The Diary of a Northern Belle

Hand Embroidery

THE LATEST

PDF Patterns

Fall Floral Embroidery Pattern: Calendula Wreath

     Anne      Leave a Comment

The latest pattern in my “Botanical Wreaths” series is the “Calendula Wreath”. A lovely autumnal wreath featuring gorgeous orange calendulas, golden leaves, and sweet red berries.

It is a bit on the simpler side than some of the other wreaths in the series, making it very accessible to beginners. Only basic stitches are used, yet you will achieve a beautifully delicate finish by using only 1-2 strands of floss at a time. No long & short stitch this time, so if that’s not your thing, this pattern will be perfect for you! The calendula petals are stitched and blended with satin stitch. The golden leaves are worked with a closed fly stitch, which is a simple yet interesting way of stitching leaves.

 

CALENDULA WREATH PDF PATTERN

 

Here is what the pattern includes:

This pattern comes as a 20-page downloadable PDF pattern, including everything you need to know to get started and successfully complete your project. It includes:

  • The pattern outline to transfer (as well as the reverse transfer if you prefer)
  • A list of the materials & tools you’ll need
  • A Stitch Guide to show you the different floss colours and stitches
  • A Stitch & Colour Diagram to help you interpret the pattern outline
  • Step-by-step Stitch Tutorials for all the stitches used in the pattern
  • Relevant info on how to prep your project: preparing your hoop, how to start your stitches, etc.
  • Step-by-step instructions with photos to guide you through each part of the pattern
  • Tutorial on how to finish the back of your hoop, if you wish

 

 

 

The pattern is written with beginners in mind to ensure you have all the information you need for a successful project. However, the “Calendula Wreath” pattern is also perfect for more advanced stitchers – just grab a cup of tea and relax as you immerse yourself in the delightful autumn shades. Whatever your embroidery level, this pattern is a lovely slow-stitch project full of the little joys of autumn.

 

Designed for a 6″ or 7″ hoop – finished embroidery measures around 5.1″ x 5.1″ (13 x 13 cm)

 

The majority of the stitches in the “Calendula Wreath” pattern can be found here in the Stitch Library, if you wish to practice before trying the pattern!

 

Happy stitching dear friends!

Botanical Wreath Project: A Pattern for Each Month

     Anne      Leave a Comment

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 πŸ˜‰

 

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,

Tea Party EPP & Embroidery Mini-Quilt Stitch-Along 2022

     Anne      2 Comments

 

I can hardly believe that this lovely mini-quilt project is now coming to a close! What a fun time it has been. In 2021, I had the joy of discovering – and falling in love with – English paper piecing (EPP). I made a little hexie flower each month with Mollie Johanson’s super cute embroidery patterns (found here on her Wild Olive blog). It was so enjoyable having a mini-embroidery to work on each month and anticipating what new design Mollie would come up with.

I knew I wanted to continue in 2022, and decided to create my own patterns to share with whoever might be interested. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if people would actually be interested in participating, or would prefer just seeing the progress on Instagram. I had this vague idea of combining the embroideries with EPP and turning them into a mini-quilt, but having never really quilted before I wasn’t *too* sure how I’d eventually go about it.

As more and more new followers showed interest in the project and began to stitch my little patterns, I became really excited (and scared!) to actually put the project together. But – no surprise there – mini-quilts are such fun to make, and hand-quilting is very addictive! I gathered lots of inspiration and had recourse to some fabulous tutorials by Emma of Vintage Sewing Box and Sarah from Pretty Fabrics & Trims (both of which I highly recommend checking out!).

 

The Finished Mini-Quilt

 

For my first mini-quilt, I am so happy with how it turned out. I wanted to challenge myself to use only fabric I already had on hand. Luckily I found the perfect cotton floral prints to go with the embroideries. EPP is wonderful for using up pretty fabric scraps!

It is entirely stitched by hand; from the embroideries to assembling the EPP hexies together, appliquΓ©ing, hand-quilting, and hand-binding. Very relaxing to do actually, and lots of fun coming up with ideas for the hand-quilting. I’m not yet very equipped for it in terms of threads and needles, so I just used embroidery floss and cotton perle, and an embroidery needle. I just worked a simple running stitch around each embroidery, and around the hexie panel and over the background fabric. To bind it, I used the seam allowance from the backing fabric, creating a lovely floral border that matched the hexies.

 

Stitch-along combining EPP & embroidery

This project has been a free stitch-along for email subscribers since January 2022. I’ve been sending out a mini-embroidery pattern each month, all β€œTea Party” themed. Yesterday, I sent out the complete instructions for making the mini-quilt. It’s not too late if you’d like to join in the fun and get all the patterns too! Simply subscribe here to my newsletter, and everything shall be sent to you. (Be sure to check your spam folder and complete all the steps until you get a confirmation that you’re subscribed).

