Australian Cross Stitch and Chicken Scratch - Gingham embroidery

Australian Cross Stitch is just the thing to do when you want something that stitches up quickly and easily. The end result is always pretty and it looks like lace. Here I used a mercerised cotton crochet thread size 8 which gives a nice crisp look to the embroidery.

Australian Cross Stitch

Looking at these two pincushions someone asked whether it was Chicken Scratch. No it's not. It's Australian Cross Stitch. One design is embroidered with half cross stitches and decorated with circles. The other design is cross stitch with flowers and a decorative border stitch.

Chicken Scratch, which also goes by the names Snowflaking, Hoover Lace or Depression Lace, is also done on gingham but the difference is in the stitches. To illustrate here is a Chicken Scratch pincushion embroidered on the same gingham.

Chicken Scratch

How to tell the difference between Australian Cross Stitch and Chicken Scratch?  The quick giveaway between the two is that Australian Cross Stitch has either crosses or half crosses, but Chicken Scratch usually has a double cross stitch and a running stitch. Also, Chicken Scratch often has an outline of double cross stitch worked in a coloured thread. This outline is done in the same colour as the darkest squares of the gingham.

Chicken Scratch

I am teaching an Australian Cross Stitch class this month and hope to have some of the patterns in my Etsy shop soon. In the meantime, happy stitching!