Lilly’s Legacy of Hungarian hand embroidery patterns continues, with this combination of hearts and tulips in a medallion-shaped design suitable for embroidered cushions and household linens. Besides hand embroidery, the design is perfect for quilt appliqué, paper crafts, toll painting and stenciling, and myriad other applications limited only by your imagination!
The design was originally drawn by Lilly Baróthi Zathureczy in 1932. The various shades of browns accented with violet suggest that the design would work well in monochrome. What’s interesting about this design is the use of cross hatching and fine line fillings in parts of the pattern:
Drawn thread or pulled thread fillings in there, perhaps?
To add a little note of human interest to the design, here’s a photo of Lilly and her family in 1940, which was six years after this design was drawn. If you’re just tuning in here on this series of Hungarian hand embroidery patterns, Lilly’s story is worth reading!
Here’s the full pattern:
Hungarian Hand Embroidery Design #6 (PDF)
Because the design is so full, I didn’t add any of the cross-hatched fillings, but if you’re interested in seeing where they are, you can refer to the colored close-up image above.
Here’s the corner of the design, enlarged, which can be repeated to form the full design:
Hungarian Hand Embroidery Design #6 – Corner (PDF)
You can scale either pattern up or down on a photocopier or your printer, to get the size you want for your projects.
If you’re itching for something else to embroider, you can find plenty of other hand embroidery designs here on Needle ‘n Thread, and you can also find all the other Hungarian hand embroidery designs from Lilly’s Legacy listed in the pattern index.
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This is an interesting picture of the family. She is smiling, most people weren’t smiling in these old photo’s. And look closely at the little boy, he seems to have his horse, bunny and I think there is a kitty behind the horse. lol I can see the situation, where they had to bribe him with his favorite toys to sit still on Daddy’s lap… any more toys and you wouldn’t see the little boy! 🙂
I love the Hungarian Stitching series, and I like knowing that Lilly is a happy woman 🙂
G’day Mary,
I’m enjoying these patterns and story too. I’m not so keen on the colours of this one but love the design you’ve drawn up, especially the larger centre part. It has an Art Deco-ish look about it. I love the Art Deco patterns that are being reproduced on fabric today. Some are like that centre pattern and they flow elegantly continuous. Mostly the colours are really appealing to me so I can imagine this design in the torquise, rich blues and green blues with a touch of golden yellow. Reflections in a deep shaded pool with sky and sunlight peeping through.
Thanks for the photo, it’s very interesting, from her face and dress to the cut of his suit coat and his shy smile and gaze (book by its cover though eh).
And Buster? Well, if the toys are studio props I reckon there would have been a mighty fuss when he had to leave them behind. He’s certainly taken full posession of them in the photo!
In our childhood studio photos, I always had a smaller toy or two, apparently to stop me crying. My siblings always have delighted attitudes but I look like a scared rabbit.
Thanks again Mary. Cheers, Kath.
Hi Mary,
Just a quick note to point out the child in the photo is Lilly’s eldest daughter Piroska who later adopted the name of Mary when she escaped to Canada during the 1956 rebellion. It is thanks to her that we have all these marvellous embroidery designs to share. I think she would have been pleased with the entire “Lilly’s Legacy” Project.
G’day again Mary,
Whoops, apparently I should have said Miss Buster. Maybe it’s the part in her hair, the same side as Dads, that made me think she was a son. The toys kind of look like boys toys too I think.
Cheers, Kath