Irises: Nature's Living Rainbows

Iris needlepoint by Annake

This has been a difficult time for Annake’s Garden, outdoors as well with staying indoors because of the pandemic. We have lost a beautiful 50-year old crab-apple tree. The late freezes have destroyed this year's daffodils and hyacinths and we are concerned about our fruit trees, grapevines, berries, rosebushes and other plants.  It is evident that we will not be able to work the Farmers' Markets the way we have done for the past several years. The art and craft shows will likely be canceled. Annake's Garden will definitely be starting over and much of that cannot be done until as late as this time next year. That is why I am so looking forward to the irises. They warm my heart.

Irises, which my mother used to call "poor man's orchids", are my favorite flowers. I would rather have an iris in a vase than an orchid pinned on my shoulder any day. Even my favorite perfume is Iris Noir, or "Black Iris". We have three versions of ‘black' irises here in the garden, one of which is truly black. Some of our favorites will be used to illustrate this post.

Rainbow (Public Domain photo)

In Greek mythology, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow. Her name means rainbow. Her father was a minor sea god and her mother was a cloud nymph. Iris was the messenger of the gods. The rainbow was a bridge that she used to carry messages back and forth. She was portrayed as a pretty girl with golden wings, a messenger's rod (sometimes also winged), and winged slippers. She is sometimes shown with a pitcher, and was believed to refill the clouds with water from the sea. She was always shown as good and helpful. We use her name in the word "iridescent", meaning giving off rainbow reflections, like butterfly wings and hummingbird feathers  — and iris petals.

Iris needlepoint in progress

I use irises frequently in needle arts. Now I am going to show you several examples of irises in those arts, while demonstrating the use of various pattern-making techniques that you can use at home — and you can even design your own patterns. Let's start with a charted pattern, which will probably be the one most familiar to you. You can download it here.

This is a charted iris that can be done in counted cross-stitch on checked gingham, monks' cloth, or Aida cloth in any size you like. It can be done in tent stitch on plastic canvas, conventional needlepoint canvas, quickpoint canvas or rug canvas. If you think of each square as a patchwork square, it could become a quilt. If each square were a ceramic tile, you could make a back-splash for a kitchen or bathroom sink..It is designed to be done as a bi-colored iris, but can also be done in a solid color. In fact, it can be done in any colors you like — even imaginary ones.  If you are doing a bi-colored iris, the standards should be in a light color, the falls in a dark color, the beards in yellow or orange and the stem, of course, in green.

Irises, latch hooked wall hanging

There are some things to remember when you work from a charted pattern. Each square on the chart represents a single stitch. Count the squares horizontally very carefully. The white squares on the pattern represent the background color. if you are going to use one. Do the same thing with the vertical rows. Make sure your canvas or fabric is going to be big enough for the finished picture, plus some space for turning over to hem or turning under around a cardboard spacer for framing, turning under for backing a rug, etc.  It is much better to have to trim off some fabric when you have finished the pattern than to find out at the last minute that you don't have enough background for all your work.

The next possible problem is that of losing your place in the pattern and working the wrong row.  There are a couple of simple techniques and devices to help you with this problem. It is certainly important to keep track of the line in the chart that corresponds with the line of stitches you are working, as well as to keep an accurate count of the number of stitches you have completed. Otherwise, your finished project may not look very much like the chart! It is a good idea to keep the chart on a flat surface where it is easy to see all of it from your working position. I use a clipboard to hold mine in place. I keep a pencil with it. If I'm interrupted or have to be away from my work for any length of time, I make a small pencil mark by my last completed stitch.

If you are primarily losing the horizontal line in the chart and are not concerned with losing count of your stitches, the simplest solution is to place a 12-inch ruler with its top edge just under the chart line you are following. If you need to add weight to the ruler to keep it in place, glue a couple of coins to the underneath side of the ruler, near the ends.

For an easy-to-make tool to mark both the horizontal and the vertical lines of your chart, cut two pieces of stiff cardboard about 2 inches (5 cm) wide and 6 inches (15 cm) long. Staple or glue them together so that they form an L-shape. Place the L on the chart so that the bottom part of the L is directly below the horizontal line of the chart that you are following, and the upright part of the L is just behind the first stitch you are going to count. Mentally remind yourself to move the upright part of the L every 5 or 10 stitches you complete. This takes some practice, but will soon become automatic. Slide the bottom of the L up (if you are working from the bottom of the chart) or down (if you are working from the top) one space at the end of every completed row of stitches.

