Bosa Filet Lace - New book!

There are not many books on Bosa Filet Lace. In fact, there is only one that I know of which is out of print and completely unfindable (if that is a word). Imagine my excitement therefore to discover this new book which is available through the publisher Petites Ondes (free shipping until the end of June) or LuLu Print-On-Demand Books.

You can download a preview of the book (text in Italian) from the Petites Ondes page, click on "Sfoglia un'antiprima" on the right side of the page under the photo of the piece of netting mounted on a frame.

Image copyright Petite Ondes and Marina Mureddu.

The softcover book is 108 pages, printed in black and white with Italian text written by Marina Mureddu, a Sardinian woman from Cagliari which is in the southern part of Sardinia.

Signora Mureddu learned Bosa Filet Lace from the granddaughter of a famous woman from Bosa, named Olimpia Melis who achieved international fame with her Bosa Filet Lace at the beginning of the 20th century. Olimpia Melis exported works all over Europe and to New York, things like: borders, curtains, tablecloths and other household items made by several hundred Bosa Filet Lacemakers.

Over a period of several years, Marina Mureddu was able to study some of these original works and make patterns. The book contains some history, instructions, patterns and photographs.

San Vero Milis

I met so many talented stitchers on my last trip to Italy. I have to tell you about a fantastic lady from San Vero Milis in Sardinia. Her name is Rossella and she invited us to her lovely home and showed us lots of her needlework of which I can only show you a few pieces today as unfortunately most of my photos did not come out well.

Rossella is curious about all kinds of embroidery and needlework and she has tried many different techniques!

Punto Madama or Catherine de' Medici Embroidery

Fantastic Macramé fringe!

These last two Filet Lace pieces are designs by Maria Lai a famous Sardinian artist who uses textiles in her art. Rossella arranged for us to meet her but I'll tell you about that in another post.

After showing us her needlework and offering us coffee and delicious typical Sardinian pastries, we all piled into our cars and drove to Bosa, for a meeting with the ladies from the association La Foce which practices the ancient art of Bosa Filet Lace. Rossella had arranged for us to visit during one of their sessions where many ladies were working on fine pieces of Bosa Filet Lace.

I wish we could have spent more time in San Vero Milis, they have lots of artisan traditions and the scenery is breathtaking. I'll have to go back!

The Parish of San Giovanni Suergiu

Parish photo copyright by giorgiodiana

While in San Giovanni Suergiu in Sardinia this past month, I visited a stitching group which calls the Parish of San Giovanni Suergiu home.

These ladies donate their earnings from embroideries sold at two exhibitions a year to six children adopted from the Garba Catholic Mission Camp Isiolo in Eastern Kenya.

The were kind enough to let us join them, once in the afternoon and once in the morning for a bit of stitching. The range of work that they do goes from classic embroideries like works of cutwork and counted threadwork, to knitting and crochet and everything in between.

They also do work on commission like the bomboniere for weddings, first communions and other special events.

The ladies also proudly showed us the embroidery of the Parish itself, there were so many beautiful works!

This is "false cutwork", the red part is painted with fabric paint and the design is executed with chain stitches.

Of course they do works of Bosa Filet:

With one of the ladies from this group, we went to Bosa to visit with La Foce, a group of women who study and work this ancient Sardinian technique, but more on that later...

Visit the blog of this group from the Parish of San Giovanni Suergiu to see all of the beautiful things they make!

Sardinian Filet Lace - Up Close

I got an exciting package yesterday which I will be dividing up and showing you over the next few days. I do apologize for the long silences of late, I am having a terrible time with my computer. Time for upgrading and it's never smooth. I think that I have most of the kinks worked out but there are still a few things I need to fix up.

One of the things in my lovely package which I got yesterday (kindly carried home from Italy by a lady here in my home town who I do so appreciate!) is an exquisite Sardinian Filet Lace piece:


Isn't it fantastic?
I absolutely love it!
It is flawlessly stitched on hand-knotted netting by a lady in Sardinia. Check out her blog for more examples of the amazing work she and other members of her stitching group do.

Since I have this piece here in my hands, I can take close up shots, scans, look at the back - you name it!! I can't tell you how happy this makes me!

Here is a close up of one of the flower motifs:


... and a peacock:


I had the hardest time figuring out which was the back of this work, there are minuscule knots where she has joined her threads and she has hidden her thread ends expertly!

I have learned so much just by sitting with this in my hands and tracing the paths of the stitching lines. It makes me itch to get back to a piece I mounted on a frame and started almost five years ago.

Sardinian Bosa Filet Lace

The major difference between Sardinian Bosa Filet Lace and the Filet Lace that is common in other countries are the motifs and the heavier use of the Linen Stitch (or Cloth Stitch) and the Double Running Stitch used to outline motifs such as flowers, leaves and vines. Together with the Darning Stitch and Dove's Eyes these stitches make far more interesting Filet Lace, both to admire and to make. Bosa is a small town in the north-western part of Sardinia in Italy.

Historically embroidered on both ancient Buratto woven linen or Modano knotted netting, today Sardinian Bosa Filet Lace is done almost exclusively on the Modano knotted netting.

Two variations on the Linen Stitch, the Darning Stitch, the Dove's Eye Stitch, edge finishing and frame mounting instructions can be found here in Italian but the diagrams are clear. How to execute a flower and some rings can be found here: click on the various circles in the photo, this will take you to a close-up photo of that particular stitch and then to the right click on the word: "qui" which is underlined to go to a series of photos of how to execute that particular stitch.

This is a lovely Bosa Filet border from the Italia Invita Forum 2005 book:


At the Sardinian Digital Library you can download a book called Arte Sarda - there are many photos of Bosa Filet Lace starting with Chapter Four on page 246 of the pdf.

Here is a piece from the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan:


At the Online Digital Archive you can download Peasant Art in Italy (text in English) by Charles Holme - the chapter Women's Crafts (page 73 of the pdf) by Elisa Ricci has some exquisite examples of typical Sardinian Filet motifs. (Make sure you download the right file, it's the second listing under Charles Holme!)

The first section in Elisa Ricci's book Old Italian Lace (downloadable from the Online Digital Archive) has many examples of Sardinian Filet Lace. I love these birds:


Visit Tuttoricamo and under the "Techniques" heading you'll find an article called "Filet and Bosa Filet" which has lots of links to pictures. While you're there you can read about ancient Buratto woven linen under the "Materials" heading. Learn about Elisa Ricci in the "Prominent Characters" section.

Thanks to Stefania for the museum photo!