Those of you who may have wondered why I named my stock design collection ‘The Only Stitch’ will finally have a proper answer. (Provided you didn’t look at the About page over at TOS already…)

In the latest installment of ‘Ghost in the Embroidery Machine’ on the wonderful mrxstitch.com, I recently discussed the three most common ‘stitch types’ in modern machine embroidery. I hate to spoil it for you (and I really can’t since there’s a ton of supplemental information over there) but part of that discussion centers around the fact that embroidery machines are actually only capable of one point-to-point stitch. It’s all in the way the mechanism works, unless you have a chain-stitch/chenille machine, there will be no loops or knotting- everything is built from these stitches.

I think that one of the great equalizers of machine embroidery is learning that all of these complicated forms are just collections of that single straight stitch. Knowing that takes the fog of imagined complication away from the processes of digitizing and embroidery and makes it possible for us to really dive in to the properties of embroidery and of stitches.

Once we understand what it is about thread and what we can change about that single stitch or combinations of stitches to get different textures and sheens, dimensions, light and shadow, and even how direction, length, and arrangement of stitches influences color, we end up with an amazingly versatile tool. Looking at the design shown in this post should bring that home- that’s one color of thread there, and no breaks, so in truth, that design is a single piece of silver thread, looped together with a single piece of bobbin. That’s how simple stitches build into something more, if anything is.

If you are interested in the first taste of that essential knowledge, go check out the full post!

Ghost in the Embroidery Machine -Stitch Types in Embroidery Digitizing.

Also, if you love the Hannya Mask design as much as the good people of Urban Threads did when they read the article (and I quote, “@urbanthreads: @ErichCampbell Loved the post! Also WOW that mask design”) you can get it at The Only Stitch for a paltry 3$ US. 😉 You’ll also find the dogwood flower from the post in my collection for the same meager sum.