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70. RAISED QUILTING.

STITCH GROUPS.

There are all sorts of ways in which stitches might be grouped:—according to the order of time in which historically they came into use; according as they are worked through and through the stuff or lie mostly on its surface; according as they are conveniently worked in the hand or necessitate the use of a frame; and in other ways too many to mention. It is not difficult, for example, to imagine a classification according to which the satin-stitch in Illustration [71] would figure as a canvas stitch.

In the Samplers they are grouped according to their construction, that seeming to us the most practical for purposes of description. They might for other purposes more conveniently be classed some other way. At all events, it is helpful to group them. Designer and worker alike will go straighter to the point if once they get clearly into their minds the stitches and their use, and the range of each—what it can do, what it can best do, what it can ill do, what it cannot do at all.

Anyone, having mastered the stitches and grasped their scope, can group them for herself, say, into stitches suited (1) to line work, (2) to all-over work, (3) to shading, and so on.

These she might again subdivide. Of line stitches, for example, some are best suited for straight lines, others for curved; some for broad lines, others for narrow; some for even lines, others for unequal; some for outlining, others for veining.

And, further, of all-over stitches some give a plain surface, others a patterned one; some do best for flat surfaces, others for modelled; some look best in big patches, some answer only for small spaces.

With regard to shading stitches, there are various ways (see the chapter on shading) of giving gradation of colour and of indicating relief or modelling.