Sunday 21 June 2020

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 137: Brick Stitch

Today's stitch is called Brick Stitch and is a classic stitch, basically the same as the Long and Short Stitch. 

Famous for the use in Needlepainting, a single Long and Short Stitch is well blended in with the neighbouring stitches, like shades of watercolour bleed into each other. 

The idea with the Brick Stitch, however, is that the shape of each stitch should be seen as an individual unit - it should resemble a brick in a brick wall. This will make it a beautiful Canvas stitch.

In total this stitch goes under the names of: 
Brick Stitch
Long and Short Stitch
Algerian Filling Stitch
Kensington Stitch
Plumage Stitch
Shading Stitch

Good instructions can be found at Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials

Or have a look at my pictorial instructions on Aida:

Take a horisontal straight stitch over two blocks on the Aida weave.

Make a new stitch above it, this time over three blocks.
Continue alternating between two or three blocks in the same way.

From the second column, and further on, however, 
each stitch should always be over two blocks.

The end of each line will therefore be uneven.

When you reach the end of the shape you are filling in,
 work over two or three holes respectively
to get an even edge.

Completed Brick Stitch wall!

If you are working on plain weave, or use an uneven shape,  
like a leaf, draw lines to guide you.


Homework:
Play around with bricks and mortar and build patterns on these samplers.
While you're at it, why not build a brick wall on the Canvas sampler as well.

As Blogger say they will be switching over to the New Blogger system at the end of June, I have made this blog post on that New Blogger system. It has taken more than double the time, the pictures were very hard to upload and the text could not be indented easily. Does anyone else have problems with the New Blogger?


5 comments:

Pamela said...

I like using the brick stitch on canvas.
Does anyone know any advantages to the new blogger? I haven’t heard anything good and I’m dreading the changeover.

Rachel said...

Goodness, I hope it is only growing pains, and New Blogger will settle down!

Lyn Warner said...

I have written my last two blog posts in the new Blogger. I found it much less convenient to upload my photos from my camera, but haven't tried yet from my phone. I suspect that may be easier? Yes, indenting is also more complicated and less predictable. I wonder why they didn't put the spellchecker back. That was a really nice feature.

Janie said...

So far I haven't heard anything about new blogger.
My only problem is when my husband rearranges things on the computer.
Then I might find my photos lost, tucked away where I don't know.
It can take a few days to get everything back where it 'belongs.'
He says it wasn't him, but I know different.

Julie Fukuda said...

I looked over the "new" blogger and couldn't figure out where anything was. I will stay with old as long as possible... and maybe take a break until I can figure things out. Maybe more stitching time?