Monday, September 14, 2009

Stitch of the Week: Tied Stitch


This week's stitch met with a good response from class participants. This versatile stitch can be used for backgrounds, filling in large areas or even as a singular decorative element. The stitch is worked diagonally from upper left to lower right. Unfortunately, the stitch does tend to eat thread and is slow to work. However, it has a strong pattern and covers the back of the canvas adequately.

Each stitch unit consists of four stitches. The first stitch is a simple diagonal stitch up and to the right over five canvas intersections (think long tent stitch). Begin the second portion of the stitch up one canvas thread and to the left one canvas thread from where you began stitch number one. Finish stitch number two in the hole that is down one canvas thread and to the right one canvas thread from the hole where you finished stitch number one.


Stitch number three commences one canvas thread down and one canvas thread to the right from where you began stitch number one. It ends one canvas thread up and one canvas thread to the left from where you ended stitch number one. You should now have a three legged cross stitch.

The final portion of the stitch involves making a tie stitch from the canvas hole that is below (and to the right) of where the three legs meet to the canvas hole that is above and to the left of where the three threads meet.


The general idea is a diagonally oriented three legged cross stitch that is tied in the middle with a reverse tent stitch. To begin the next Tied Stitch count down two threads and to the left two threads from where you began stitch number three (which is also the lowest point in the previous tied stitch).

As usual, all this sounds terribly complicated but really it is not. I am hoping soon to make up some stitch diagrams that I can share with you. One diagram is worth a lot of words.I just bought a program called "Easy Grapher Stitch Wiz 4.0" but I have not had a chance to explore it.


In the photos I have experimented with doing the rows in different colors. Also in the gray colored image I have used embroidery floss and combined it with backstitch between rows using a gorgeous overdyed floss from Threadworx (item #4995) I love the look of this -- it's totally different from the first photo.

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