L is for Lattice Fillings!

Towards the end of lat year, I started a series of articles working through an A-B-C progression of the archives here on Needle ‘n Thread. The last letter we looked at was K, for Kaleidoscopes.

And that brings us to L – for Lattice Fillings!

Some folks refer to lattice fillings or lattice work or lattice stitches as “trellis fillings.” I am careful not to call them “trellis” stitches, because there is a stitch called trellis stitch (you can find a tutorial for it here) that is not at all similar to lattice fillings.

Lattice fillings are essentially laid work – where long threads are laid in some sort of grid-type pattern, and the intersections are couched (sometimes decoratively, sometimes not). You can achieve all kinds variations with lattice work in embroidery by varying the type, color, order, angle, and whatnot of your laid threads, as well as varying the method of couching your intersections, as well as adding any extra decoration you stitching inside the resulting lattice.

Lattice fillings are a ripe ground for fun experimentation!

There are quite a few tutorials for different types of lattice stitch fillings back in the archives on Needle ‘n Thread. You’ll find quite a few of them in the Stitch Fun Index here.

A few highlights of some favorites:

Griffin Stitch – this is a highly decorative lattice filling with great possibilities for color.

Battlement couching – one of my favorite lattice fillings, because you can achieve a very interesting “depth” or 3-D affect with this technique.

Laced lattice stitches are also a really fun approach to embellishing lattice work.

A Free Design that Lends to Lattice Filling

Also back in the archives is this free hand embroidery design called Feathered Fourths, which lends itself really well to lattice work.

The Ultimate, Albeit Quirky, Lattice Exploration

This downloadable PDF called the Lattice Jumble: A Stitch Fun Sampler takes most of the lattice tutorials from the Stitch Fun Series – and other stitches, too – and compiles them into a conglomeration of elements that are fun to fill with lattice work. The PDF came about because folks wanted to work the design I was playing around with during the series.

The Lattice Jumble project has been around for quite a while, and it’s still pretty popular in the archives!

More to Come!

Of course there’s more to come in this series – we’re just about halfway through the A-B-C sequence here! – so keep an eye out for M! (Betchya can’t guess what it is!)

Happy Monday!