Hardanger Filling Stitches – square filet

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.