There has been a great upsurge of interest and innovation in the art of embroidery in recent years. Modern embroiderers have a new, experimental attitude to their art and use a wide variety of fabrics and threads, some of them far from conventional. You will find both the traditional and the modern techniques of embroidery explained in future blogs.
If you are already well versed in the art of embroidery, you will no doubt be keen to explore some of the more difficult techniques. However, even if you are a novice embroiderer, don’t be afraid to try them. I will try and explain clearly how to work the stitches required and you will soon discover that many techniques share certain stitches. Familiar and adaptable, old friends such as backstitch, cross stitch, French knots, satin stitch and couching are used in many different techniques, blurring the boundaries between different styles of embroidery. As a result, techniques that are generally considered difficult are in fact quite closely linked to traditionally easy forms by common stitches. So if you can master those stitches on a counted fabric such as Aida or canvas, there is nothing to stop you from trying them in stumpwork, crewel work, silk shading or free surface embroidery. Once you see the connections, the mystery of these many different techniques is exploded, and you are back to what you know – needle, thread and fabric.
The same applies to that apparently magical group of techniques that can turn ordinary fabric into something resembling lace: pulled work, drawn thread work, Hardanger and cutwork. It is hard to imagine being confident enough to pull, cut and remove threads of the fabric. However once again you will come across reassuring names for stitches you already know, and what could be more frightening about buttonhole and running stitch?
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