Tracing pattern on canvas

The next type of pattern is one that you can make for yourself. Draw or trace your pattern on lightweight white paper. Tape it, design side toward you, on a sunny windowpane. Tape you canvas or a thin white fabric on the pane so that it overlaps the drawing.  Trace the design. Carefully re-trace the design onto the canvas or fabric. I use pencil on fabric because it will wash out. If you like, you can color the design lightly later with permanent markers that will not run. A semi-transparent fabric like organdy is excellent for this. Even if you don't embroider the design, you can trim the fabric away from the edges of the hoop and hang it in a sunny window. We call those "Window Wonders".

I use permanent marker on canvas because the stitches will cover it, as you can see in the picture on the right.

I carefully wipe off any excess ink, as you can see me doing in the photo on the left.





The kind of needlework I am going to do on this pattern I call "stained-glass stitchery". I'm going to pause here and show you the steps I used to work the pattern of an iris in this technique.

1) Stitched iris  2) Background 'panes' added  3) All sections backstitched in black

Sweatshirt with needlework

Working an iris design on a dark sweatshirt requires a different technique.  First I draw the parts of my design on tracing paper or a good grade of tissue paper. I pin the pattern in place on the sweatshirt, being careful not to pin the front and back of the shirt together. Then I thread an 18 inch piece of white yarn, floss, or crochet cotton into a sharp-pointed needles. Working from the inside of the sweatshirt, I back-stitch all around the lines in the drawing. You cans see that I have started doing that in the picture below, on the left. The completed design outline is in the middle picture.  When the complete design has been stitched, I pull the paper away gently. A pair of small tweezers is good to have to pick out any tiny pieces of paper caught in the stitches. The embroidery work is shown in progress in the picture on the right. Once all the embroidery has been done, filling in the sections of the design, you can snip out the pieces of white yarn.  Or you can simply work over them as you fill in the sections of the design.

There is another kind of pattern transfer — hot-iron transfer. However, it must be done with a special kind of pencil. With the shops likely to carry such a pencil closed and you readers at home, perhaps it is best to leave that one for another day.

Assisi-style iris on canvas

This iris pattern represents an embroidery style called Assisi embroidery. I did this in needlepoint on canvas for a quick demonstration, but if you are doing authentic Assisi embroidery, you would do the stitches in cross-stitch and leave the iris petals empty so that the background fabric shows through. What appears as background here, along with the features of the iris which are  given are done in cross-stitch. I later filled in the iris with additional needlepoint so it could be framed.

Finished iris needlepoint

Graphing a needle arts chart

If you want to make your own graph patterns like the one we started with at the beginning of this article, you will need quarter-inch graph paper, erasable colored pencils, a small pencil sharpener, a good eraser (kneadable ones are the best), plain paper to draw your design, and a hard surface to work on (a clipboard will do if you don't have table space). Curved outlines will need to be "square off". This is easiest to do with a counted cross-stitch design, so I would recommend that you start with one of those. You can use half cross-stitches, either upper left to lower right corners of the square or upper right to lower left corners. I like to back-stitch around the major parts of a cross-stitch design to make them stand out. If you are doing that on your pattern, indicate it with solid lines.

We are going to leave you with a collection of J.D.'s favorite iris photos.

Enjoy,

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Adventures In Assisi Work

Assisi snowflake chart

Assisi work is a very old form of counted-thread embroidery. Its first known use was in the late 13th or early 14th Century in Italy. The name comes from Assisi,  the little town in Umbria made famous for its association with St. Francis of Assisi.  Many of the best examples, made by nuns in the convent there for use as altar cloths in the cathedral, have managed to survive in museums. They were worked on white linen with single colors of silk thread, limited to red, blue, yellow, green and brown.  Only a few lines of stitches outlined features on the subjects of the design and those were sometimes omitted.  But the backgrounds were worked solidly in closely placed stitches.  As you might imagine, many of the subjects were Biblical scenes and depictions of familiar plants and animals. But a surprising number were of mythical creatures portrayed as monsters! There were also geometric designs following the Arabic motifs brought to Spain by the Moors and responsible also for the use and popularity of blackwork.

