I may be working on more than one colorway of Love HMB Studio’s hydrangeas design. (I blame the students in my Friday am class.) I wanted to use similar backgrounds to connect the two canvases even more. Since the first one has a diamond background, well, here we are.

The stitch is nothing more than a repeat pattern of cross stitches that creates a grid of diamonds. The stitched sample uses four plies of Soie D'Alger on a 13M canvas. I love the stitch's simple elegance and how it won’t distract from the beautiful hydrangeas. (For the record, I am stitching the hydrangeas in basketweave with Silk Lame 18.)

I love this as a background, which means it will also work for walls or floors. Honestly, I love the idea of this stitch on a pastel canvas with nothing more than this stitch. In that version, you could dress it up using a metallic thread for the middle row of the three. I didn’t obsess on exact sequencing here as there is forgiveness as long as you travel behind the stitching on a diagonal path, going out of your way to avoid dragging it across the open space. I am playing with the idea of filling the open space with cross stitches in the same skipped row pattern with a metallic thread or a different hue of blue in this example.

I hope you have the perfect spot for today’s stitch. Have fun playing with it!

As you are auditioning stitches (from any stitch source), count the number of canvas threads on the diagram that match your mesh size. And there you have what an inch of the stitch will look like. Evaluate that against the area where you plan to use the stitch and make your final decision. If you start integrating this step into your stitch selection process, you may be surprised at how many stitches you think are large are much smaller than you realize.

By (sometimes) including this step in my own process, I find I am now integrating much longer stitches than I ever thought I would. I used to think a stitch six rows long was super big. I have very much changed my tune, which has helped me expand my creativity, especially for large-space stitches.

Today’s stitch diagram, along with all other #whimsicalwednesday and #smallspacesunday stitch diagrams, can also be found on a Pinterest board here. Be sure to follow whimsicalstitch.com on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.

If you like what you see on this blog, there's more. Mary’s Whimsical Stitches is a series of four books offering contemporary how-to collections of more than 200 stitches (in each volume) for all stitchers, regardless of skill level. All books include updated and sequenced diagrams from this blog, plus a collection of all-new stitches from private lessons and other class projects. Visit here to find a needlepoint retailer that carries my books.

New to needlepoint or looking for a refresher? Please download a handy how-to guide covering basic needlepoint stitches and stitch compensation techniques along with new top-line information on needlepoint materials and tools, how to handle threads, and other helpful needlepoint resources.

whimsicalstitch.com also sells Stitch Guides and Stitch Concepts for Melissa Shirley Designs, Zecca Designs, Sandra Gilmore, Purple Palm, Maggie, and Penny MacLeod, and many more. Click here to see the newest guides and click here to see the entire collection.

I hope you have the perfect spot for this stitch! Please enjoy! Have a wonderful #whimsicalwednesday!

A Note about Diagrams
I use color in diagrams to make them as clear as possible.  The primary function of different colored lines is to illustrate a stitch sequence.  For example, the layering of colors demonstrates you add them in that order.  They can also provide ideas on integrating additional threads (one line for each color).  Or, you can use the same thread for all color lines.  That's where I encourage you to use your imagination for the space you are stitching!