Embroidery
If all goes well, Marta Hulliger should have finished her piece of embroidery work by the end of the summer season. For almost six years she has been working on a tablecloth measuring 90 cm by 90 cm – not every day, of course, but usually when she is introducing this textile craft to visitors to the Museum. She is making a piece of Hardanger embroidery, a particular type of counted thread embroidery which covers the tablecloth in a symmetrical pattern. In this case the individual stitches always cross over four threads and in between them Marti Hulliger pulls out the threads for the hem stitches. She has to concentrate, count, recount and compare, otherwise the pattern will not come out right in the end.
Embroidering for a trousseau
There are countless types of embroidery – cross stitch, kilim, silk embroidery, Schwalm embroidery, to name but a few - and this technique for working on textiles is known throughout the world. The principle is always the same: a backing material is decorated by means of drawing through or sewing on threads. Just as Marta Hulliger nowadays sits at the table of the living room in the large Farmhouse from Brülisau, Appenzell Inner-Rhodes (911) stitching carefully, women and girls sat over the centuries doing the same work in their homes.
Embroidery played an important part in family life, above all for the girls’ trousseau. Having beautifully decorated bed linen and kitchen towels was a matter of honour and something which was close to their hearts for young women with an eye to their future marriage. They stitched artistic monograms as decorations. Stitching could also be a virtue in necessity since it served also to repair holes in clothes and fabric. The embroidering of certain parts of traditional costumes is also very common. The patterns used are determined by the clearly defined motifs and colours according to the region.
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
10 April to 2 November 2025
10 am to 5 pm daily
