Colcha Embroidery, the Spanish-American embroidery of the Rio Grande valley of New Mexico is found as far south as Las Cruces and as far north as Southern Colorado.

There are various stories about the beginning of Colcha embroidery.  The women of Spain had a centuries old tradition of embroidery in silk, linen and wool.  In New Spain and particularly in New Mexico they were limited to wool for more than two centuries and wool was plentiful and it was woven into a cloth called sabanilla. In New Mexico in colonial times  sabanilla was used for mattress covers, packing and other practical uses plus for blankets or colchas which were sometimes embroidered.

In Colonial times in the spring, the  blankets used for bedding were taken to the river to be washed and as they developed holes from wear they were repaired by embroidering a flower or other design over the hole.  In time they were totally covered in embroidery. In the 1930’s women who came to New Mexico from the east coast admired the embroidery and as they heard the word “colcha” which is the Spanish word for a bed cover,  they associated the unique stitch with the word colcha and the term colchastitch or colcha embroidery was born right here in New Mexico. The stitch is a self-couching stitch that is found worldwide.  I believe this stitch was commonly used by nuns in the numerous convents of New Spain (Mexico) in the colonial era. The nuns were tireless embroiderers.

The Churro sheep brought to New Mexico in 1598 are the source of the wool used for sabanilla today. After 1846 the breed was saved by the Navajos in the canyons of their homelands. The American Army was rounding them up for food for the soldiers. Today the breed is carefully kept going by Navajo breeders and by various other breeders of Churro sheep in New Mexico and also in southern Colorado.

Generally there are two types of  colcha embroideries: wool on wool ground cloth and wool on cotton or linen ground cloth. I prefer to use commercial wool yarn on cotton or linen and hand-spun and hand-dyed wool yarns on the wool cloth called sabanilla. I also use bayeta which is a wool cloth from Peru and is very similar to New Mexican sabanilla. The colchastitch may also be done with cotton floss on a  linen or cotton ground cloth which may be more practical for items that can be washed.

Among the items produced today by colcha embroiderers are: wall hangings, altar cloths, table runners,

shawls (chales or rebozos),  scarves, pillows (almohadas), religious figures, small pictorial pieces, hat bands and belts,  Christmas  ornaments and personal ornaments, napkins, place mats, tablecloths (manteles) and bed covers (colchas). The last two which are larger pieces are not very common.

I may be contacted at irencreates@gmail.com