Back in February I was on a much needed holiday on Madeira.
Madeira is among other things famous for their embroidery, aptly called Madeira embroidery. Proper Madeira embroidery is stitched by hand in beautiful patterns. Alberto Vieira, a local Madeiran historian, has written a book about Madeira embroidery. It includes among other things the the history of Madeira embroidery and explanation of the stitches. When I have had the time to properly read it, I will do a review of it.
I wanted to support the local craft shops, so I bought a cute handkerchief holder for my kleenex packages. It is hand embroidered and it has been checked by the local factory. It was approved and has a certification seal that all approved kits and finished items have.
One of the local factories was also a shop, and I bought two kits from it.
The first kit I chose for two reasons. I absolutely love white calla lilies, and on our levada walk we saw a few growing by the path. So this way I will always connect the picture with the holiday we had.
It is pre-embroidered on the fabric, so it is like a printed on pattern, but with much more precision. The extra yarn will also make the stitches stand out from the background.
The background yarn is not included in the kit, so I can choose whichever colour I feel like - so that means visiting my local yarn store at some point to get some yarn :)
The second kit is going to be an interesting challenge. It is a handkerchief with a drawn pattern on, and there is thread and a needle included. That's it. There's no instructions with it!
Luckily I bought it at the Bordal shop in Funchal, so there was a lady sitting out front doing embroidery. She showed me how to do the little dots (I believe they are called seed stitches) and explained that there was some stem and satin stitches in the design as well. I am looking forward to try it out but it is definitely going to be a challenge!
I also found a yarn shop in Funchal called Loja Gonzalez. Unfortunately I found it five minutes before it closed for the weekend, but I did manage to snatch some crochet threads.
They were all meant to be size 6, and I bought them as such, but when I came back to the hotel and looked closer at them, three of them were size 12!
As I don't have a pattern in mind, I don't mind at all - they were too pretty to leave in the shop.
That was all the crafty things I bought at my holiday on Madeira. I am definitely going back, and I am definitely buying more crafty things!
Until next time,
x Michelle x
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