Embroidery Stitches

The first woven wheel rose I ever stitched took eleven minutes, and I spent at least three of them just staring at it, because it looked like something far beyond my skill level. It was not. A woven wheel rose is five straight stitches and then weaving in circles, which is to say it is … Read more

I needed a three-inch circle on the back of a denim jacket, and I owned no compass, no template, and no patience for driving to the craft store. So I stuck a pin in the fabric, tied floss to it, and drew the steadiest circle of my life with what was essentially a string compass. … Read more

My first bullion knot looked like a tiny bird had built a nest on my linen. A sad, lopsided nest. I had wrapped the thread around the needle eleven times, exactly the way the tutorial said, pulled it through, and watched the whole coil collapse into a tangled lump the size of a lentil. That … Read more

My early samplers looked like seismograph readings. Stitches marched across the fabric in every size except the same size, and I assumed I just lacked the gene for neatness. Then Dot, who runs the Tuesday stitch group at the library and has been embroidering since Eisenhower was president, looked at my work and said, “Honey, … Read more

I stitched a fox for a nursery hoop in 2022, all soft oranges and cream, and it was lovely until I added the eyes. Two tiny stitches of DMC 310, and my needle split the working thread on both of them. The fox looked like it had seen things. Unspeakable things. I frogged the eyes … Read more

I outlined an entire botanical print in backstitch once, every stem, every leaf vein, every curling tendril. It looked like a coloring book page. Precise, flat, and somehow lifeless. Then I restitched just the stems in stem stitch and the whole piece woke up. Same thread, same fabric, completely different drawing. That afternoon taught me … Read more

My first attempt to blend thread colors was a sunset I stitched for my kitchen wall in 2021. I used three flat bands, dark orange, medium orange, yellow, with hard edges between them like a traffic flag. A friend who does thread painting looked at it, said “you have to mix them in the needle,” … Read more

The first time I needed the lazy daisy stitch, it was 9:40 p.m. and I had promised my sister a hand-embroidered tote bag for her baby shower the next morning. The bag was plain canvas, the plan was daisies, and the problem was that I had never stitched a daisy in my life. I watched … Read more

I stitched “love” on a wedding gift in 2020 and the final e leaned so hard it looked drunk. The couple displayed it anyway, which tells you everything about their kindness and nothing about my lettering. Learning how to embroider letters that look neat took me another dozen projects, and it turned out the secret … Read more

My first satin-stitched leaf looked like corduroy. Ridges, valleys, and three bald gaps where the linen showed through like a bad toupee. I had done everything the diagram showed, or so I thought, until I realized the diagram showed a two-inch petal and I was attempting a five-inch leaf with stitches long enough to bridge … Read more