Crewel Embroidery: More Stitch Families

Vintage crewel on white linen (Annake's collection)

In our Back to the Crewel World article, I gave you several examples of straight stitches and showed you how to embellish them with techniques like whipping and lacing. Now I am going to show you how to use those stitches to outline a simple shape. All of them can be used to follow curves as well as straight lines. They work best for this procedure if you keep the stitches as close to the same length as possible.  The leaf shape was outlined with backstitching in moss green.  The other stitches — in order from the outline inward —  are: running stitch (gold); double running stitch (gold/pale green); whipped running stitch (dark brown whipped with orange); double laced running stitch (orange laced with green);  and red Pekinese stitch, not couched, on a base of (orange/ gold) double running stitch. The little stem is done in satin stitch.

Leaf done in straight stitch variants

This little leaf design was inspired by a ceramic pin tray made for me by our roving photographer, J.J., who has done some delightful ceramic pieces. Inspiration can be found everywhere!

Ceramic leaf pin tray

As you can see, some of these stitches, like the laced ones and Pekinese,  are wider than others, and you need to keep this in mind as you decide which ones and how many of them you want to use to outline the shape you have in mind. It is a good idea to keep these stitches close to one another inside a shape, but not necessarily touching each other. We gave you a link to an article about the very versatile chain stitch, showing it with some of the same techniques. In case you missed it, here is a close-up of the basic chain stitch:

Chain stitch sample

followed by some of the chain stitch variations.

Chain stitch variations

The rows are as follows:
    1) plain chain stitch in medium blue:
    2) chain back-stitched with a smaller white yarn from link to link;
    3) chain with double-running stitch, alternating white and navy yarns link to link;
    4) entire chain whipped (overcast) with the white yarn;
    5) each side of the chain whipped with thin navy yarn, stitched one side at a time from center out;
    6) Pekinese stitch done in white through the entire chain;
    7) entire chain laced (threaded) with white yarn, with the loops then stitched down at the tops with white sewing thread;
    8) entire chain laced with white yarn, first from one end, then from the other (double-laced) and then couched (stitched down) with a contrasting yarn.
You can mix the chain stitches with your straight stitches wherever you like.

You can work an entire shape with stitches like these, or you can use one or more to outline the shape and complete it by using a filling stitch on the center of the shape. One of the most versatile filling stitches is the cross-stitch. I tend to think of related stitches as belonging to stitch "families". Let's take a look at some members of the cross-stitch family.

Deatatched cross-stitch variations

    The stitches are, by row:
    a) Standard, evenly-spaced cross-stitch.
   b) Bi-color cross-stitch (left-to-right stitches in one color, right-to-left  stitches in a second).
    c) Cross-stitch with a vertical Holbein stitch across the center.
    d) Cross-stitch with a horizontal running stitch across the center.
    e) Whipped (overcast) cross-stitch;  don't pull the whipping stitch so tightly that you spoil the X-shape of the cross-stitch. The whipping thread is on the surface except at the ends of the row.
    f) Cross-stitch with both horizontal and vertical stitches (sometimes called double cross or George and Saint Andrew), which can be done in 1, 2, 3, or 4 colors.
    g) Bi-color cross-stitch laced with a third color. If you like, you can couch the centers of the arches down with a tiny stitch of sewing thread in the color of the background fabric.
    h) Standard continuous cross-stitch. The ends of the right-to-left stitches will share the same spaces as those of the left-to-right ones.

Look again at the last sample — the continuous cross-stitch. Notice how your eyes tend to focus on the diamond shapes between the cross-stitches, rather than on the X-shapes?  At the end of this article you will find a chart of continuous cross-stitches that have been embellished in various ways. See if you can determine what has been done to each row of continuous cross-stitches.  In at least one sample, two different variations have been combined.

Incidentally, for those of you who crochet, you can crochet lines of chain stitch and use it instead of embroidered chain for many decorative stitches. Pin it to your fabric, leaving a long enough piece of yarn at each end to thread and take to the back of your work to secure it. Use stitch patterns stitch over the spaces between links in the chain and couch it to the background fabric. We will show some examples of this in a later post.

Here is something you can do to with what we have done so far.
    1) Draw a leaf (or some other simple shape) — real or imaginary — on a piece of light-colored fabric.
    2) Collect several colors of yarn or floss, at least one crewel needle, a pair of scissors and an embroidery hoop.*
    3) Place the fabric in the hoop and pull it down tightly.
    4) Starting at the outline of your leaf, stitch completely around it with one of the stitches you have learned so far.  Use as many colors as were used in the sample of the stitch pattern.
    5) Repeat step 3 with at least 2 more (different) stitches inside the first outline. Stitch closely to the first outline, but not necessarily actually touching it.
    6) Choose one of the cross-stitch variations and use it — either singly or attached — to fill the remaining space. Again, use as many colors for each stitch as are shown on the samples.

