Well, your solution to wanting an “unobtrusive” edge is just the sort of thing master embroiderers do. So you’re not an idiot after all. If you dislike plain blanket stitch, you can always do a knotted edge, picot edge and any number of other decorative ways to finish. But rest assured, plain closed blanket is centuries old – and it works. One thing that makes it very nice is by making running stitches. You could put those running stitches on that pulled thread line. Also, a running stitch on the inside edge of the area to be blanket stitched. This gives a rounder appearance and ALSO helps to hold things together better. Meredith used a satin stitch.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is to perform a subsequent band of blanket stitch (with the running stitches) around the first satin stitch. Maybe a tiny space between the two areas into which you could embroider a feather stitch, coral stitch, tiny herringbone. I’m trying to envision piercing the satin stitch and making some fancy buttonhole loops. Not sure it would work – and depending upon the ground, might weaken the edge. Whatever you do – the looseness of the ground (tightly or loosely woven) will determine the outcome. Do I understand that you did this diagonal stitching in a smooth run – as averse to something akin to Hardanger with little steps.

If you’re going to cut out this piece so that it is a diamond – and you want it to stay intact, you’re gonna have to bite the bullet and blanket stitch it following the diagonal – not with all stitches up/down. If you’ve done much Hardanger, you know that even THAT can be a dilemma on the edge (the plain satin stitching) and machine stitching first – or hand running stitches – are often employed. I’ve read quite a few posts on this edge dilemma (I’ve done only one small Hardanger piece). The loop of the blanket stitch holds the ground threads so that they can’t move and covers the edge at the same time. It prevents ravelling. Plain satin stitch won’t work – nor will herringbone – even closed herringbone. I’ve tried plain satin stitch for cut out sections on fine cloth. It doesn’t work. And running stitches first help stabilize it all. I’ve done this both ways – and know that it works better (the running stitches). That’s why all cutwork embroidery – of any ethnic origin that I know of – uses blanket stitch or knotted buttonhole stitch.

I sure second this opinion of the Proper Stitch. I like it so much that I am going to recommend that my EGA chapter members each buy a copy and that we do the Band sampler for chapter meeting projects next year. It’s not a hard stitch. Just watch your tension. With your thread anchored, come up through the fabric from the back. Now your thread and needle are on the front. Put your needle back in the same hole you just came out, but, of course, don’t just pull your thread back through. Leave a loop.

Come out, say three or four threads away in whatever line you are following or however many threads the directions tell you and catch the loop. Pull slightly to snug that loop down. That is stitch #1. To make #2, go in where you just came out and catch the next loop. Continue catching the loops until the end. Your last stitch should be a little catch stitch over the last loop. When I do it, I usually stitch it as a ‘sewing method’. That is, I go in and come out in one motion, as opposed to the stab method, where you go through, pull your thread all the way through, put the needle back up, bring your thread all the way through, etc.

If, however, I am working, say, three, four five rows of chain and I want to keep them very precise, I use the stab method for accuracy. This is also referred to as chain stitch. It’s not a hard stitch. Just watch your tension. With your thread anchored, come up through the fabric from the back. Now your thread and needle are on the front. Put your needle back in the same hole you just came out, but, of course, don’t just pull your thread back through. Leave a loop. Come out, say three or four threads away in whatever line you are following or however many threads the directions tell you and catch the loop. Pull slightly to snug that loop down.

I am now willing to forgive Michael’s a little for their DMC floss pricing problem (see other articles). I stopped by there yesterday looking for a wedding sampler to make for a very dear friend who was married in December. And in looking through their kits, I found the exact Theresa Wentzler kit that was priced in the CS & CC catalog at $46. The price? Originally $40, marked down to $30 in Jan., further marked down to $20 last week! So I got a $46 kit ($55 when you add in S&H) for $20! For that, I’ll forgive them the deceitful trick they engaged in for selling floss!

So once I finish my current project (I DON’T leave projects unfinished once started!) I’ll start on this. I’ll probably need help from the other rctn’ers on this, as it has lots of stitches I’ve never done before (satin stitch, four-way cross, Mirna cross, etc.) and uses beads (which I’ve never done before either!) So watch out for flying posts from me! On many charts the little square will have 2 symbols in opposite corners. Sometimes they have a slash indicating a back-stitch; sometimes no separation between the 2 symbols.

