Square Filling
This is hands down, my favourite stitch. I love it so so so much. It is so incredibly versatile. Square Filling is only limited by your own imagination. There is something so cool about this stitch. It reminds me of being in high school math class and playing around with graph paper. It really brings out this fantastic way of playing with colours. I personally use it to fill large areas. It can be a unique contrast to the satin stitch, which seems to get used a lot in modern embroidery works.
This post will teach you how to lay down the foundation of your square filling and some ways that I have used it in the past to inspire you to do more!
First things first, define the area you want to fill. You can outline it with a chain stitch, stem stitch, or just pencil it in with a magic pen or chalk.
1. Lay down horizontal lines.
Keep the spacing even throughout. Use a ruler and some chalk to really get your measurements down perfectly. It will make sure that you have a super polished finished product.
2. Lay down your vertical lines, making sure that they are perpendicular to the horizontal lines. Making sure that you have really clean 90 degree angles will bring this whole look together. Again, use chalk to make sure that your spacing is even.
3. Finally, tie down the intersections of threads. These stitches should be really small. They will make sure that your grid doesn’t go all wonky and slip around all over the place. You can work these small stitches in contrasting colours for more depth or the same colour to make it more monochromatic.
After that, you can fill in your grid with any design you like. Sometimes I will just leave it blank because I quite like the effect, but you can double up your threads and just experiment! The best part about embroidery is that you can really make it your own. Explore what works for you!
Basic Square Filling
This is a leaf that I wanted to fill with just a plain square filling. I decided to leave the edges undefined as an experiment.
Double it up
Here I decided to double up my horizontal and vertical lines to give it a more interesting texture.
Contrast your colours
I decided to switch up the colours of my square filling to make this effect. Additionally, the little flowers in the pink filling added such a nice detail.
