This is an on going stitch along for members of the Hand Embroidery group in the Stitchin Fingers Textile Community.

The start date is July the 1st 2008

People can choose to work any stitch or any number of stitches from the list of stitches below and work on what ever project they choose. This is a project you can pick up as you have time and work at what ever pace is comfortable as there is no timetable as such.

For those who feel a bit over whelmed by the list you don’t have to stitch all of them! The idea is a stitch and share images of what you have done. All levels of stitchers are welcome and you can join in anytime.

To join in sign on to the Stitchin Fingers Textile Community (it’s free) and join the Hand Embroidery group. When you have stitched one of the embroidery stitches on the list leave a message in the group or on this blog if you want.

There is also a Flickr group associated with this stitch along

The list of stitches

1. Algerian Eye (regular, pulled and canvas eyelet stitch variations)
2. Arrowhead Stitch (regular and for canvas)
3. Arrowhead Stitch Threaded
4. Back Stitch
5. Back Stitch: Beaded
6. Back stitch: Diminishing pekinese stitch
7. Back stitch: Double Pekinese Stitch
8. Back Stitch: Festoon Stitch (pulled stitch)
9. Back stitch: Frost stitch (pulled)
10. Back Stitch: Honeycomb Filling (pulled stitch)
11. Back stitch: Laced Pekinese stitch
12. Back stitch: Pekinese Stitch
13. Back stitch: Pulled
14. Back stitch: Pulled double back stitch
15. Back stitch: Ringed Back Stitch (pulled stitch)
16. Back stitch: Threaded back stitch
17. Back stitch: Three sided edge stitch (pulled)
18. Back stitch: Whipped back stitch
19. Back stitched chain
20. Basque Knot stitch
21. Basque Stitch
22. Bonnet stitch
23. Bonnet stitch: Beaded
24. Bullion Knot
25. Burden stitch
26. Buttonhole Stitch
27. Buttonhole: Antwerp Edging fringed
28. Buttonhole: Antwerp Edging Stitch
29. Buttonhole: Antwerp Edging with a bead
30. Buttonhole: Bar
31. Buttonhole: Barb stitch
32. Buttonhole: Berwick Stitch
33. Buttonhole: Branched Buttonhole Bar
34. Buttonhole: Cast on stitch
35. Buttonhole: Closed buttonhole
36. Buttonhole: Crossed buttonhole
37. Buttonhole: Detached buttonhole filling
38. Buttonhole: Double Buttonhole Bar
39. Buttonhole: Double cast on stitch
40. Buttonhole: Double drizzle stitch
41. Buttonhole: Drawn buttonhole stitch (pulled stitch)
42. Buttonhole: Drizzle stitch
43. Buttonhole: Feather Stitch
44. Buttonhole: Filling
45. Buttonhole: Fly stitch
46. Buttonhole: Knotted buttonhole
47. Buttonhole: Knotted buttonhole band
48. Buttonhole: Knotted Feather Stitch
49. Buttonhole: Overlapping (also known as battlement stitch)
50. Buttonhole: Reversed buttonhole bar
51. Buttonhole: Top Knotted
52. Buttonhole: Triangular Buttonhole Stitch
53. Buttonhole: Up and down Buttonhole
54. Buttonhole: Wheel
55. Buttonhole: Whipped Buttonhole stitch
56. Buttonhole: with a bead
57. Buttonhole: with Picot
58. Chain Stitch
59. Chain Stitch: Alternating barred chain
60. Chain stitch: Beaded chain stitch
61. Chain Stitch: Berry stitch (Detached Double Chain)
62. Chain Stitch: Cable Chain Stitch
63. Chain Stitch: Coral stitch
64. Chain stitch: Cornered Chain Stitch
65. Chain Stitch: Crested chain
66. Chain Stitch: Detached chain stitch (Daisy Stitch
67. Chain Stitch: Double Cable Chain Stitch
68. Chain Stitch: Double Chain Stitch
69. Chain stitch: Feathered Chain stitch
70. Chain Stitch: Heavy chain
71. Chain Stitch: Knotted Cable Chain stitch
72. Chain Stitch: Linked Double Chain
73. Chain Stitch: Long Armed Detached Chain
74. Chain Stitch: Open Chain Stitch
75. Chain Stitch: Oyster stitch
76. Chain Stitch: Raised Chain Band
77. Chain Stitch: Reverse Chain Stitch
78. Chain Stitch: Rosette chain (very Tricky)
79. Chain Stitch: Spanish feather
80. Chain Stitch: Spiked Knotted Cable Chain
81. Chain Stitch: Threaded Open Chain Stitch
82. Chain Stitch: Twisted Chain Stitch
83. Chain Stitch: Waved Chain Stitch
84. Chain Stitch: Wheatear stitch
85. Chain Stitch: Whipped Chain Stitch
86. Chain Stitch: Whipped Double Chain
87. Chain Stitch: ZigZag Chain Stitch
88. Chained Fly Stitch
89. Chequer Filling (Pulled Thread Work )
90. Chevron Stitch
91. Chevron stitch: Beaded chevron
92. Chevron stitch: Chevron stitch with a single bead
93. Chevron stitch: Half Chevron stitch
94. Chevron stitch: Knotted Chevron
95. Chevron stitch: Pagoda stitch
96. Cobbler stitch (Pulled)
97. Colonial Knot
98. Couching
99. Cretan Stitch:
