White Threads

This Hardanger filling stitch is a square filet. It’s very much like a dove’s eye, but turned 45º. For a very long time I avoided square filets. Now that I’ve done a lot of them I really can’t figure out why! They sit nicely, and they look great. I’m not sure why I was avoiding them!

Square filets can be used simply, as shown, or there are some variations. I’ll show some of these later in this series.

As with dove’s eyes, care must be taken to have the stitches sitting correctly. One end of each of the four stitches that form a square filet must be on top. If there are two ends of the one stitch either on top or below, then it is not formed correctly. My step-by-step instructions for both left- and right-handed stitchers, will show you the correct technique for forming this stitch.

We’re part way through a series exploring the stitches that are featured in my forthcoming book, Hardanger Filling Stitches. If this is the first post you’ve seen in the series, have a look for the others.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

This is a spider web with three spokes, which is one of the spider web variations in Hardanger Filling Stitches. It looks great in a border, as shown here, or can also work really well in a large square with one in each of four quadrants. In each quadrant, the diagonal stitch could be pointing in to the centre of the large square, or pointing away from the centre. Each version would give quite a different look.

We’re part way through a series exploring the stitches that are featured in my forthcoming book, Hardanger Filling Stitches. If this is the first post you’ve seen in the series, have a look for the others.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

Today’s stitch from Hardanger Filling Stitches is Wrapped bars. For much of my Hardanger career, I have avoided wrapped bars. This is because so often they look wonky and dreadful. I dislike the way they can distort the fabric and don’t sit “just so”. Other people might be ok with that, but it doesn’t make me happy.

However, they really needed to go in my book, so I had to figure out how to get great results, so that I would be happy using them and happy teaching them to others. With experimentation and repeated practice, I can now get my wrapped bars sitting pleasingly, and my instructions will also show you how.

They’ll never be my favourite stitch, but sometimes they’re really useful, and now I feel much happier about using them!

Do you like wrapped bars? Or does their often wonkiness bother you too?

We’re part way through a series exploring the stitches that are featured in my forthcoming book, Hardanger Filling Stitches. If this is the first post you’ve seen in the series, have a look for the others.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.

The next stitch I’m featuring from my forthcoming book, “Hardanger Filling Stitches”, is the lacy buttonhole edge. This is an edge that many people want to learn how to do as it is so very pretty!

The edge is delicate and actually not very strong on its own, so my instructions teach you how to reinforce it with lacing threads on the back, and how to stitch the buttonholed corners so that they are strengthened too.

The photograph shows dove’s eye fillings worked within the edge, so as you can see, it doesn’t have to just be plain needleweaving.

Hardanger Filling Stitches by Yvette Stanton, will be arriving in Australia in December 2023, New Zealand shortly after that, UK in February 2024, and the US in March. You can order it from your favourite needlework store, worldwide. If they don’t know where to get it from, you can ask them to contact me, and I will direct them accordingly.

Vetty Creations have supplies packs for the Hardanger Filling Stitch sampler featured in the book.