oss-stitch.

_Courtesy of the Edgewater Tapestry Looms_]

Yet we must acknowledge there are many examples of Berlin woolwork which
possess the merits of beautiful color and exact and even workmanship.
Some of them are done upon the finest of canvas with silks of exquisite
shadings, and where figures are represented the faces are worked with
silk in "single stitch," which means one crossing of the canvas instead
of two, as in ordinary cross-stitch. The latter was of course better
suited for furniture coverings, both in strength and quality of surface,
while the method of single stitch succeeded in presenting a smooth and
well-shaded surface, sufficiently like a painted one to stand for a
picture. Indeed, veritable pictures were produced in this method and
were effective and interesting. In these specimens the faces and hands,
while worked in the same cross-stitch, were varied by being done on a
single crossing of the canvas with one stitch, while the costumes and
accessories of the picture were done over the larger square of two
threads of the canvas, with the double crossing of the stitch.

The faces were, in some cases, still further differentiated by being
wrought in silk instead of wool threads.

The embroidered chair and sofa covers had quite the effect of
tapestries, and were far better than a not uncommon variation of the
same needlework, where the broadcloth or velvet background held the
embroidery.

The designs were copied from patterns printed in color upon cross-ruled
paper, and consisted of bunches of flowers of various sorts, or pictures
of dogs, and horses, and birds. A white lap dog worked upon a dark
background was the favorite design for a footstool, and this small
object tapered out the existence of decorative cross-stitch, until it
grew to be in use only as a decoration for toilet slippers. The final
end of this style of work was long deferred on account of the fact that
a pair of cloth slippers, embroidered by the hands of some affectionate
girl or doting woman, was a token which was not too unusual to carry
inconvenient significance. It might mean much or little, much tenderness
or affection, or a work of idleness tinctured with sentiment.

[Illustration: _Left_--HAND-WOVEN TAPESTRY of fine and coarse
needlepoint.

_Courtesy of the Edgewater Tapestry Looms_

_Right_--TAPESTRY woven on a hand loom. The design worked in fine point
and the background coarse point. A new effect in hand weave ori