While Méri (of agulhas da méri) was vacationing in America, she mailed to me a gorgeous book on hand embroidery traditions in Portugal. The book is titled Bordado de Guimarães, and the text is in Portugues with an English translation. I haven’t finished reading the book yet, but I’m enjoying it so much and am completely enchanted with the needlework therein, that I had to show you some bits of the book! If you like reading about and trying regional embroidery techniques, this book may very well be worth trying to track down!

The first thing that struck me about Guimarães Embroidery from Portugal is the dimensional quality of the work.

In much of it, you will see a consistent use of the bullion knot. And many of the bullions are really long! Méri mentioned this in the letter that accompanied her gift, but I didn’t understand how extensively the bullion knot is used until I started reading the book.
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