, that is to say,
deliberately diagonal lines. A background irregularly darned should be
irregular enough never to run into lines not contemplated by the worker.

[Illustration: 44. DARNING DESIGNED BY WILLIAM MORRIS.]

In the case of large leaves, veined, the veining should be worked
first, the stitches between them radiating outwards to the edge of the
leaf.

More accomplished work in darning is shown in the border by William
Morris in Illustration 44, where it appears, however, much flatter than
in the coloured silk. It is worked solid, the radiating stitches
accommodating themselves to the forms of the leaves and petals, which,
in fact, are designed with a view to their execution in this way. They
are defined by outline-stitching--light or dark as occasion seemed to
require.

Mention has already been made of darning _a propos_ of canvas-stitch;
and there is a sort of natural correspondence between the _mecanique_ of
darning in its simplest form and the network of open threads which gives
to rectangular darning, like the German work in Illustration 45,
character which more than compensates for its angularity in outline. The
darning is there quite even in workmanship, but it is, as will be seen,
of different degrees of strength--lighter for the surface of the
pattern, heavier for the outline.

You may qualify the colour of a stuff by lightly darning it with silk of
another shade, and very subtle tints may be got by thus, as it were,
veiling a coloured ground with silks of various hues.

[Illustration: 45. FLAT DARNING UPON A SQUARE MESH.]

LAID-WORK.

The necessity for something like what is called "LAID-WORK" is best
shown by reference to satin-stitch. It was said in reference to it that
satin-stitches should not be too long. There is a great deal of Eastern
work in which surface satin-stitch, or its equivalent, floats so loosely
upon the face of the stuff that it can only be described as flimsy.
Nothing could be more beautiful in its way than certain Soudanese
embroidery, in which coloured floss in stitches an inch or more long
lies glistening on the stuff without any interruption of threads to
fasten it down.

Embroidery of this kind, however, hardly comes within the scope of
practical work. Long, loose stitches want sewing down. Some compromise
has to be made between art and beauty. The problem is to make the work
strong enough without seriously disturbing its lustrous surface, and the
solution