: Fig. 117.]

[Illustration: Fig. 118.]

Fig. 118 shows another pattern in the same kind of work. The darning
stitch begins by working to and fro over and under four clusters of warp
threads, part way down it continues over the two central ones only,
leaving the outside clusters alone for the present. It finishes up, as
at the beginning, to and fro over the four. The threads that were left
are next covered with an overcast stitch, the adjoining ones in each
case are caught together in the centre in order to form the X shape that
recurs along the pattern. This darning kind of work is very closely
allied to weaving, and especially the kind often seen in Coptic work, in
which bands of the woof threads are purposely omitted in places, whilst
the fabric is being made, in order that a pattern may be hand-woven in
afterwards to take their place. Many beautiful examples of this work are
on view in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

[Illustration: Fig. 119.]

In working a drawn thread border round a square shape, at each corner
there comes an open space that requires a filling. Fig. 119 shows two
wheels that are commonly used to ornament such places. The square in the
first one has a preliminary groundwork of threads thrown across from
corner to corner and from side to side, all meeting and crossing in the
centre. The working thread is brought through at this point and the
wheel commenced by taking a kind of back stitch over a bar and bringing
the needle up beyond the next bar. It then takes the thread a step back
and over the same bar and brings it up beyond the next; this goes on
until the circle is of sufficient size, the stitches growing a little
longer in each succeeding row. In the diagram the thread is loosened at
the end to explain the working. The lower example is a commonly used
wheel, which is made by the thread running round alternately over and
under a bar until the wheel is completed. It should be as solid as the
upper one, but is purposely left loose in the diagram. Either of the
wheels could have a line of buttonhole stitching worked round the edge
as a finish. This figure shows also the two usual ways of making firm
the raw edges in cut work--the square shape is bound by an overcast
stitch, and the round one by buttonholing.

CUT OR OPEN WORK

Cut work can be most interesting both to look at and to carry out. In
the XVIIth century Italy was famous for its _punto tagliato_ or cut
work. John Taylor mentions