Historical Needlework: Klosterstitch

When I reviewed Floresita’s vintage embroidery pattern site, I made the mistake of attributing the Vogart library to Floresita, who pointed out that it actually belongs to Jane Stockton. My apologies to Jane Stockton! I found out from Floresita that Jane also has an embroidery site – come to find out it’s one I’m pretty familiar with, as I check it fairly regularly.

The Needles Excellency is a site devoted to historical needlework, and right now, Jane Stockton has updated her latest project, which is a hanging worked in klosterstitch. Check out her progress! It’s really fantastic. I’d love to know more about the hanging – the design, for example, and the symbols on it, the choice of threads, and whatnot. It’s really quite beautiful so far!

Klosterstitch is a “couch as you go” kind of stitch. It’s also called Romanian couching, or Bokhara. “Kloster” meaning “cloister,” it has roots in convent embroidery – that is, embroidery done for the Church. While I don’t have the opportunity right now to add Romanian couching to my Video Library of Stitches, I do have it on my list of stitches I want to add. In the meantime, you might want to read about Romanian couching and see how it’s worked.

Thanks, Jane, for a magnificent and fun website! Good luck on your Klosterstitch hanging! And my apologies for the misdirection on your Vogart Library!