Filling Fridays with blackwork fill fun

Welcome to Stitchin’spiration’s “Friday Fill”!

What’s a “Friday Fill”? Well, bi-weekly I’m going to introduce you to all kinds of blackwork fills, and try to break them down showing you how truly easy it is to stitch blackwork. Most importantly, I want to show you how much fun it can be.

My main love for blackwork comes from the geometry of it, and how I can play with shape and color within it. Yes, I was a math geek growing up, and also had endless kinds of engineering graph pads to play with (thanks to my engineering dad). I would take pencil and pen to those graph pads, finding an endless number of ways to follow those lines and play with pattern. Who knew there was a form of embroidery out there that did just that – blackwork!

Fast forward to adulthood when I discovered blackwork, and that love was rekindled. My doodling again became playing with pattern, repeat, and geometry, and it was the place my brain wanted to go after a stressful day of work. Thanks to all that doodling, I have thousands of fills waiting to be played with, and more continuously coming alive. They’re ready to meet you all, and see what you can do with them.

The “Friday Fill” posts will be simple… They’ll show you a small graph of the fill, along with some stitched examples of it. There will also be accompanying videos showing the fill actually being stitched. I’ll let you in on a secret – there’s no ONE way to stitch any fill pattern. So, you may find multiple options for you to play with.

The goal is to show you how simple it is to stitch blackwork. Many times, blackwork designs look very complicated, and can overwhelm some stitchers. If you just break the fills down into simple parts, stitching blackwork can in many ways become easier than stitching cross stitch patterns. Once you find the “rhythm” of the fill pattern, you might not even have to follow the chart, you just stitch away – filling the area that you are stitching.

And, remember, blackwork doesn’t have to just be black. Heck, it doesn’t even just have to be all in one color! I’ll play around with color on the fills also, giving you some examples for bringing them to life. I’ll also be playing around with different types, weights, and colors of threads, as different fills work differently with different types.

So, keep your eye out on Fridays for our next “Friday Fills”. Come and play with me in thread and color!

Are you ready to “fill” your Fridays with blackwork?

Happy stitchin’!
Sally
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