the 17th century, are
painful object lessons in what not to do.

The origin of the term cross-stitch is not far to seek: the stitches
worked upon the square mesh do cross. But, falling naturally into the
lines of the mesh which governs them, they present not so much the
appearance of crosses as of squares, reminding one of the tesserae
employed in mosaic.

[Sidenote: TO WORK CROSS STITCH.]

To explain the process of working cross-stitch would be teaching one's
grandmother indeed. It is simply, as its name implies, crossing one
stitch by another, following always the lines of the canvas. But the
important thing about it is that the stitches must cross always in the
same way; and, more than that, they must be worked in the same
direction, or the mere fact that the stitches at the _back_ of the work
do not run in the same way will disturb the evenness of the surface.
What looks like a seam on the sampler opposite is the result of filling
up a gap in the ground with stitches necessarily worked in vertical,
whereas the ground generally is in horizontal, lines. On the face of the
work the stitches cross all in the same way.

The common use of cross-stitch and the somewhat geometric kind of
pattern to which it lends itself are shown in the sampler, Illustration
5.

The broad and simple leafage, worked solid (A) or left in the plain
canvas upon a groundwork of solid stitching (B), and the fretted
diaper on vertical and horizontal lines (C), show the most
straightforward ways of using it.

[Illustration: 5. CROSS-STITCH SAMPLER.]

The criss-cross of alternating cross-stitches and open canvas framed by
the key pattern (C) shows a means of getting something like a tint
halfway between solid work and plain ground. The mere work line--or
"stroke-stitch," not crossed (D), is a perfectly fair way of getting a
delicate effect; but the design has a way of working out rather less
happily than it promised.

The addition of such stroke-stitches to solid cross-stitch (E) is not at
best a very happy device. It strikes one always as a confession of
dissatisfaction on the part of the worker with the simple means of her
choice. As a device for, as it were, correcting the stepped outline it
is at its worst. Timid workers are always afraid of the stepped outline
which a coarse mesh gives. In that they are wrong. One should employ
canvas stitch only where there is no objection to a line which keeps
step with the canvas; then there is a