On Your Marks...

Just in case you didn't get enough yesterday, here are some more Norwegian Hardanger Embroidery bookmarks. Incidentally, both letter "As" in the word hardanger are pronounced with the "ahh" sound. The "G" sounds like the g in girl, not gym.

The ivory bookmark on the left is another of my own designs. White on white and ivory on ivory are the most traditional styles of Hardanger. We named this one "Kelly", after my niece, because it has a lot going on just like her. It contains buttonhole, satin and cable stitches. Satin stitching can take on many different shapes; from straight lines, cloister blocks, and other geometrics, to the fancy ship's heads pictured in the blue and sherbet pieces below.

The blue, as yet unnamed, bookmark is an original design worked with the silk thread. Below is a close up of the same design done in different colors.

All of these designs are still fairly simple because none of them contain any open work, like the pieces pictured yesterday.


The ivory and blue bookmarks are done on a 22 count fabric, while this sherbet piece is done on a 28 count Jobelain fabric. That's 22 or 28 threads per inch. Typical cross-stitch fabric is 18 threads per inch. This would explain why I get headaches if I work on it too long!