clear navigate_before

Gobelin filling stitch icon
Gobelin filling stitch

  • Large brick stitch
Gobelin filling stitch main image

This is a vertical stitch, which (as its alternative name suggests) is an elongated version of brick stitch.

In common with all the versions of Gobelin stitch, this is a counted thread stitch consisting of long stitches, either straight or diagonal.  This version is worked in rows of vertical stitches, offset by half a stitch length from the previous row. Mary Thomas, in her 1934 Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, indicates that it can also be worked as a pulled thread stitch.

add_circleMy Stitches
Parallel Pattern Filling Shading Canvaswork Pulled Thread Counted Thread

Donated by Jane Kwiecinski in honor of Marilyn Court, the most avid and prolific stitcher that I have ever known.

Method

Mary Thomas indicates that when working it as a pulled thread stitch it should not be pulled as tight as most pulled thread stitches.

pan_tool
1
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 1 illustration
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 1 photograph
1

Work a vertical stitch over six threads of the canvas.

2
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 2 illustration
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 2 photograph
2

Repeat parallel stitches across the area to be filled to complete a row, each stitch should be spaced by two threads of the canvas.

3
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 3 illustration
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 3 photograph
3

On the next row, each stitch is offset in height by three threads of the canvas and sits neatly in the gaps created by the first row.

4
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 4 illustration
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 4 photograph
4

Complete the row.

5
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 5 illustration
Gobelin filling stitch method stage 5 photograph
5

Continue by offsetting the next row with the last, which will share holes with the first row.

Gobelin filling stitch

Structure of stitch

Parallel Pattern

Common uses

Filling Shading

Embroidery Techniques

Canvaswork Pulled Thread Counted Thread

Related Stitches

Straight Gobelin stitch Brick stitch Encroaching straight Gobelin stitch

Identifying Gobelin filling stitch

This stitch can be identified by the long, straight stitches which are offset from the stitches either side by half a stitch length.  For a stitch where the stitches overlap only slightly, see encroaching straight Gobelin stitch; for a version which doesn’t overlap at all see straight Gobelin stitch.

References

  • Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches (1934) , p.105
  • Jennifer Campbell, Ann-Marie Bakewell, Guide to Embroidery Stitches (2004) , p.207