Needle arts, one of the heritage arts, encompasses: cut work, chicken scratch, crewel embroidery, cross stitch, counted cross stitch, candlewicking, decorative stitching, to name a few.
A great example of decorative stitching is what was popular in the Victorian era to trim the edge between small pieces of fabric that were sewn together into a crazy patch quilt. It’s sometimes also called crazy quilting. There are pieces of satin, taffeta, lace, damask, and decorative corduroy that have been sewn together for a quilt, with decorative stitching between the blocks.
Crewel embroidery is done with yarn, rather than floss. 
For beginners, cross stitch is a good place to start. The xes are marked on the material, so it makes it easy for new embroiderers to make their stitches even, just follow the xes. In the accompanying picture you can see the xes where floss has not yet been sewn. This is mostly cross stitch, but has back stitching around each of the animals, to accent them. Quilt blocks are available from most craft or quilt shops to try your hand at this skill. You can also get iron on transfers so you can put the design on a material of your choosing. Most stitchers use embroidery floss. It comes in six strands, and you pull it apart to use 3 of the strands to complete the design.
Candle wicking is done with the thread that would be used to make candle wicks, hence its name. It’s usually off white on off white. A lot of candle wicking projects are done entirely with French knots.
When you do embroidery that is not cross stitch, you can use a multitude of stitches to complete your design. The following example shows four different versions of a Boy Gone Fishin’. There is some cross stitch on this, but it is mostly done with a back stitch. The blocks were then set together to create a baby quilt. 
Chicken scratch is done on gingham. It is done with floss .
As with most skills, “practice makes perfect”, or at least improves the level of the skill.
I’m including two blocks from a quilt I started when I was nine and finished when I was sixteen. It has been well loved, since our daughter Lisa always wanted it on her bed when she was little. The deer block was an early example showing long stitches that don’t fall evenly to create a nice line. The moose is a later block, showing smaller more even stitches that create nice lines on the animal. I’m especially fond of this quilt, since it has quilting done by each of my six siblings plus my mom and my dad. It holds great memories.
Counted cross stitch is done on aida cloth. There is no pattern on the cloth. You start in the center, count blocks, and create your design with the floss you use.
I enjoy multiple types of needlearts. They are relaxing, and make wonderful handmade one of a kind gifts. Here are some examples of some of my needle arts that are not shown above. My needle arts projects have won awards at county and national fairs in Iowa, Florida, Massachusetts and Missouri.