100. Cretan Stitch: Alternating Cretan Stitch
101. Cretan Stitch: beaded
102. Cretan Stitch: Closed Cretan Stitch
103. Cretan Stitch: Knotted Cretan Stitch
104. Cretan Stitch: Open Beaded Cretan Stitch
105. Cretan Stitch: Open Cretan Stitch
106. Cretan Stitch: Tied creten
107. Cretan Stitch: with a bead
108. Crossed Stitches: Broad Cross Stitch
109. Crossed Stitches: Chequer Filling (Pulled Thread Work )
110. Crossed Stitches: Detached Square Filling (Pulled Thread Work)
111. Crossed Stitches: Diagonal Broad Cross
112. Crossed Stitches: Diagonal Cross Filling (Pulled Thread Work)
113. Crossed Stitches: Diagonal Cross Stitch
114. Crossed Stitches: Diagonal English Cross (Canvas)
115. Crossed Stitches: Diagonal Raised Band (Pulled Thread Work)
116. Crossed Stitches: Double Cross stitch (Canvas Work)
117. Crossed stitches: Double Leviathan (Canvas)
118. Crossed Stitches: Dutch Stitch (Canvas Work)
119. Crossed Stitches: English Cross (Canvas)
120. Crossed Stitches: Ermine Stitch
121. Crossed stitches: Half Rhodes (Canvas)
122. Crossed stitches: Italian Cross stitch (Canvas)
123. Crossed stitches: Leviathan (Canvas)
124. Crossed Stitches: Long arm Cross stitch
125. Crossed stitches: Montenegrin (Canvas)
126. Crossed stitches: Norwich stitch (Canvas)
127. Crossed stitches: Oblong Cross (Canvas)
128. Crossed stitches: Oblong Cross with back stitch (Canvas)
129. Crossed Stitches: Open Trellis Filling (Pulled Thread Work)
130. Crossed stitches: Rhodes (Canvas)
131. Crossed stitches: Star stitch (Canvas)
132. Crossed stitches: Smyrna Cross (Canvas)
133. Crossed stitches: Rice Stitch (Canvas)
134. Eastern stitch
135. Fence of Bugles (beading stitch)
136. Fly Stitch:
137. Fly stitch: Beaded fly stitch
138. Fly stitch: Chained Fly Stitch
139. Fly Stitch: Closed fly stitch
140. Fly Stitch: Knotted Fly Stitch
141. Fly stitch: Threaded Fly stitch
142. Four Sided Stitch (pulled stitch) and other directions here
143. French Knot
144. Ghiordes Knot
145. Greek Cross filling (pulled)
146. Herringbone stitch
147. Herringbone Stitch: Beaded herringbone stitch
148. Herringbone Stitch: closed herringbone
149. Herringbone Stitch: Double Herringbone stitch
150. Herringbone Stitch: Herringbone tied with a bead
151. Herringbone Stitch: Interlaced
152. Herringbone Stitch: knotted herringbone
153. Herringbone Stitch: Maltese cross
154. Herringbone Stitch: Pulled
155. Herringbone Stitch: Tied Herringbone
156. Indian Ground (pulled)
157. Jessica stitch (canvas)
158. Long and Short stitch
159. Norwich stitch
160. Nuns Stitch
161. Open Trellis Filling (Pulled Thread Work)
162. Outline Stitch
163. Palestrina stitch
164. Palestrina stitch: Reversed Palestrina stitch
165. Palestrina stitch: Triple Palestrina stitch
166. Petal stitch (Canvas)
167. Pinwheel Stitch (canvas)
168. Rice Stitch
169. Rococco (Canvas)
170. Satin Stitch:
171. Satin stitch: Padded
172. Scroll Stitch
173. Shisha Stitch
174. Sorbello Stitch
175. Split Stitch:
176. Stem Stitch:
177. Stem Stitch: Portuguese stem
178. Stem Stitch: Rope stitch
179. Straight stitch: Double running stitch laced
180. Straight stitch: Laced running stitch
181. Straight stitch: Running stitch (including darning)
182. Straight stitches: Basket stitch (pulled)
183. Straight stitches: Brighton Stitch (canvas)
184. Straight stitches: Byzantine (Canvas)
185. Straight stitches: Cashmere (Canvas)
186. Straight stitches: Chess board filling (pulled)
187. Straight stitches: Crossed Cushion (Canvas)
188. Straight stitches: Cushion (Canvas)
189. Straight stitches: Diagonal Leaf stitch (Canvas)
190. Straight stitches: Encroaching Gobelin (Canvas)
191. Straight stitches: Florentine (Canvas)
192. Straight stitches: Gobelin (Canvas)
193. Straight stitches: Hungarian (Canvas)
194. Straight stitches: Japanese Darning
195. Straight stitches: Jaquard (canvas)
196. Straight stitches: Leaf stitch (Canvas)
197. Straight stitches: Moorish (Canvas)
198. Straight stitches: Mosaic (Canvas)
199. Straight stitches: Oriental (Canvas)
200. Straight stitches: Parisian (Canvas)
201. Straight stitches: Pulled Satin Stitch (Pulled)
202. Straight stitches: Ray stitch (Canvas)
203. Straight stitches: Scotch (Canvas)
204. Straight stitches: Triangle Stitch (canvas)
205. Straight stitches: Upright Gobelin (Canvas)
206. Twisted lattice band
207. Vandyke Filling
208. Vandyke stitch
209. Velvet stitch
210. Whipped spiders wheel
211. Woven Spiders Wheel
212. Woven: Needlweaving picot (forms petals and leave)
213. Woven: Raised cup

