Susan Penny shows you step by step how to make a pincushion using a technique rather oddly called Chicken Scratch!

SPOTLIGHT ON…

CHICKEN SCRATCH

The last time I did embroidery on gingham was at primary school. As far as I can remember it didn’t have a name, but even then I was fascinated by the technique. I love the simplicity of stitching on gingham fabric, using a few basic stitches to create a regular pattern.

Three strands of stranded cotton were used for both the Foundation stitches and the Filling stitches.

SIMPLE & EFFECTIVE

Chicken Scratch became popular in the 1930’s to 1950’s in the USA when it was used to decorate aprons. Chicken Scratch is known by different names around the world, including Amish Embroidery, Snowflake Embroidery, Depression Lace, Australian Cross Stitch and Dentelle Vichy in France. The simplicity of Chicken Scratch is what I enjoy most about it. There are just three basic stitches, and originally to make it look like lace, it was stitched in one colour. I like to mix it up a bit and so I have used several colours and even made up a stitch to fill a space. The order of stitching is important, and you must complete all the Double Cross Stitch (Smyrna Cross Stitch) before adding the decorative stitches. These double cross stitches should be worked on every other square of fabric –I chose the dark green square to work these on my design.