I've become interested in "chicken scratch" embroidery the past few years, picking up samples as I've come across them in "op shops" here in New Zealand. The (typically) older ladies who work at the shops smile at me for doing so, telling me that these cross stitch projects were usually the first embroidery projects done by young girls at primary school "in the day."
Chicken scratch originated in America with the early settlers. It is always done on checked gingham fabric, using a limited number of stitches (running stitch, cross stitch, double cross stitch, woven oval and/or woven circle). The stitches are all done on either the white blocks or the darkest colored block.
If you're interested in learning more, a tutorial can be found here. And yes, this is on my list of things to do, I've got a stash of different colors of gingham fabric in the closet, calling out my name!
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