In stitching on 14 Aida or 2×2 on a 25-Lugana, if I just do 2 one-quarter stitches there is too much open area left on the fabric. If I make one stitch a one-quarter and the other a 3/4 stitch, it seems to cover better. (Am using 3 ply floss for both stitches.) And then, if called for, I use one ply for the backstitch, nudging the backstitch on the side of the stitch I want it on. Is there a rule to follow here? Or do you just do what looks best? The chart directions call for just one-quarter stitch for each color, but when doing a diagonal (like a single line going from upper left to lower right), it just doesn’t seem to finish right unless I “cross” the stitch with something more than just the back stitch.

You are right that the thread is manipulated the same way, but the needle is not. One probably evolved from the other. Twisted chain probably evolved from coral knot, I’m guessing, because coral knots are used in drawn thread which is ages old. But that’s just a guess. It could just have easily been the other way around. Somebody sat down one day, didn’t do it right, and voila, a new “twist” on an old theme. Thanks for bringing this up. I’m in touch with several retailers, designers and stitchers in Australia. Admire their work very much. I surfed your web site.

Looks like you’re coming from a background in Hardanger emb. and quilting? Australia has so many nice magazines. This has been a fun conversation. If you enjoy experimenting with stitches, play around with Rumanian couching. There are (if I remember correctly) 4 ways to do this stitch, each having their own use and “name”. In Mountmellick work, it’s called Indian stitch. In Asian works, it’s called figure stitch. Thanks Dianne, I’ll print out your comments and go through them when I’m off the net. The way I have drawn it is the way I was taught it (coral knot, that is), but I guess that many people do things a little differently!Yes, Hardanger is my thing, but I like to dabble in lots of other things. Hardanger is what I just keep coming back to though.

I was taught Indian Filling (Roumanian stitch) when I was in Ireland researching Mountmellick – it is such a lovely fluid looking stitch!! I don’t know very much about it though. I’ll have to look up the others. Thanks! And yes , you’re right about Australian magazines – we are VERY fortunate to have publishers willing to do this in such a small market (made larger by the fact that they export to USA though). It is so wonderful to see the amazing amount of high quality stuff that gets produced here – though sometimes I get annoyed about the limited range of unusual embroideries.

I’m a systems engineer — a job title that really covers a lot of territory. I’m in a group of senior technologists who help develop solutions for customers, work on proposals, give presentations, help out projects in trouble, etc. As an example of how I spend my time, in the last month I’ve: helped “coach” a team trying to figure out a way of organizing their testing strategy for year 2000 compliance of a major customer wide area network; written a paper on integration of COTS software that I’ll present at a conference next month; taken part in a corporate team developing a standard architecture framework; led the management volume writing for a large proposal; and conducted an audit of a project with some schedule and budget problems.

While this is all technical, it doesn’t use much of the precision of my original background in mathematics and programming. Maybe cross-stitch makes up for some of that, and also lets me express whatever artistic side I have that doesn’t get expressed much in my work. Well – I have a fairly detailed, people oriented job – I am a system administrator for phone and ACD systems for a huge computer company.

All day long I feel as though I’m at the beck and call of everyone and figuring out solutions to problems-STRESS! I can use my creativity to solve problems but not much use for my art degree. I like my job but my life’s love would be to stitch and sew and draw and design stitching (have done some !)…I find that I really need the artistic outlet and the relaxation-if I don’t get stitching time in every day I feel crabby. It’s odd that I’m so extremely patient with my stitching and cooking because I don’t think I’m really a patient person at all – I’m very stubborn but also very domesticated – like to cook, can, sew, etc.

If you are satin-stitching with one or two strands of floss on muslin, lawn, batiste, very fine linen (like Ulster 1300) you will more than likely need to go in between every ground thread. That should give you some “notion” of how close to put your threads. But the ground fabric warps with the stitching – so be careful not to overlap any threads. And sometimes you will actually “pierce” the fabric ground to get the thread close enough to the last stitch. It takes a bit of practice, but you’ll get the hang of it.

It sometimes helps to lay the thread over the area before you poke your needle into the fabric – to see just where it should enter. What is about cross stitch that we all love so much? I had purchased a white sweatshirt with the intention of stitching something on it for my MIL for her birthday the end of this month. I have since placed several of my designs with publishers and I need to help my stitcher out with some of the models so I decided to do a ribbon embroidery design instead of cross stitch thinking that it would go faster which it did. To be honest though, as beautiful as it is, I couldn’t wait to finish it. I found it extremely boring. Is it the neatness of the stitches in cross stitch or is it the rhythm of the threads going in and out of the fabric? I’ve done almost every kind of needlework there is over the past almost 25 years and cross stitch continues to be my favorite.