Freestyle (or ‘surface’) embroidery encompasses any ‘non-counted’ form of hand-worked embroidery, so those in which the design isn’t constrained by the weave of the underlying fabric. This allows for greater flexibility in the creation of three-dimensional effects, and different sections using a huge variety of stitch styles. With freestyle nearly any design can be interpreted, from naturalistic scenes to highly decorative patterns. Threads can also be laid onto the surface fabric and secured in place with a second thread (a technique called ‘couching’).