Heirloom Lithuanian embroidery (Annake's private collection)

The technique spread to other cloisters.  Nuns controlled the making of Assisi work until the beginning of the 16th Century, when it was largely taken over by the women of the town as a kind of cottage industry. The designs became more secular.  (Nonetheless, this embroidery remained popular in churches until the end of the 17th century.)  Because the outlines were frequently drawn on the fabric with ink, black stitches were often used to cover the outlines.  Red and green remained popular for backgrounds. However, some women began to use colors which were not the traditional ones.  Rose and blue were popular combinations, as were a slate blue combined with gold.  Gradually the technique began to influence the folk embroidery of Northern and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and became integrated with their favorite stitch techniques. Look carefully at the enlargement of this 20th Century Lithuanian embroidery, You will see tiny flowers that are not embroidered, but simply suggested by stitches around them.

Assisi butterfly, by Annake

Today you need not be limited by any of the traditional restrictions. Simple subjects don't even have to be outlined; you can indicate their inner structure by extended the background stitches into the silhouettes to show important features. Take this butterfly for example. The traditional red is used here on white evenweave fabric, but you could use any color you like — including black — or even more than one color.  Try interesting color combinations like turquoise and lavender.  Use a metallic thread instead of floss or yarn for outlining, as I have done on this rose. Use stripes or blocks of several colors to emphasize a word or a person's name. Express your own style and personality.

Framed Assisi rose by Annake

Because of our modern penchant for words, logos, and slogans, Assisi work seems to me to be an ideal type of embroidery.  If you have children in pre-school or elementary school, you might ask their teacher if they would like some colorful reminders like "Indoor Voices" or "Reading Corner" for their classrooms. These are easy to make on plastic canvas, easy to handle and hang, won't cause injuries and can even be laundered in a sink if needed. I imagine your children might like signs on their doors at home that say something like "Joey's Room".  Waiting rooms, clubhouses, shelters, etc., may possibly be grateful for signage. Just ask.

Another place that I foresee for this type of embroidery is tote bags.  As we sharply reduce our dependence on plastic and paper bags, tote bags will become ever more popular. You can embroider your design directly on the side of the bag or make it separately and stitch it on the bag later.  The bag you take to the library or to book club might simply say "READ";  grocery store bags might say "RECYCLE".   Or you might feature a cause that is important to you, like "VOTE" or "VOLUNTEER". You get the idea.

Assisi "JOY" layout

I like single words displayed in ways that make me stop and think about the meaning of the word. I decided to do an Assisi embroidery featuring the word JOY against a background of “joyous” rainbow colors. I had a frame I wanted to use for it, so that dictated the size of the project. After working out my design on graph paper, I prepared my fabric and backing with easy-to-remove basting and centering stitches.  I decided to use the conventional black outline. I back-stitched around the three letters. Here is a picture of the project at that stage.

Completed projecct

The yellow and green center stripes were measured so that each would fill exactly half of the space allotted for the letter “O”. The other stripes are slightly wider. I wanted the blue and orange stripes to encompass the majority of their letter spaces and the red and purple ones to cover the small parts left over. I decided to leave a margin of unstitched background fabric at either end of the embroidery to set it off. This picture shows the project completed and framed.

Two styles of cross-stitch

By the 20th Century, Holbein embroidery had become popular for items that may be viewed from both sides.  Here is a link to our recent post on Holbein embroidery. The most common background stitches are conventional cross-stitches.  The British way to do cross-stitches is to make the bottom half of the stitch from lower left to top right and the top half from lower right to top left.  Connected, all the stitches seem to lean to the left. The American and European way to make them is to make the bottom half of the stitch from lower right to top left and the bottom half from lower left to top right.  Connected, the stitches appear to lean to the right.  I work in both styles, depending on where I start in the design. Left-handed stitchers may have a stronger preference for one way than right-handed stitchers do. Try both ways and use the one which is more comfortable for you. I don't think it makes any difference  —  as long as you do the same thing consistently throughout the whole piece.

