An embroidery style in which two flat stitches of equal length cross the same small area of ground fabric at opposite angles.

Cross-stitch is created using one of the simplest and most easily recognisable stitch techniques: two diagonal lines cross, with the second formed over the first. One of the oldest styles of embroidery (the earliest existing example dates from AD 850), it is still one of the world’s most widely used. It is cherished in Western culture for its association with honest simplicity – probably the result of its use in piously themed historical samplers, and later, its use in schools. Although cross-stitch is often used to form very simple patterns on an open-weave, gridded fabric, it can also produce extremely sophisticated effects, injecting the illusion of shading and three-dimensionality into figurative subjects.