Detached Chain is often one of the first stitches people learn. Many people call this stitch: ‘daisy stitch’, ‘lazy daisy stitch’, ‘tall chain stitch’, ‘loop stitch’, ‘tied loop stitch’, ‘picot stitch’, and ‘knotted knot stitch’. But don’t let those names lead you into thinking that you can only make flowers …
Cretan stitch can be used in many decorative ways. With it, you can fill a shape, create a border, or create a line. If you arrange rows of Cretan stitch in lines, it makes a wonderful filling stitch to work within a shape. You can also use it to couch …
Buttonhole stitch, or blanket stitch, as many people call it, is actually the foundation stitch for many varieties of Buttonhole. This stitch is often used along the edge of projects — often blankets — hence the name. Never underestimate a stitch-like buttonhole, as it is a marvellously versatile stitch. You …
As regular readers know, I am addicted to the Antique Pattern Library as it is such an interesting and free resource. If you have not discovered it before now take a coffee break and have fun poking around these old books. Yesterday, I was doing just that poking around the …
The “I dropped the button box” crazy quilt is a Y2K quilt. What is a Y2K Quilt? It is a Millennium quilt. At the turn of the century as it approached quilters made quilts that had 2000 or 2001 different pieces of fabric in them. Millennium or Y2K quilts were …
When you first start to hand embroider items, or perhaps you have picked up some of my free patterns and want to start stitching, one process that often stumps people is how to transfer hand embroidery patterns to fabric so that you can start to stitch. Here are the 2 …
As you can see it is this encrusted highly textured sampler is fresh off the hoop and still to be blocked. Today I plan to share how I designed and stitched this sampler. This bone sampler is both surface embroidery, combined with textured stitches and beadwork. It is a contemporary …
