Hello, it’s been a while! I’m not very good at keeping up with my blog lately, but I’ve been working on all sorts of lovely things for my shop that will be coming soon. If you’re a newsletter subscriber, then you already know about my Botanical Wreath series, but I thought I’d take some time today to present it here and talk about it.
For 2023, I’ve decided to embroider twelve botanical wreaths: one for each month of the year, inspired by the beautiful flora of the seasons. I’m taking some liberties for the first few months as we are buried under snow here. The idea is to create wreath designs inspired by the flowers and plants surrounding me. I love a touch of whimsy, so the botanicals may not always be completely accurate but that’s part of what I love about creating my own designs!
At the same time, I hope to take the opportunity to enhance my sketchbook a bit and learn more about the plants I choose to feature. I don’t tend to add colour to my sketches before getting them ready for embroidery, but I really want to do more of that this year. I think it will help immensely with colour distribution and the thread selection process, which is a step I somehow don’t enjoy. There’s just too much pressure to choose the *right* colour, when there are so many possibilities! Maybe a bit of botanical accuracy to limit colour choices isn’t so bad after all 😉
January Wreath: A Frosty Winter
Designing and stitching the wreath for January resulted in one of my most favourite embroideries ever. I love winter and something about stitching pinecones and fir needles by the window while it snowed outside was purely magical. Usually, my colour palettes feature at least a bit of colourful yellow, pink, or purple. I love vibrant colours and during the Christmas / winter season I’m often drawn to deep greens and velvety reds. But for this wreath I wanted something a bit more muted and wintery without feeling too festive.
With textured pinecones and clusters of snowberries, this wintery wreath is perfectly evocative of slow, tranquil winter days spent drinking cocoa while stitching, as a deep blanket of snow covers the sleeping nature.
You can find the pattern with step-by step instructions in my Etsy shop here: January Wreath Pattern
I would rate it as an intermediate project because of its small details and cast-on stitch pinecones. All the stitch tutorials and instructions you need to complete the project are included.
February: Victorian Valentine
For February, I went back to my beloved pinks and some new purples to create a romantic pansies and roses wreath. I was inspired by Victorian Valentine’s Day cards and images of beautiful purple pansies surrounded by tumbling greenery. It was also a very enjoyable project, despite taking an age to choose the exact shades of purple and yellow I wanted. Who knew there were so many options for pansies?!
Gentle and romantic, you can also find the February wreath pattern in my Etsy shop: February Wreath Pattern
I would say it’s an easier embroidery than January’s, featuring mostly basic stitches and a bit of long & short stitch. Again, thorough instructions are included to help you along.
So, what do you think? Would you like to join me this year and stitch a beautiful botanical wreath every month? Each pattern is available individually and this project is not a subscription. That way, you can choose to stitch as many or as few wreaths as you’d like. You can also save 10% on each wreath pattern by becoming a newsletter subscriber!
I’m about half-way through designing the March wreath (running a bit behind schedule lately!) and already loving it. Since there are no flowers here yet, I have taken the liberty to imagine the woods filled with bluebells and periwinkles… Can’t wait to start stitching it and showing you! Follow along on Instagram (@northernbelle.atelier) to see progress and updates!
Fondly,