Assisi stitch sampler

This stitch chart shows popular background stitches for Assisi embroidery.  The first two rows are of long-armed cross-stitch (all stitches shown first in a single color and again in two colors to make the structure of the stitch clearer).  There are several versions of long-armed cross-stitch. I have chosen a simple one.  The next two rows are of zigzag stitch. The upright stitches may be done first and the cross-stitches put in later.  The last two rows show the four-sided stitch. The upright stitches are put in first. Then the top and bottom edges are back-stitched.  Outlining is usually done in back-stitch or Holbein stitch.  You can also use outline stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch or couching.  Detached stitches like French knots or wheat ear can be used for filling.  The four-sided stitch can also be used as a detached filling stitch.

Assisi work on needlepoint canvas

I had never seen Assisi work done on needlepoint canvas, but I could see no reason not to try it. I drew a simple outline of an iris bloom and a bit of stem and traced it with pencil onto #10 mono canvas. I worked the outlines of the design in continental stitch and the background in basketweave stitch. I decided it needed a bit of a second color, so I did the “stamens” in doubled six-strand floss. I like the result and am planning a long horizontal panel with several flowers (done so the white canvas becomes the flower), each with a different color background. There may be a place for the little butterfly above somewhere in the panel, too.

Since Valentine's Day is approaching, I'll leave you with this simple chart based on a design I did in a different style of needlework some time ago.

Click here to download

The heart and lettering are outlined in lavender backstitch; the heart is filled in with red cross-stitch, and the background is a light pink cross-stitch. But, as always, I hope you will feel free to use the chart as a starting point for something that is uniquely yours. You don't need a linen background and silk thread. Cotton fabrics and cotton or rayon floss, craft threads, and crochet cotton are inexpensive, readily available, easy to use and come in a multitude of colors. Hardanger, monks' cloth, and Aida are strong contenders for this type of work. I have a special fondness for linen thread and tapestry wool on coarser fabrics like hop-sacking and decorator burlap. (Whatever you use, use something that will not cause discomfort to your eyes or hands.)

I believe my interest in Assisi work stems from my fascination with positive and negative shapes in design. If you want to see the work of a master of positive/negative design (and one of my favorite artists of all time), look for pictures by Dutch artist M. C. Escher (Maurits Cornelis Escher, 1898–1972). They will exercise your mind and your imagination.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Reviews & Previews: Topics and Projects for the New Year

Crewel embroidery by Annake (in progress)

Now that the art shows and craft shows are over for a while and we have caught up with most family and charitable events, we have time to look toward our plans for next year. While we work the shows, we try to jot down notes about questions we are asked by customers and comments made by people who just stop by the booth to look and chat. We try to show several kinds of artwork and photography when we do art shows and many kinds of needle arts and other handicrafts when we work craft shows. We base a lot of our plans for future articles and activities on our notes and the reflections that they generate.

Original crewel embroidery by Annake

For example, a sweet young lady bought a framed piece of crewel embroidery. She asked me what kind of embroidery it was. She had never heard of crewel.  I explained that it was done on fabric, not canvas, with fine wool yarn rather than embroidery floss — although I do sometimes do surface crewel embellishments on top of finished canvas work.  (There are good acrylic yarns that can be substituted if a person has an allergy to wool or doesn't want to pay the prices for wool). Some of the stitches used for floss embroidery are used for crewel (and most can be), but there are other stitches that are more popular for crewel than for other techniques like counted cross-stitch. We gave her our business card and told her how to use  the search engine on this blog to locate past articles on crewel and on stitch "families".

Heirloom crewel pillowslip from Annake's collection

Tracing a drawing with transfer pencil

Later a lovely white-haired lady complained that it was so hard to find stamped patterns for crewel embroidery. I told her that I make my own patterns, so I had not been aware of how serious the shortage had become. I suggested that she might find some at thrift or charity shops, as people might donate them rather than discard them.

By this time I had concluded that it was high time for me to revisit the way to make iron-on patterns for all kinds of embroidery, and I plan to re-visit crewel embroidery and demonstrate more of the "families" of stitches that are most appropriate for it. So you can look for those articles to appear early in 2020.

