Stitch of the week: Rice Stitch

The Rice stitch is also known as the William and Mary stitch or Crossed Corners.

When using this stitch in one of your projects, you will do a diagonal cross stitch over an even number of canvas intersections, then each corner of the cross stitch is tied down with a diagonal stitch in the same or a different color. This stitch has a variety of appearances depending upon the weight, color, and texture of the yarn employed. It looks great in a background, as a border, a filler or a feature stitch. The advantage of this stitch is it is an attractive stitch with multiple variations. The only disadvantage is that it is a slow stich.
Some variations to make this stitch stand out even more would be to use two colors (cross in one color, tie downs in another color). You could even blow this stitch up, which would make it the "giant rice" stitch. This is achieved by doing a diagonal cross over four canvas intersections. The straight rice stitch is performed by stitching horizontally and vertically rather than diagonally.