* If you don't have an embroidery hoop, you can use an empty picture frame, overcasting the fabric snugly around the frame as seen in the picture on the left above.

Pulling thread from burlap

Some of you may have less trouble following curves than you do following straight lines. If straight lines are a problem for you, try to find a firm but loosely woven fabric, like some polyester blends and decorator burlap, which have single threads that are easy to pull out of the cloth. Using the empty rows as guides, practice your stitch patterns until you feel confident that you have mastered them. I know that you will not like all of the patterns, but please try each one at least once.

Lazy Daisy stitch

Detached stitches can be used in rows or simply scattered randomly over the area you wish to fill (much like the diaper patterns used in blackwork). Lazy Daisy is detached chain stitch, often used to depict small flowers. If you want your flower to be symmetrical, it is a good idea to make a circle of dots on your background fabric and begin each loop by bringing your needle up through one of the dots.  The loops should be as uniform as possible.

Wheat ear stitch

Wheat ear, which has other names,  including tete de boeuf, meaning "cow's head", can be a single detached stitch. It consists of a two-stitch V and a couched-down chain stitch.  Make the V with two stitches that are wide-apart at the top and close together — but not quite touching — at the bottom.Bring your needle up at the junction of the two stitches and make a single chain stitch downward. Couch the free end of the chain with a small stitch.

This can also be a continuous line stitch. Instead of a two-stitch V, make a slightly loose vertical stitch and pull it into a V with your chain stitch.

Connected wheat ear stitches

Four-sided stitches

The four-sided stitches can be shown as a detached stitch figures, making sure that adjacent stitches end in the same hole in the fabric. These can also be used diagonally, in which case they appear as diamonds. You can place these in rows or scatter them.  You may want to put a French knot in the center of each detached design. A slightly different construction overlaps the sides rather than ending them in the same place.

Even using only the few stitches you have learned, you can create an interesting design — and one that looks considerably more complex than it actually is, Just try one and see! Now here, as promised, are the samples of continuous cross-stitch for you to "decipher" and practice.

Create something!

Connected cross-stitch variations

 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.

Back to the Crewel World: Yarn Embroidery Revisited

Heirloom crewel embroidery (Annake's collection)

(Last month I promised to revisit the subject of crewel embroidery. This is a topic that we posted on in 2015 and 2016. To prevent too much duplication of information and techniques, I will give you links to those posts from time to time.)

An article in one of our regional newspapers cited the return of interest in embroidery. As someone who never lost interest, I found this very encouraging. It said some new embroideries were less about decoration than in past decades, and they tended more toward slogans and expressions of personal choice and opinion. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. Tee shirts and sweatshirts have been doing that for ages. Some designs were described as whimsical or comical. (If you want to sell your needlework,  you must be careful not to use a design based on copyrighted characters like Disney cartoons or syndicated comic strips.) A lot of work was called “very individualistic”. I always encourage readers to use the techniques you've learned to create something uniquely your own. Even when I provide a pattern, I try to describe how you can vary it greatly in color, stitches, background material, etc. You can even use the same pattern to create an entirely different form of needle art, or use it in a different medium entirely. These are points I intend to strongly emphasize in upcoming posts.

Drawing, turned into a needlepoint chart, works for crewel as well

The word crewel refers to the type of yarn, a loosely twisted 2-ply (2-strand) wool yarn. Traditionally, crewel embroidery is done with a 2-ply wool yarn on a medium-grade to fine-grade linen.

Detail from the Bayeux Tapestry

One of the oldest (and largest) pieces of crewel embroidery still in existence is the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting William the Conqueror's victory over England in 1066 AD. (Although called a tapestry, it is really a huge embroidery rather than a woven tapestry.) You might have seen recent news stories about this famous work. (Look here and here.) The piece, believed to have been made by needleworkers in Normandy and completed about 1100 AD, is 231 feet long (!) and 20 inches high. Besides land and sea battles, it shows many details about the costumes, artifacts, techniques and customs of the era.

Crewel pillow cover

Like Spanish blackwork, crewel embroidery became popular in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  She loved roses and native wildflowers, so those motifs were widely used, along with leaves and vines like those in this much more recent (20th century) pillow cover.  One of the major functions of this type of embroidery was to provide warmth: the embroidery added weight and thickness to bed curtains, canopies, draperies and wall coverings made of linen or wool. The work was usually done by a number of needleworkers supervised by an experienced embroiderer who may also have designed the motifs. Lovely examples of this work are exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Modern bag embroidered in the Jacobean style

Crewel embroidery reached the peak of its popularity during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I 's successor, King James I, who liked to do the embroidery himself. (Crewel was never considered ‘un-manly’ in much of the world.) The work of this period was also called Jacobean Embroidery. This 20th-Century European handbag is done in the Jacobean style.  The designs were heavily influenced by Chinese and other Oriental fabrics, porcelains, and lacquer-work beginning to be imported into England at that time. The Jacobean influence can still be discerned in modern crewel embroidery.  Dragons and other mythical creatures were also popular in the 17th Century.

