Color guide: Green = filling stitches, Blue = outline stitches, Red = surface stitches
1st row: Buttonhole stitch
2nd row: Burden, brick, trellis, seed
3rd row: Long and short, block, satin, padded satin, laid, fishbone
4th row: Back, running, chain, stem, split, Quaker, coral, couching, pearl, Pekinese, raised chain band, incorrectly done raised stem stitch (oops!), Van Dyke, herringbone
5th row: Whipped wheel, bullion knot, woven wheel, French knot, pistil, fly, feather, Turkey rug, detached chain, Cretan, leaf
In November 2018, I acquired the Royal School of Needlework’s Book of Embroidery. This book is large, heavy and full of detailed information on various types of hand embroidery.
One of the sections is dedicated to crewel embroidery, which contains many of the stitches that come to mind when you think of freestyle embroidery (as opposed to cross stitch or needlework).
I’d seen quite a few stitch samplers on Instagram and Pinterest so I thought I’d take a shot at making one using the stitches from the crewel section in the book.
This time I tried an Irish linen fabric sold at Michael’s. The thread count is low and I don’t think it’s actually the right kind of Irish linen for crewel embroidery. But I was still able to complete the sampler and learn many stitches in the process.