Favourite stitches

[mauvedragon]

When I was taught embroidery in 2005 I learnt back stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch and split stitch. My interest in embroidery really increased this year when I taught myself to cross stitch.

What are your favourite stitches? What other stitches do you recomend I learn?

[Carol-Anne]

Hello Mauvedragon. I think that my very favourite stitch is satin stitch, simply because it looks so beautiful. I terms of actually doing the stitch, I like couching techniques the best. I find it very rhythmic and almost meditative.

With the exception of cross stitch, the stitches you have listed are essentially outline stitches. What you learn next largely depends on what you want to do. Some filling stitches would give you a foundation for surface embroidery. There are a lot of stitches that could be termed filling stitches but some of the most commonly used are satin stitch, long and short stitch, and fishbone stitch. Mary Corbet has written a guide on how to do these stitches on her web site. Part I is here and Part II is here.

If you want to do decorative stitching like you see in crazy quilting, for example, herringbone, chevron and cretan stitches plus french knots and bullion stitch would be suppliment the stitches you already know. You can find instructions for these, and many more, on SharonB's Stitch Dictionary.

A couple of years ago, SharonB ran a challenge called Take a Stitch Tuesday. That is continuing as a rolling challenge, ie when they get to the end, it starts again at the beginning and repeats, in the TAST group here on Stitchin Fingers. This is a really good way to learn new stitches or develop stitches that you are already familiar with. The group is really friendly and supportive and you can start at any time.

Happy Stitching

[mauvedragon]

What's the difference between surface embroidery and decorative stitching?

[Carol-Anne]

Well that is a good question. There is probably a technical difference between the two, but in the context that I have used them:

surface embroidery would typically be used create a picture or design. It could realistic, say a picture flower, or contermporary using texture or pattern to form the design

decorative stitching is using the stitches themselves to form the decoration, this is often seen in seam treatments on crazy quilting

At the top of the buttonhole wheel page of her Stitch Dictionary Sharon has combined buttonhole wheels with other stitches, this is an example of surface embroidery, futher down the page there are examples of how Sharon has used the same stitch for decorative stitching.

ps, I also meant to say that many stitches are useful for both styles, like the buttonhole wheel I mentioned above but some are more usually associated with one style that the other so the type of embroidery you are interested in may influence the stitches you would like to learn first :-)

[Romilly]

What Carol-Anne is referring to, I believe, looks like the decorative seam trimmings used in crazy quilting. In this case, surface embroidery would be more figurative.

My definitions: Surface embroidery is any embroidery done on the surface of a ground fabric. As used here, it's also sometimes called Free embroidery, because it isn't counted. Counted cross stitch (and other counted stitches) technically fall into the category of surface, though it is generally kept in a separate category all its own. I tend to think all embroidery is decorative, even if it's serving a functional purpose. :)

I second the suggestion to join the TAST group. :) And the Hand Embroidery group.

[Nat Uhing]

As I learned it at school, some 25 years ago, there are two ways of using the term surface embroidery: One is for stitching that does not enter the fabric, but only weaves, whips, or skims along the upper surface of the fabric, usually using other stitches to hold it in place. A good example of this is the laced or whipped backstitch (a.k.a. the Forbidden or Blind stitch). Japanese embroidery uses stitches that sort of evoke this meaning, as well.

The other definition, as Romilly stated, is mentioned by Mary Gostelow's Embroidery Book, in which the stitches are made regardless of alignment of fabric threads underneath, as opposed to counted-thread work in which the warp and weft threads of the fabric must be counted.

Stumped by decorative stitching, though...left to my own devices I'd say it was the difference between stitching that was meant to be seen and admired, and stitching for utilitarian reasons like hemming, finishing, and mending clothes! Echoing Romilly, I thought all embroidery was decorative! ;)

[sharonb]

This is a good question. Like Carol-Anne and Romilly Surface stitches infer by usage in various embroidery books etc as being stitches used in a design worked on the surface of the fabric. In other words stitches used to work motifs on a piece.

Decorative stitches can be used as Carol Anne says in things like crazy quilting but also I think (please people correct me if I am wrong ) that it is a term that came into more popular usage in the 50's to describe stitches that were built up in patterns along the edges of things like table cloths, table runners, pillow slips, aprons and even curtains. They are often simple stitches repeated and arranged to form patterns.

That would be the way I describe them. Has anyone else got a description that can fill out the meaning? I ask because the term will have different nuances in different parts of the world too.

[Catherine Ronan]

Hi mauvedragon,

I don't know that I have a favorite stitch but I do use the long and short stitch a lot.
You might want to buy a good book that demonstrates (with photos) many of the different stitches. The A-Z of Embroidery Stitches published by Country Bumpkin would be a good book to add to your collection. The photos are great and will take you step by step through each stitch.

[Nat Uhing]

the bullion knot, cretan stitch, and the raised fishbone! *yeah!*
I love these ones, though I use backstitch and satin stitch 70% of the time...

[Elizabeth Cameron]

My favourite stitch is ghiordes knot or turkey stitch as it's commonly called. I love the fuzziness of bees etc done with this stitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9u4PA_pvbw Shows you how it's done.

[Lorelei Terry Halley]

Mauvedragon
I tend to like the stitches I do fairly well. Satin stitch and long & short stitch are beautiful, but I do them badly and don't enjoy struggling with them. I really enjoy texture stitches like Palestrina knot, coral knot. I love chain stitch because it curves so well, and can also be used as a filling stitch. I've been a fan of counted thread work most of my life and enjoy the regularity and precision of it, and any stitch normally used that way: long arm cross stitch, herringbone. Also whipped running stitch or back stitch makes a nice shiny ripply foil to the bumpy knot stitches that I love, and I often put them all in the same piece. I actually enjoy doing stitch samplers and have advanced my knowledge of embroidery considerably by making several of them. Sometimes that kind of work seems tedious, but in the long run it familiarizes me with the great variety of stitches that clever people have thought up and gives me a set of tools and textures to work with as I plan my own embroideries.
Lorelei