Assisi embroidery rose by Annake

Another type of needlework that got quite a bit of attention was Assisi work. This is something that should be fun for counted-cross-stitch fanciers who are looking for something new (although the art is very old). It can also be done in canvas work if you have a nice white or tinted canvas to use for a background. Look for an article on the subject, its origins, how it was initially used,  along with illustrations, directions for a modern version of it,  and a pattern or two early next year.

Star pillow, original design by Annake

Another young lady bought a pillow with a central motif of a starburst. She asked if the design was done in flame stitch. I assured her it was and was privately delighted that she knew the term (a common name for a particular kind of bargello stitchery). She was surprised and pleased that it could be used for working out from a center in different directions. she left with business cards for herself and a friend. I promised her some new articles on bargello with emphasis on linear designs and designs radiating out from a center, like 4-way, 6-way, and 8-way designs. So look for those as well.

I will be continuing the series on Color in the New Year, starting with an article tentatively titled "The Non-Colors: Black, White, Grays and Metallics".   J.D. also has some topics he wants to pursue.

We also pay attention to comments and questions from our readers, as you can see in our seasonal Question and Answer segments. We are very gratified by the questions addressed directly to this blog and try to answer as many as we can, sometimes combining questions from more than one reader. Here are some recent examples

What special project are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a project suggested by the work of Erin Henson, California landscape artist, who has done an entire gallery show in paintings done primarily in the color orange. I couldn't pass up that kind of challenging project! She also does beautiful renditions of scenes in U.S. parks and monuments.  Those are subjects I really like, as you can see in these needlework pictures:

"Cascades" and "Monterey Cyprus", needlepoint landscapes by Annake

and in this latch-hook rug.

"Delicate Arch", latch hooked rug by Annake

However, my real love is doing pictures of animals. I am currently working on a mixed media piece involving both a color rendering and collage elements. I'm going to use many shades of orange (remember that brown is considered in the orange family) along with white, black, and grays. I will show a photo of the new project as soon as it is completed (or perhaps in stages of development).

Did the soccer players finally get their heads?

Yes, after having been lost temporarily in the flood of fall and winter projects. the fabric collage looks very like the original sketch, but I will show it at some future time.

Are we going to get more blackwork patterns soon?

In the previous post I promised more Spanish blackwork patterns and more optical illusions, so I'd better get busy designing and stitching!

Wishing you a safe and happy New Year,

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Conversations About Cross-stitch

Antique Lithuanian tablecloth, blue cross-stitch on white linen

Last week, I was standing by a table covered with needlework books and materials at a sale, and got involved in conversations with several ladies who were looking at the items on the table. I was surprised at how many questions and requests for advice were about cross-stitch. It reminded me that I hadn't discussed the technique in these posts for quite some time. Today I hope to remedy that situation. I have combined and reworded some of the questions, putting them in italics. But first, a little background information.

Assisi work butterfly on monks' cloth

Cross-stitch is a very old form of embroidery, probably used for more than 2,000 years. It is practically impossible to determine where and when it was first used because fabrics seldom survive for long periods. The stitch seems to have been “invented” a number of times, because it is present in ethnic embroideries almost worldwide. By medieval times, it was used in nearly every part of Europe, but also in Africa, Asia, the Near East and South America. Churches used it liberally for their linens and vestments, and royal courts used it for heraldic designs. It wasn't long before the technique spread to the village housewives, who used whatever fabrics and threads were available to them — even human hair. It was called “cushion work” in medieval times because of its widespread use in durable covers for chair seats, footstools, and kneeling mats. Here, in colonial times, it was so popular in ladies' samplers of their handiwork that it was known as “sampler stitch”. It combines nicely with other embroidery stitches and is particularly attractive in blackwork, redwork, whitework, Holbein embroidery and Assisi work.

Why do the stitches have to be done the same way?

It is a matter of light. Light strikes the upper and lower halves of the cross-stitch in different ways. This is most important when you are using glossy floss or metallic threads, but it is noticeable even with crewel wool or acrylic knitting worsted. When stitches are not all done the same way, the surface doesn't look even. People will probably not know why this is so, but they will notice it and think “Something just doesn't look right about that.” Besides, as my grandmother used to say, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” So take the trouble to cross all your stitches the same way. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to put in all your bottom stitches in an area and then go back and put in all the top stitches, rather than making one cross-stitch at a time.

Does it matter which way you cross the stitches?