The project will remain free for the remainder of 2022! After that, it will be available for sale in my Etsy shop. New freebies will be offered for 2023!

May’s Rosy Teapot, June’s Strawberry Basket, and July’s Piece of Cake

I really hope that you’ve enjoyed this Tea Party stitch-along and that you have fun putting the mini-quilt together! Of course, if EPP and mini-quilts are not as much your thing, you can definitely use the patterns to make something else. Many of the designs look really lovely just on their own, too.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who has participated in or shown enthusiasm for this project! It was such a pleasure to share little stitcheries with you. I love seeing your work, so don’t hesitate to tag me on Instagram or email me with photos! 😊

 

You Might Also Like:

english paper piecing: how to cut and baste shapes
English Paper Piecing Basics: Cutting & Basting
How to Turn Embroideries into EPP hexies
Basket Weave Stitch Tutorial: Simple & Pretty

Fondly,

Pin to save for later!

The “Five-Petal Florals” Collection: From Nature to Embroidery Pattern

     Anne      Leave a Comment

As is the case with many embroidery artists, one of my biggest sources of inspiration for embroidery is nature, especially flowers. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that if you’ve been around for a while, haha! Today I thought I’d share with you how my latest pattern collection was inspired by the beautiful β€œfive-petal flowers” I’ve been seeing around this summer, and a bit about the design process.

 

You’ll find these patterns in my Etsy shop, either as a bundle or available individually!

 

BROWSE THE SHOP

 

The Sulfur Cinquefoil

Ah, that such a lovely flower should be afflicted by such a name! Really, it doesn’t hint one bit of its charm. Considered and invasive species, the potentilla recta is nonetheless a really beautiful flower. With its creamy yellow petals and delicate jagged leaves, the tall plants border the path down to the river on my favourite walk. There are so many pretty yellow wildflowers, but this one really stands out with its soft shade of buttery yellow. I felt particularly inspired to capture it with my needle and thread, and knew it would make a lovely embroidery.

 

You can shop The Sulfur Cinquefoil pattern right here.

 

After taking a dozen photos (none of which were able to do it justice) and plucking a few specimens for the flower press, I got my sketchbook out to draw an initial pattern. Each embroidery pattern always begins with a hand-drawn sketch.

I’ve never been very good at sketching or drawing, but over the last few months I’ve definitely noticed an improvement since I’ve been sketching more often to create patterns.

 

The Wild Rose

A timeless and personal favourite, I knew I had to include the wild rose in this mini-collection. I simply love this flower, and had really enjoyed embroidering some last year for my Garden Bouquet project.

While wandering around a very peaceful and secluded public garden in my village, I came across a bush of the palest and most perfectly five-petaled wild roses. I do love the darker pink ones, but these pastel pinks were so soft and delicate I knew I had to stitch one!

I actually had many lovely photos of them, but unfortunately lost them recently during an SD card malfunction (note: let this serve as your reminder to back up your photos!!). Fortunately, they happily live in my memories and now on my embroidery table as well.

 

You can shop The Wild Rose pattern right here.

 

One of the things I love about sketching for embroidery is that you can keep the drawing very simple, because your needle and thread will take care of adding all the little magical details. In fact, the fewer markings you can get away with on your fabric, the better. And when it comes to florals, there are often a few elements that get stitched on top of other stitches, so they don’t always need to be included in the pattern outline. It makes for a clean, simple designing process that I’m starting to really enjoy!

Photo taken in June 2021, of a darker wild rose

 

The Common Mallow

Last but not least, the third addition to my β€œFive-Petal Florals” collection was the common mallow. I had never heard or seen this flower until this summer, and it’s quickly becoming a favourite. Its various shades of purple and well-defined veins are truly stunning. They’ve been growing all around the house for weeks now, with their purple heads enlivening the dreariest corners. The deep green leaves are so big, too, and have this lovely soft jagged edge that almost looks like a scallop.

 

You can shop The Common Mallow pattern right here.

 

In addition to photos (which I was able to save, since they are still growing abundantly), I actually sketched from the live plant. The flowers last an amazingly long time even after being plucked, so I was able to surround myself with them while I puttered about in my sketchbook.

Once the sketch is good enough for me to stitch, I make a copy on tracing paper. After going over it with a fine Sharpie, it’s ready to be transferred onto fabric. Lately I’ve been using a heat-erasable pen, and it’s definitely my favourite transfer method to date! I’ll definitely have to update my previous post on transferring methods!

 

SEE ALSO:

how to transfer an embroidery pattern
transferring on dark fabric: 3 methods

Creating the Embroidery Pattern

As I stitch, I often make little changes to the design, and I also take note of what didn’t work so well. I draw the final design on a plain sheet of white paper using the tracing paper copy I made earlier, and change or add to it depending on how the embroidery turned out. I go over the design with the fine Sharpie again, and then scan it and save it on my computer. Often, there will be little imperfections that I like to smooth out digitally, and I do that simply with Microsoft Paint and a tiny drawing pad. It’s not the best or most professional system, but it works fine for my current needs.

