Cross Stitch

Cross Stitch is found throughout the world. It is extremely versatile, has a crisp texture and is well suited to pictorial and abstract designs. If worked on a small scale (large count fabric and over one thread), it can produce fine detail, delicate effects, and subtle shading.

In the English speaking countries cross stitch is used mostly in pictorial work, a tradition reaching back into the 18th century, when it became the popular stitch for samplers. Early samplers were simply a collection of different embroidery stitches, worked on long pieces of linen and kept by the embroiderer as a reference. Gradually samplers became more pictorial in nature, consisting of motifs arranged within a border. Birds, flowers, trees, houses, and patriotic images, such as the American eagle, were popular motifs. Making a sampler soon became part of a young girl's education. Such samplers included and alphabet, numerals, a pious verse, as well as the date and the stitcher's name.

Even though a variety of stitches is used on these samplers, cross stitch tended to dominate. It was almost always used for the floral borders, which typically depicted an undulating stem or vine bearing stylized roses, carnations, or other blooms.

Stylized natural forms, sometimes almost unrecognizable, are worked in cross stitch on the native costumes of many peoples, including Eastern European, Morocco and parts of the Middle East.

In cross stitch embroidery the stitches form the motif and the background is left plain. Just the reverse of Assisi embroidery.