Embroidery, a word applying to many sewing techniques, is the art of decorating fabric and other materials using a needle and thread. The types of thread or yarn used are innumerable and a variety of effects can be achieved using different colors and textures of yarn.

The process can also incorporate decorative articles such as beads, sequins, pearls and quills. There are many variations of embroidery from freehand to counted stitching and today there are free embroidery patterns available all over the internet, searching on "free embroidery patterns" or "free embroidery designs", will bring hundreds of results.

Fabrics have been embroidered for centuries, and machine embroidery has become popular in recent years, with certain stitches and techniques being machined for mass production.

The techniques or stitch "types" have remained the same throughout time, and most embroidery stitches cannot be replicated by machine. Some stitches can be "emulated" by machine and "appear" similar to hand crafted embroidery, but the construction of machine embroidery is necessarily different.

• Running Stitch

• Cross Stitch

• Couch Stitch

• Outline Stitch

• Back Stitch

• Daisy Stitch

• Whipped Running Stitch

• Chain Stitch

It is difficult to be specific about the origins of embroidery, but examples exist from Egypt, Iron Age Northern Europe and Zhou Dynasty China.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidery

"It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times." ref - Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller-Christensen, The Art of Embroidery translated by Donald King, Thames and Hudson, 1964, quoted in Netherton and Owen-Crocker 2005, p. 2. ref

• Counted Cross Stitch
• Freehand
• Tapestry
• Needlepoint
• Hardanger