a pillow for my red sofa in my country house in Furudal (another village in Dalecarlia also known for rich textile heritage).

Somebody in the TAST Facebook group asked for stitches suitable for letters. That question gave me the idea of stitching even the letters in the selvage with TAST stitches.

I used couching, fly stitch, buttonhole stitch, detatched chain stitch and regular chain stitch.

Karin Holmberg has made other amazing jobs, for example embroidered book covers for the republishing of one of Sweden’s most famous writers Wilhelm Moberg, who has written four novels on the emigration from Sweden to America during the 20th century. I wrote about it here. She has also published three books of her own, among which I like the first one best, Karins broderier. I have written about two of the books, here and here.

You can also follow Karin Holmberg on her blog.

Satin stitch is imporant in in Dala-Floda embroidery tradition. I will show you more from this rich textile tradition TAST week 13, which is Satin Stitch week.