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Here is some information on different styles of embroidery. There are no illustrations at present but these will follow in due course.

Hardanger

Hardanger embroidery takes its name from the area surrounding the Hardanger fjord in western Norway. For centuries the local women have used this style of openwork counted thread embroidery to decorate their clothing and household linen.
Hardanger designs are geometric, based mainly on arrangements of embroidered squares formed by satin stitch blocks (Kloster blocks). Threads of the fabric are then cut and withdrawn. The resulting loose fabric, threads and holes are decorated with a variety of filling stitches to form a complex, but comparatively easy to achieve, lacy effect.
Lines of stitching and embroidered motifs, characteristic of the Norwegian lifestyle and landscape, are often added around the openwork section to form a border to the embroidery. Typical motifs are ships, mountains, pine trees, hearts and snowflakes.
Hardanger embroidery is traditionally worked in white thread on white fabric but now a days contrasting fabrics and threads are used. The variations can be subtle, for example, using a lighter shade of thread on a colored fabric, or completely contrasting color and fabric, such as white embroidery on a dark colored fabric.