Needlework books online

The approach to stitching has change but the technical information in these books are still good.

Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont is online as part of Project Gutenburg. You can download the whole book from the site for free it is an excellent resource

Handbook of Embroidery by L. Higgin contains standard stitches but also information on goldwork and quite a good section on couching and diaper patterns.

Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving by Grace Christie covers all key areas of Embroidery. It is a classic but also one of the most clearest illustrated stitch books of its time. Don’t miss this one as it is very useful.

Art in Needlework by Lewis F Day and Mary Buckle is a 326 page book published in 1907. This book is free to download from the Internet Archive site. You can download it in PDF format

A Book of Fancy Designs for Ornamenting Oriental Work. (PDF file) by Mary Haehnlen is a small book that should not be missed by crazy quilters as it contains diagrams of 65 crazy quilting stitches. This free ebook comes the Antique pattern Library.

The Cult of the Needle by Flora Klickmann is a hidden gem I discovered at the Internet archive. It is a 134 pages of styles and types of embroidery including drawn work, hardanger, Berlin work, and Huck darning

Embroidery Stitches by M. E. Wilkinson is another gem which covers 200 stitches.

Ladies’ Guide in Needlework published by W. A. Leary & Co. in 1850. The 193 pages of this book have been divided into 3 PDF files which can be downloaded from the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics (the download is found half way down this page)

Beeton’s Book of Needlework is also on the Project Gutenburg site and can be downloaded free. There is a section on embroidery and a section on “Berlin” work which covers many canvas work stitches

The Lady’s Manual of Fancy-Work by Matilda Pullan published in 1859 is also available at the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics. It contains a mix of needlework arts including beading, and Berlin work (canvas stitches)

For drawn thread work see Part I - Drawn Thread Embroidery by Therese Dillmont (PDF) and Part II - Drawn Thread Embroidery by Therese Dillmont (PDF) both supplied by the Antique Pattern Library

Many of these free resources are presented as PDF files which means you need Acrobat Reader to open these files. You can download a free reader on the Acrobat site.