Chicken Scratch and Australian Cross Stitch - the Russian Connection

A sudden spike in the number of visitors to my blog had me trying to work out where they all came from. On finding that they were being referred by a Russian website I was even more curious.

It turns out that there is a very good compilation of information together with photos of Chicken Scratch on this Russian website here. If, like me, you don't read Russian, Google Translate will give you a good idea of how the text reads. (The translation is not perfect and you may notice somewhere in the article that the literal translation is "chicken embroidery dash"!)

My gingham pincushions appear at the end of the article as a comparison between Chicken Scratch and Australian Cross Stitch and there is a comprehensive list of resources at the end which includes a direct link to my blog. Many thanks to the author of the article whose name I unfortunately have been unable to confirm.

Australian Cross Stitch pincushions

The difference between Chicken Scratch and Australian Cross Stitch? Although both are stitched on gingham, and both are embroidered with crosses, Australian Cross Stitch never has double cross stitches or running stitch. You can clearly see the double crosses and running stitches so characteristic of Chicken Scratch in the photo below. Find out more in my previous blog post here.

Chicken Scratch 

On the home front, it's real winter here in Cape Town with cold, damp, dismal days. I have been indoors hibernating and getting my new PC up and running the way I want it to. The next step is downloading Windows 10. I will also be teaching an embroidery course on Dresden Lace and Pulled Work soon. A damaged software disk has meant that I can't download my embroidery software for drawing up stitch diagrams. It's going to be a busy week at the keyboard.

Egg Cosy and Table Mat

These are the egg cosies and table mats I have been working on for Easter. The embroidery was quick to do, but getting the pattern ready took a little longer.

One of things that I always find challenging when putting together a pattern are the photographs. This time I set everything up on the end of the kitchen table where the light is good for my little point and shoot camera in the afternoons . For about four afternoons in a row, the cloud was heavy over the mountains in the west and at just about the time when the light is usually fairly good, the sun would disappear behind the thick clouds. I took a number of photos which were just too dark to use, but eventually the sun shone brightly at the right time and I was able to take some reasonable photos.

The lacy border of Australian Cross Stitch on the egg cosies and the place mat is quick to embroider and the pattern I have drawn up is suitable for both beginners and more advanced stitchers. You can find the pattern in my Etsy shop Lynlubell.  

Till next time, happy stitching!

Australian Cross Stitch for Easter

An egg cozy may seem like an unusual thing to embroider but with Easter coming up that's what I have been working on - egg cozies and place mats embroidered with Australian Cross Stitch.

If you are not familiar with Australian Cross Stitch, it is a simple form of embroidery worked on gingham - like the typical design on the pincushion below.

Australian Cross Stitch

The concept of using the squares of the gingham as guides to lay out evenly spaced stitches is similar to the more well known Chicken Scratch, but the end result looks rather different. I have written about some of these differences in a previous post and you can read about them by clicking here.

Chicken Scratch pincushion with simple design

The egg cozies and place mats are done and I plan to put everything together into a pattern. Drawing up the pattern has taken much longer than I thought it would but I am almost there. I am aiming at instructions detailed enough to enable a total beginner to tackle the project with ease. The pattern will be making it's way into my Etsy shop in the next few days.

On a personal note, I have started doing the set exercises to get my foot back into working order. Its going to take a bit of time but it certainly is nice to be able to put weight on my foot and to get all the joints moving again. I have also been able to return to Shine, the literacy programme where I volunteer to teach reading. Its good to be out and about again.

Till next time, enjoy your stitching!