Easy Peasy

Deerfield Crewel

(done in violets instead of blue)

with typical New England stitches

from a class I took while I lived in NJ.

"Pillowcase" embroidery

My word for the easy embroidery that a lot of kids during my era learned from.

I did this under my grandmother's tutelage one hot summer when I was about eight.

American non-traditional Hardanger

I did this for my Mastercraftsman in Color.

Blackwork Collage

This is the cover for my class, Intense Pattern

Blackwork only looks hard

Happy Moon and Bright Stars

My first attempt at blackwork. It must have been all right, because it

passed muster for my Counted Thread EGA Teacher Certification.

Note that I didn't put the whole alphabet on. Well, I actually did.

I didn't re-embroider those letters that were in the title.

from the top left clockwise: Silk and Goldwork, Silk Work, & Goldwork

from a class I took in NJ all those years ago

Silkwork from Pages of History, a GCC.

Satin stitch, stem/outline, and French knots.

I was asked the other day what I consider the easiest technique in embroidery. This is really a hard question for me. In the first place I am not a typical woman who picks up embroidery to pass the time. I am dyslexic and it is getting worse as get older--or at least I notice it more. So the easiest technique that most people would consider would be counted cross-stitch. One cross-stitch is fine. I can do one cross-stitch. I can even do a short row of cross-stitches. Two rows? Forget it. I can’t stitch and read a pattern of cross-stitching--even if I make the pattern myself. It drives me crazy. I just finished a tartan done all in cross-stitch. I am SO glad it is done. No, I do not consider cross-stitch, as a technique, easy at all.

Basic blackwork is easy--as easy as anything. It consists mostly of backstitches. I like blackwork. I don’t need a pattern. I can just sit down and do it. A lot of people are afraid of blackwork and consider it hard to do. I think it looks hard but is in essence easy.

Basic Hardanger is easy too. It has an easy count--five satin stitches over four threads. Easy peasy. Even its graphs are easy to read because of the klosters--clusters of stitches peculiar to the technique. It gets a little harder with the fillings. The first Hardanger I ever did was a simple window curtain. I had no graph, I just made klosters, and then I cut the required fabric threads away. That was it. No fillings. It was great. The curtain was lacy and quite peek-a-boo. I guess that was my first foray into American non-traditional Hardanger back in the very early 80s. Now when I stitch Hardanger all I do is American non-traditional. No graphs. No guides to look at. I just start. That’s easy.

What is hard to do? I think advanced pulled work is very hard. With dyslexia it is very hard for me to follow diagonals correctly. I can do pulled work very well horizontally or vertically, but diagonally can be a nightmare. I have a dirty little secret about pulled work--just keep this quiet, please. I had to drop out of Mastercraftsman Counted Work (and counted work in all its forms is supposed to be my specialty) because I could not do a decent pulled work sampler meeting the requirements of that Step. I still have three of the started pulled work samplers (on second thought--I do not have them anymore--I pitched them some time ago). I can do the basic pulled stitches and even some of the diagonal ones with effort. But I cannot do the compound stitches with pulling going both horizontally and diagonally. I am not sure it is even possible for anyone in their right minds--no matter how many people have passed that Step. So I had to settle for Mastercraftsman in Color.

What is also easy? Pillowcase embroidery. The easy stuff on printed pillowcases. It is technically called surface work. You can do it with a vocabulary of about five stitches--stem/outline, French knots, chain, satin, and long stitch.

Needlepoint is harder than it looks. Crewel needs a lot of practice to get it just right. Goldwork? Did someone mention goldwork? Very hard to do. You need a lot of instruction and a lot of practice. Silkwork--the fraternal twin of goldwork--is also difficult to get just right. Working satin stitch in silk is the most sumptuous thing going, but it needs to be perfect to look good.

And is this all there is to needlework? Is this a full catalog of technique?--not at all. Needlework is vast, and as someone pointed out at the last stitch-in I went to, no one can know it all, let alone have the time to learn it all. The work I mention here is just that work that I do and that my friends do most of the time. I have left out most of whitework, ethnic embroidery, the needle laces, and work that is neither weaving nor embroidery, but both, just to name a few.

Rita intimated that I need to illustrate my words as much as I can. So I will do that. Thanks, Rita, for the comment.