Early colonists brought crewel patterns and techniques to the New World, where they became quite popular. Some of the stitches commonly used were running stitch, double running stitch, back-stitch and cross-stitch. These basic stitches were further embellished by such techniques as whipping, lacing, and interlacing.  If more experienced embroiderers will bear with me for a few paragraphs, I will demonstrate these stitches for beginners.

A running stitch (also called a basting stitch) is one that covers the same number of threads each time, leaving a blank space of the same number of threads between the stitches.

A double running stitch starts at the end of the running stitch line, often with a second color, and fills in the spaces between the running stitches.

The next row shows a running stitch (dark blue) whipped (overcast) with a second color.  That second color stays on top of the fabric except at the two ends.

The next row shows a double running stitch in two colors that is then whipped with a third color.

This next stitch is the laced running stitch.  It begins with a running stitch (dark blue). The second color (rose) stays on the surface of the fabric except at the ends. It is pulled into a little arc under each running stitch and forms a longer, shallower, downward arch between stitches. This gives it a scalloped appearance. If I were doing this on linens or a garment that needed to be washed, I would use thread from the background fabric to couch the arches to the fabric. That is, I would hold the loops down with tiny upright stitches at the centers of the loops.

The laced double running stitch starts with a double running stitch in two colors. Lace it with a third color. Because the arches are caught at the joining of two stitches rather than crossing an empty space between stitches, the top and bottom arches are the same size and the scalloped effect is gone. This is another stitch pattern that benefits from couching.

For the next pattern row, do the double running row in a single color. Keeping the second color on the surface except at the two ends, loop it around the places where the running stitches join. This is the Pekinese stitch, which usually doesn't require couching.

If you know how to back-stitch, you can whip, lace, and do Pekinese stitches on rows of back-stitching as well, adding to your ‘vocabulary’ of stitches. Practice these stitches until you feel comfortable with them. You can use them for curved lines as well as straight ones, but you need to keep the stitches the same size as you do that.

As I noted earlier in this post, traditional crewel embroidery is done with a 2-ply wool yarn on a medium-grade to fine-grade linen. Some show judges will not let you call a piece "crewel embroidery" unless it is done this way. That was fine, I suppose, in the 17th Century when the technique was at its peak, but it is the 21st Century, and time to broaden our horizons!  Personally, I like to do this technique on wool or a good wool-like synthetic with anything from 1 to 5 plies of yarn (both wool and acrylic), using all kinds of flosses, metallic threads, etc., for special effects.  I like crewel yarn and 3-ply Persian yarn that I separate as needed. Separating the plies also allows me to blend them by combining different colored plies together in my needle.

A blended yarn sampler

Unfortunately, these yarns have become more expensive and harder to find.  Also, some people are allergic to wool or simply can't afford it. Feel free to experiment with the cheaper, more readily available alternatives. You may find some acrylic and other synthetic yarns easier to embroider with than others.  Practice with them so that you can make good choices before you begin a project.

Crewel needles that are sold as such are usually designed to handle 1-ply or 2-ply yarn.  If you want to work or experiment with more plies, you will need needles that have large enough eyes to accommodate the extra yarn. Try to get an assortment of needles with different lengths and sizes of eyes. The needles should have sharp points that slip between the threads of the background fabric. If the needle point punches a hole in the fabric, it is too large and heavy.

Surface stitching anchored by the outline

I also like to keep a variety of blunt-pointed tapestry needles on hand. Once I have outlined the edges of a design part, I often fill the center with stitches that lie flat on the fabric but do not penetrate it. They are held in place by running them underneath the outline stitches.  While the yarn should not be loose enough to move out of its place on the surface of the fabric, it must not be pulled tight enough to pull the outline out of shape. This requires a little practice on a small piece of the fabric to get it just right. The blunt tapestry needle will slip under the outline stitches without splitting them.


You will need some sort of support for your work, otherwise it will eventually pull out of shape. If you are a beginner and doing small projects, start with a set of a 6-inch, 8-inch, and 10-inch hoops. Please use wooden hoops. Metal and plastic ones slip. For more ambitious projects, you may want a frame. Here is a popular kind:

Large adjustable needlework frame

Some other things you will need, if you don't already have them at hand, include: a pair of small, sharp scissors; a bag or basket that never contains anything but your needlework; a well-fitting thimble (if you use one) and a ruler or measuring tape.

For the next "family" of crewel stitches, both beginners and experienced stitchers can follow this link:

The Chain-Stitch Family, Part I: Plain Chain With Variations

Watch for another crewel article soon. Enjoy!

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