Fractional stitches add detail to your cross stitch

$fractional-chart (4K)$ Wondering what fractional stitches are and why you would want to stitch them? Have you ever come across something similar to the diagram, left, when working a cross stitch design? Confused? Let me help.

Many stitchers shy away from designs that include fractional stitches, believing them to be complicated and difficult. However, they do enable the designer to produce a more detailed design and actually are not that difficult to work especially if you are working your counted cross stitch on evenweave fabric.

Half Cross Stitch

The simplest fractional stitch is the half cross stitch. Just as it sounds, this is the first leg of a cross stitch. It is sometimes used to depict sky or water or something semi transparent. I use it in my dragon designs to represent the smoke rings that the dragon and wizard are blowing.

This stitch is also used in needlepoint where it is known as tent stitch.

Quarter stitch

Quarter stitches are easier to work on evenweave rather than Aida. In the diagram below the tiny pink stitches are quarter stitches. On Aida fabric you will need to push your needle down in the centre of the Aida block (a crewel needle makes this easier), whereas on evenweave you can use the centre hole.

The chart may show small symbols as in the diagram at the top of this page. These tiny symbols represent both quarter and three quarter stitches. How do you tell the difference? Well you need to take a look at the design itself. Perhaps, for example, you have a blue shape on a pink background. The background colour is normally the one which you would use for the quarter stitches.

Three Quarter stitches

Right so what do we do with the other tiny symbol? This can be stitched as another quarter stitch with a backstitch line separating the two. More commonly we would use a three quarter stitch for this symbol. Again work the quarter stitch in the correct corner, then add a half stitch on top. Using the dominant colour, i.e. the "foreground" object brings that into focus, with the background (quarter stitch) staying where it belongs.

But what if it isn't easy to tell which object is further forward? In this instance you can use three quarter stitches for both tiny symbols. To keep them distinct you may prefer to work the stitches in the opposite order; the half stitch first then use the quarter stitch to "tie" it down. Again a backstitch can be worked between the two stitches to separate the areas clearly. The use of two three-quarter stitches is shown in the diagram below.

Hopefully this little article has helped to demystify the various fractional stitches for you. If you have any questions, however, please use the form on the Contact Me page to get in touch.

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