d, and turn it about, so that now one side of the quill now the other
catches the light; or notice the alternate stripes of brighter and
greyer green on a fresh-trimmed lawn, where the roller has bent the
blades of grass first this way and then that. So it is with the colour
of silken stitches. The pattern opposite (82) looks as if it had been
embroidered in two shades of silk; in the work itself it has still more
that appearance; but it is all in one shade of brownish gold: the
difference which you see is merely the effect of light upon it. The
horizontal stitches, as it happens, catch the light; the vertical ones
do not. Had the light come from a different point, the effect might have
been reversed. If there had been diagonal stitches from right to left,
they would have given a third tint; and, if there had been others from
left to right, they would have given a fourth.

[Illustration: 82. INFLUENCE OF STITCH-DIRECTION UPON COLOUR.]

Suppose a pattern in which the leaves were worked horizontally, the
flowers vertically, and the stalks in the direction of their growth, all
in one stitch and in one colour, there would be a very appreciable
difference in tone between leaves, flowers, and stalks. In gold, the
difference would be yet more striking. And that is one reason why gold
backgrounds are worked in diapers; not so much for the sake of pattern
as to get variety of broken tint.

In the famous Syon Cope the direction of the stitching is frankly
independent of the design. That is to say, that, while the pattern
radiates naturally from the neck, the stitches do not follow suit, but
go all one way--the way of the stuff. This, though rather a brutal
solution of the difficulty, saves all afterthought as to what direction
the stitches shall take; but it has very much the effect of weaving. The
embroiderer of the 13th century was not afraid of that (aimed at it,
perhaps?), and was, apparently, afraid of letting go the leading strings
of warp and weft.

When stitches follow the direction of the form embroidered,
accommodating themselves to it, all manner of subtle change of tone
results. You get, not only variety of colour, but more than a suggestion
of form.

That is the second point to be considered.

[Illustration: 83. MEANINGLESS DIRECTION OF STITCH.]

The direction taken by the stitch always helps to explain the drawing;
or, if the needlewoman cannot draw, to show that she cannot--as, for
example, in the tulip her