Fiber Art 101: Embroidery
Embroidery is a decorative process of stitching yarn or thread onto fabric. Embroidery is an art form that takes precision and often quite a bit of time. While embroidery is practiced around the world, it originates from China and the Near East, dating as far back as the Cro-Magnon days. It is believed that the process of embroidery began to mend, patch or reinforce existing clothing and objects. Later in Medieval times, embroidery became a sign of wealth and power from tapestries to elaborate clothing.
Today most contemporary embroidery is stitched with a computerized machine using patterns from computer software. However, there are many artists keeping up the hand-embroidery tradition from spectacular artworks to DIY projects. Some popular stitches are the running stitch, blanket stitch, chain stitch and cross stitch.
