Stitches
Embroiderers use a wide range of stitches to achieve the design they have in mind. Illustrated here are the Pueblo and colcha stitches as well as a variety of others that Pueblo embroiderers also use.
Patterns
Stitches
Treatment of Edges
Darning & Mending
Spotlight: Mabel Fragua
Pueblo Stitch
The pueblo stitch is unique to the Pueblo people. It is a variant of the back-stitch. It can be used to cover a large area with an efficient use of yarn. Its use enables the embroiderer to work designs in negative patterning.
Colcha Stitch
The colcha is a type of self-couching stitch that is also called Bokhara or Romanian Couching. The long base stitch is held flat along the ground cloth by two or three smaller stitches taken with the same needle and thread. Colcha means "bedcover" in Spanish; in New Mexico the word refers to both the textile and, especially, the stitch used to cover it.
Double Running Stitch
Prehistoric Stitch that was inserted
parallel to the weft.
Wrap Stitch
Prehistoric Stitch that was inserted
parallel to the weft.
Herringbone Stitch
Sometimes used in conjunction with the
Pueblo Stitch.
Satin Stitch
Sometimes used in conjunction with the
Pueblo Stitch.
Outline Stitch
Sometimes used in conjunction with the
Pueblo Stitch.
Overcast Stitch
Sometimes used in conjunction with the
Pueblo Stitch.
Back-Stitch
The employment of an embroidery thread composed of paired and twisted elements appears to hold the answer for the successful manner in which comparatively large spaces were solidly filled in. This fashion for large solid areas, which is a charateristic, was doubtless responsible in turn for this type of sewing element and an accompanying detail which serve to differentiate Pueblo work from all other described forms of the back-stitch.
Acoma Countered
Outline Stitch
Found in Acoma embroidery.
Acoma Chain Stitch
Found in Acoma embroidery.Weft-Float and Embroidery or Brocade
Weft-float pattern weave and twined stitch embroidery
Weft-float pattern weave
Weft-float or irregular twill
Running stitch embroidery flanked by lines of twined stitch
Twined stitch embroidery forming a meander pattern on a cloth
(enlargement below)
Detail of the twined stitch (enlargement of above).
Running stitch embroidery simulating 3/3 diamond twill
School for Advanced Research