The English way to do this is to make the bottom half of the stitch from lower right to top left and the top half from bottom left to top right. The American and European way is to do the bottom half of the stitch from the bottom left to the top right and the top stitch from bottom right to top left. I work both ways, depending on where I start in the design. Left-handed stitchers may have a stronger preference for one way than right-handed stitchers. Try both ways and use whichever is mot comfortable for you. I don't think it makes any difference — so long as you do the same thing consistently throughout the whole piece of work!

Samples of two styles of cross-stitching

I have done a lot of cross-stitch, but sometimes I do areas I don't like. I've never been brave enough to take the stitches out and do them over. What is the best way to do that?

If there are a lot of stitches to remove, use very small, sharp scissors to clip each stitch on the right side of the fabric. Then use small tweezers to gently pull out the threads. Make a small pad of cellophane tape by wrapping it around your hand, sticky side out. To remove any “fuzz” from the area where the stitches were removed, pat the area gently with the pad of sticky tape. Turn the fabric over and do the same thing to that side in order to pick up any stray threads or fuzz. Then you should be ready to start over.

So far I have just done counted cross-stitch on things where the little X's are stamped on the fabric. Now I'd like to work from charts, but I don't know how to get started. What do you suggest?

Rose cross-stitched on 1/4 inch gigham

I like to see beginners start on one of two fabrics. The first is ¼-inch checked gingham because it is so much like graph paper and it is easy to match the checks to the squares in the charts. Also, by stitching into the four corners of each “check”, you will make equally-sized and equally-spaced cross-stitches.

Monks' Cloth

The other fabric is monks’ cloth, which has evenly-spaced holes for the ends of your stitches. Either one should be backed with non-woven interfacing, muslin, even a man's handkerchief. This will support your stitches and help keep you from leaving them too loose or pulling them too tight. (Too loose leaves the stitches easily snagged; too tight pulls the whole design out of shape.)

Downloadable cross-stitch snowflake pattern

Choose a simple pattern with only a few colors to begin with. Remember it will be larger on either the gingham or the monks' cloth than it would be on the even-weave fabric the pattern was probably designed for. Try it all in one color first, so that you only have to be concerned with the placement of the stitches. If you like the result, then work the design again in colors of your choice. Here's a simple pattern of mine that you may use in any way you choose. You can find others on these past blog posts: August 26, 2013, June 18, 2015, March 21, 2016 and January 1, 2017; or, use "Search My Blog" in the right hand column to find these and other downloads.

Is it harder to do needlepoint than cross-stitch (indicating a piece done in tent stitch)? I already know how to do cross- stitch. And can I do cross-stitch on needlepoint canvas?

It is actually easier to do the tent stitch because you only do half a cross stitch each time! I work in continental stitch. I consider the half-cross stitch used in most commercial kits an inferior stitch for several reasons. (Don't get me started!) But, if you use a better stitch when working with a commercial kit, you will run out of yarn halfway through the project.

Gros-point butterfly with tent stitch background

You can certainly do conventional cross-stitch on any even-weave canvas, including rug canvas. When you do this, it is called “gros-point”. You just have to remember that, instead of using the two “holes” in the canvas that you used in doing tent stitches, you need to allow for four “holes” for the top and bottom cross-stitches. This is a good technique both for beginners and for older women whose hands and eyes are not as good as they once were.

Do you have suggestions about working from patterns in books?

Here are a few:

a) Purchase a little more background fabric than the pattern calls for. You may eventually decide to use your finished project for a pillow top, quilt block, applique, etc. which requires seam allowances or margins to turn under. If you are using a different gauge of fabric than what they suggest, carefully count all the horizontal and vertical stitches to determine how much fabric you will need for the design and then add margins.

b) Buy an extra skein of floss or tapestry yarn in the most often used colors in the pattern — just in case you have to take out stitches — so you don't run out.

c) If you change colors or shades from those called for in the pattern, write the names or numbers of the ones you actually plan to use (lightly in pencil) on the pattern beside the ones you are replacing.

d) If you have trouble following a pattern, color the stitch squares in with colored pencils before you begin. That saves a lot of time and frustration!

Holbein embroidery featuring cross-stitch with other straight stitches

Stitch away!

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.