I have been stitching for years, if I may be allowed to proclaim. And yet, my skills were limited to the basic run and cross stitches. Over the years, I have discovered that there are hundreds of other stitches, of which, a few might be grasped by the limited aptitude that I possess. Despite of having realised so, I did not consciously make an effort to learn those. A fishbone or herringbone stitch looks very beautiful but involves a bit of learning and patience. I found this Embroidery Bingo on social media by Jessica Long and decided to give it a chance. At the end of the year, this was one of the highlights of my otherwise trashy year (2021).

I hadn’t played a Bingo ever, let alone an embroidery one! The task seemed daunting but the tutorial videos were so descriptive and assistive, that now I can assert of having mastered a few of these. Grasped, rather, not mastered. I can safely say that from the above board, French Knots have become my absolute favourite! Since then, I have been using them in my Embroidery Journal for 2022. More on that later. But let me show you the Bingo board for this year with more gorgeous stitches.

I had never imagined that I would learn forty eight stitches in the span of one year! Most of them are flashy, intricate, pretty and a little tricky. If you look closely at the Bingo board 2022, you would spot that I haven’t managed the Rose Leaf perfectly. Heck, it’s nowhere near to perfect! Some of the stitches are a bit intricate in a way. They can be managed, though, with quite a few hours of practice. My favourite from the 2022 board is thee Cretan stitch.

A list of all the forty eight stitches I learnt during the two Bingo events –

Oyster, Running, Detached, Fishbone, Raised Fishbone, Pistil, Back, Fern, Woven Wheel, Open Woven Wheel, Couching, Blanket, Blanket Fill, Alternate Blanket, Blanket Eyelet, Fly, Fly Fill, Attached Fly, Whipped Fly, Reverse, Heavy, Stem, Stem Fill, Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch, Interlaced Herringbone, Raised Closed Herringbone Stitch, Granitos, Chain, Chain Fill, Chain Feather, Chain Rose, Checkered, Checkered Chain, Double Detached Chain, Twisted Chain, French Knots, Split, Split Fill, Satin, Turkey, Rose Leaf, Straight, Raised Straight, Cretan, Square Boss, Thorn, Wheatear and Woven Bar.

You can look up any of these on the internet for free tutorials, learn and practise them. Let me know how it goes and we might even end up comparing stitches on our next embroidery projects!

Happy stitching!