PieceWork is thrilled to welcome Deanna Hall West back to our "A Stitch in Time" blog post series. Here are her latest four elegant embroidery stitches for you to try. Enjoy! —Editor
The Bosnia and Barrier Stitches
The Bosnia and barrier stitches are easy to sew, similar in appearance, and share aliases. The barrier stitch is basically the French version of the Bosnia. The Bosnia stitch is known by several additional names—Bosnian, Bosnian filling, barrier, fence, French fence, Yugoslav border, and zigzag Holbein stitch. It originated in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a present-day southern European country, located on the Balkan Peninsula, which gained independence in 1992. Bosnia was formerly part of the central region of Yugoslavia. Read more...
The Chevron Stitch
The definition of a chevron is two diagonal stripes meeting at an angle with the point up unless otherwise specified. In needlework, the word “chevron” is used to describe a stitch (embroidery), a particular pattern (needlepoint), or an overall shape. The chevron shape was used extensively in heraldic flags, banners, and woven tapestries. Thread a needle and try embroidering chevron stitch. Read more...
The Queen Stitch
The complex, counted-thread queen stitch (American) is also known as the rococo (English) and renaissance stitches. It is commonly composed of a bundle of four to six Roman (French, Romanian or Roumanian, or Oriental) stitches arranged in a very specific manner, ultimately creating a distinctive diamond shape with small, evenly spaced holes at its outer points and a line of tiny stitches at the mid-line (Figure 1). Read more...
The Crown Stitch
The crown stitch is most likely a modern-day stitch for in thorough researching, I could find no references to it prior to the mid-1900s, and it's infrequently cited in modern-day embroidery books. Surprisingly, there seem to be no additional names for this simple stitch. The crown stitch is basically a fly stitch with the additional two straight stitches that further anchor the top-loop leg. The three tails of this stitch may vary greatly in length, giving the overall appearance of the stitch great variety. Generally, however, the center tail is longer than the two side tails. Read more...
A lovely Adam and Eve sampler, designed by Donna Yuen and stitched by Deanna Hall West, is included in the July/August 2002 issue of PieceWork. Photo by Joe Coca.
View more embroidery stitches! 10 Versatile Embroidery Stitches. Read the entire "Stitch in Time" series!
—Deanna Hall West