The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-01

been satisfactorily done; but if 1t were
only the background. that was worked, and
the pattern so schemed as to almost cover
it. so that in fact very little of the more
beautiful Of the texture was sacrificed and
you had still a sumptuous pattern or less
attractive ground-why not? But then 1t
would be because you wanted that less
precious texture there; the excuse Of econ
omy would scarcely hold good. In the case
OF material itself unsightly, the one
course is to cover it entirely with stitch
ing, as did the Persian and other untrue
able people of the east, but not they only;
the famous Syon cope IS SO covered. Much
of the work so done, that is to say, COM
petes in effect with tapestry or other
weaving, and it's purpose Is similar it is
sort of an amateur way OF working your
own stuff. But in character it is in no
way more nearly related to the loom than
@other needlework; it is still work on stuff.
For all over embroidery one chooses natur-
ally a coarse canvas ground to work on;
but it more often happens that one chooses
. canvas because one means. to cover It,,
than thta one works all over a ground be-
cause it is unpresentable.
Embroidery is merely an affair of stitch
ing and the first thing needful alike to
the worker in it, and the designer for it,
is a. thoro acquaintance with the stitches;
not Of course with every modification of
a. stitch which individual ingenuity may
have devised-it would need the space of
an encyclopedia to chronicle them all
but with the broadly marked stitch in the
various varieties which have been en-
ployed to best purpose in ornament. They
are derived naturally from the stitches
first used for quite practical and prosaic
purposes, button hole stitch for example
to keep the edges Of the stuff from fray
ing; herringbone, to strengthen and dis
guise a seam; darning to make good g
worn surface; and so on $500
Confusion Of Names
The difficulty of discussing embroider,
stitches is greatly increased by the hap
hazard way in which they are commonl,
named A stitch is called Greek. Spanish
Mexican or what not, according to thu
country whence came the work in which
some one first found it. Each names
after his or her individual discovery, o
calls it perhaps vaguely oriental; and S
we have any number of names for tn
same stitch, names which to different PEG
pie stand often for quite different stitches
When this confusion is complicated by
new name for every conceivable combin
alton Of thread strokes, or for each slight
est variation upon an old stitch. and eve
for a stitch worked from left to right in
stead of from right to left. or for a site
worked rather longer than usual. the ta.s
of reducing them to order seems almos
hopeless. Nor do the quasi-learned dc
scriptions help us much. One reads abo,
Opus this and Opus that until one be
gins to wonder where amidst all tn
parade of science, art comes in. But yc
have not far to go in the study of tt
authorities to discover that tho they ms
concur in using certain high soundir
Latin names, they are not of the san
mind, as to their meaning. In one thir
they all agree, foreign writer's as well
our own, and that is, the difficulty
identifying the stitch referred to by al
Client writer's, themselves not acquaint,
with the technique Of stitching and
likely as not to call it by the wrong nam
It is easier, for example, to talk Of Op
Anglicanum than to say precisely VIII