Chicken Scratch Embroidery

This is my grandmother, Ruby, who was born back in 1895. I don't remember her when she was young, obviously, but as a grandmother, she loved all kinds of needlework. I think her talent for sewing started when she was very young. She was the 2nd oldest of 9 children. She also had some older half-siblings, 2 of whom were also raised by her mother. Every person in the family had a particular job to do to help out. Ruby's task was to sew all the clothing for the family, including making the patterns!

By the time she was my grandma, she didn't have as many people to sew for, so she turned to more creative ways to use her talent. One thing she loved to do is called Chicken Scratch Embroidery. This type of embroidery is done on gingham fabric. Other names for Chicken Scratch include: Snowflake Embroidery, Depression Lace or Gingham Lace.

Grandma most often placed her designs on gingham aprons that she made. Here are a few examples of her work.

The first few examples are really just variations of a normal cross-stitch. The circular shapes are made by careful placement of the cross just inside or outside of a particular square.