What is this?
 

Well I know what it is, its a quilt block my mother made hundreds of. My question is What is the stitching pattern and is there a website where I can learn it? I remember her sitting for hours happily stitching these blocks.

I believe it is called Chicken Scratch embroidery. It was quite popular many years ago. It's very pretty, she was very good at it.

It's called chicken scratch.
I love it, made a baby quilt about 30 yrs ago out of it.
you can google it.
fun and easy to do

Did it in the late 70's & 80's... here's a tutorial I found


http://kindawonderful.typepad.com/pi...tch-guide.html

That is chicken scratch. I did many apron borders using that

Thank you all so much. Now I can finish a quilt using these blocks. When she died there wasn't enough blocks finished to make a quilt even if I added sashing.

Oh this brings back memories ... we did this in the 60s in all sorts of different designs. A nice spin off from traditional embroidery, using the gingham as your grid.

We did it mostly as aprons. I remember my sister doing it as a border on a child's dress.

A chicken scratch quilt would be so lovely.

I remember my grandmother having this on her curtains, aprons, etc. I didn't know there was a name for it. Thanks for the wonderful memories!!

I remember seeing it but have never done it.

it looks like they were made to fit into the shape of a star.

i ***love*** chicken scratch embroidery! i find it from time to time at the thrift store and it always makes me feel gleeful!

aileen

Actually it is a star. I had to fold it in 1/4ths to fit it in the scanner. I needed more detail showing than I could get with the camera. The camera does a great job of taking pictures but I'm sorta camera illiterate so its operator error:shock: I plan to fit this in my busy schedule of quilting, finding quilt patterns, and general sewing.

I love your quilt blocks, how lucky are you to have found such treasure of them

that is so pretty!

Very pretty work. I haven't seen chicken scratch in a long time.

This makes me smile. My beloved MIL did this chicken scratch embroidery by the hour and made so many aprons, placemats, etc. She used all sizes and colors of gingham. Sometimes she did the designs with white and sometimes she used floss that was the color or the gingham. Fun to see again.

It sure dose bring back memories of a time when everyone was doing this. I loved doing it. I still have a couple of table cloths I did. What fun watching everyones come together.

Oh, wow!! Seeing that did bring back memories of 30+ yrs ago. I too did some. It is easy on gingham check. Would like to make my 5 DGDs a pillow of their initial...

I'm glad you got your answers, but your Mom's work is beautiful...and a hundred squares!!! You must post when you finish it!

It's hard to find authenic cotton gingham now, most are blends. I ordered some online but the check pattern wasn't how gingham use to be. .

Sometime in the early 60's, I wore gingham skirts and tops with this design or a simple cross stitch design embroidered across the bodice and just above the hem of the skirt. Seeing your block brought back good memories of my mom.

I know this question is way too soon but here goes anyway. Have you considered how you will lay this out? It looks as though you might get beautiful secondary patterns from it. Please let us see it when it is done. It's wonderful you are finishing it. I hope you have many good memories as you complete her project.

Great link. Thanks for sharing.

thanks for sharing- my mother did cross stitching on gingham. I did huck toweling in the late 50's and early 60's. going to try that again.

It's beautiful, thanks for posting the tute. I have also seen the gingham used as a tied quilt using a pattern, It makes a beautiful quilt that way too. The last one I saw was a star that took up most of the center of a queen sized quilt.

Very pretty but no hand work for me , stick myself to much.

I made a velvet pillow using this stitch and a chalk grid... yes, back in the seventies.
Blessings as you complete this work of love.

It's called Chicken Scratch (not sure why, however), but it was very popular in the 50's and early 60's. I made some beautiful gingham aprons using Chicken Scratch as a border - it was fun to do, and I think quite lovely.

That is so neat - something good for take-along. Sigh, I am going to have to go lots of places to get all my take-alongs done!

It is also called smocking or is a type of chicken scratch. I remember learning how to do it from my grandmother.

Yes, everyone is correct, it is Chicken Scratch. Four of my quilting buddies and I have each made the same diamond star quilt in different gingham colors. Mine is light blue/white. I have purchased red/white gingham and never plotted the diamond star out. The basic reason is this particular pattern took me so much time to complete. My completed block size was about 15.25"X15.25 and had about twenty five blocks. Interesting that, this was the board topic today as I was thinking, when the weather gets warmer for spring, I am going to put it on my bed as a bedspread as I've never used it. At the time I bought the material, it was very inexpensive and I have enough left to make curtains from gingham and solid blue that was used for the quilt backing. It makes a good craft to work on on along trip. I worked on it while going to my church members college graduation. WhenI learn how to post a picture, I'll send one of it.

I am doing embroidery right now on an owl, and I just learned to do it to finish up. Fun to do and so fun to look at it.

It reminds me of smocking without the use of a pleater. I have a tutorial from many years ago that shows this stitch on gingham fabric... mine never looked quite the pretty! Gorgeous handwork!

What a lovely embroidery work!

Look what i just found by chance

http://www.pinterest.com/embroiderys...ch-embroidery/