It's a very excited title because there are three stitches today. All of them are related but each provides a different look and all work well for animals. The common theme is alternating stitches over two and four rows. And you can play with threads!
The first is the Parisian stitch.
Like the Brick Stitch works for a small animal, this works really well for a larger animal. The stitched sample on Instagram is a version of the Parisian stitch above, but with two threads.
The next variation is a great opportunity to add a contrasting thread.
I really like this variation. For an animal, I would use the same type of thread for both lines. However, I would use a complementary color for the second thread, in a slightly lighter or darker value than the first thread.
The last stitch isn't a Parisian stitch. However, as I created the diagrams above, this emerged as another way to play with stitches over four rows. I like the scale.
These stitch diagrams, along with all other #whimsicalwednesday and #smallspacesunday stitch diagrams, can also be found on a Pinterest board here.
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If you like what you see on this blog, want to learn some very creative decorative stitches, and how to put them all together, whimsicalstitch.com sells stitch guides for seasonal Melissa Shirley designs. 27 guides are currently available and more are in the pipeline.
Enjoy!