Burden Stitch

Time for another 100 Stitches Plus post!  I just learned how to do this beautiful filling stitch called the Burden Stitch.  

I used perle cotton floss in three different colors.  The bright blue is DMC no. 995, the pink is DMC no. 956 and the light blue is a DMC color variations no. 4022.

The Burden Stitch is a filling stitch.  It is composed of Straight Stitches that are laid horizontally and held in place by vertical Straight Stitches.  

I used the bright blue floss for the horizontal stitches:

I came up through the fabric:

pulled the floss all the way through and went back into the fabric to the right of where my floss first emerged. 

I pulled the floss all the way through and that formed the first horizontal Straight Stitch.

I made five more of these stitches - equally spaced:

Now for the vertical Straight Stitches.  These will be done with the color variations blue and the pink flosses. 

I started with the color variations blue floss.  These stitches will be holding the laid horizontal Straight Stitches in place.  I first came up through the fabric above the first horizontal Straight Stitch: 

and went back into the fabric right above the next horizontal Straight Stitch:

I pulled the floss all the way through to form the first vertical Straight Stitch.  
Next, I formed evenly spaced vertical Straight Stitches all along the horizontal Straight Stitch. 

Next, I used the pink floss.  Notice that I am starting this by coming up through the fabric right below the top horizontal Straight Stitch:

I went back into the fabric right above the third horizontal Straight Stitch:

I kept making these vertical Straight Stitches, alternating the floss colors until I had covered all the horizontal Straight Stitches:

This is a simple stitch to do.  I imagine it would be very effective at filling in large open spaces in embroidery motifs.  I also think it would be nice to use as a border:

Here is a look at the underside of this stitch:

I learned this stitch from the excellent book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.