Once I’m satisfied with the pattern, I import it into Canva, which is the program I use to design all my PDF booklets. And finally, once the instructions are written and I’ve added all the photos, it’s time for the best part: listing on Etsy!

Northern Belle Atelier Shop

 

I’ve truly been enjoying designing and stitching these unique patterns for you, and I hope you find as much joy in embroidering them as I did! If you have any particular requests for something you’d like to see in the shop, I’d love to hear from you. I’m hoping to offer more than PDF patterns in the near future, so I’m always open to suggestions.

 

Fondly,

Pin to save for later!

Beautiful Needle-Painted Lily for Easter

     Anne      2 Comments

Happy Easter, dear friend! I hope you had a lovely long weekend, full of Spring’s blessings and renewed gratitude for the mystery of the Resurrection. What a beautiful holiday Easter is! It’s always been one of my favourite times of year. April is very unpredictable here, all sunshine and birdsong one day, cold and snowy the next. Today, unfortunately, is the latter. The flowers have yet to appear, but despite the snow the grass is greener and the birds are nesting. While I seek to appreciate Spring’s slow appearance, the flowers of my dreams are in full bloom in my embroidery atelier. In today’s post I’ll be showing you my latest creation: a soft pink, needle-painted lily.

 

Buy this pattern in my Etsy shop: Lovely Pink Lily

needle-painted lily in faux wood frame

 

If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember that I embroidered a pink lily last summer as part of my Garden Bouquet project. It was mostly done with ribbon which created a beautifully raised effect.

complete ribbon lily flower

 

I really loved that lily, and had been wanting to re-embroider it in a different technique for Easter. I know Easter lilies are usually white, but I kept visualizing it in pink and decided to keep it that way. I wanted a soft, pale pink lily embroidered in needle-painting.

I’m still learning so much about needle-painting techniques, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out! It seemed to go much quicker than when I was working on the wild roses in the bouquet. I tried to keep it simple and not use too many colours. The petals are done with 5 different shades of DMC cotton floss, and the stem and leaves with only 2 shades. Simple, but lovely.

 

Learn to Needle-Paint!

Needle-painting can be really intimidating at first, but if you break it down bit by bit, it becomes very manageable. If you already draw or paint, you will likely find it easier since it’s so dependent on direction. The main stitch used for needle-painting is the long & short stitch, which allows you to control the length and direction of every single stitch. The fewer strands you use, the more precise and fine your work will be.

For my lily, I used only 1 strand to work the long & short stitch. I found it helpful to divide each petal into smaller sections (lightly marked in pencil on the fabric) to help decide where to place each colour.

lily petal showing pencil guidelines

It worked really well, and also helped immensely to keep the stitches going in the right direction. A flower is an excellent subject for long & short stitch practice, and you can check out this tutorial I posted a few weeks ago if you’d like to give it a try!

 

the long & short stitch hand embroidery tutorial

 

The lily design is now available to download in my Etsy shop! It’s perfect for anyone wanting to give this technique a try, or simply refine their skills. I have included lots of diagrams to help with colour distribution and stitch direction. πŸ˜‰

Which other flowers would you like to see in this style? I’m thinking of working on the wild roses again, and giving them an embroidery piece of their own. Then perhaps I will try a flower that isn’t pink, haha! It’s so nice to work with pink shades, though.

 

Fabric Choice

I wanted to talk about fabric for a minute, to praise the absolutely lovely cotton I used for this needle-painted lily! Most often, I use fabric scraps from my stash for my projects (though I recently fell in love with antique linen), but there are only so many β€œscrappy” fabrics that are suitable for larger embroideries. I prefer to work with natural fibers, but good quality cotton or linen can be a bit hard to find for a good price sometimes. Which is why I was so happy to discover that IKEA sells some beautiful cottons at a very reasonable price!

I used the white Ditte cotton for this project and it worked amazingly well. It’s very lightweight so I doubled it, stitching through two layers instead of one. I hadn’t really tried that before, but I love it! It certainly adds stability and prevents threads at the back from showing through. I basted the two layers together along the hoop allowance so they wouldn’t shift, and it was perfect.

needle-painted lily

Highly recommend popping by IKEA for some fabric if you don’t know where to get good cotton. They were out of stock on a lot of them, but luckily they still had that dreamy white, and an icy grey-blue of the same name.

What fabric do you like to embroider on? And if you’re in Canada, where else do you like to buy fabric?

 

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my new project, and I look forward to releasing the pattern soon! Hopefully before long, the lilies will be back in my garden in full bloom. Until then, let’s keep stitching!

 Happy Easter again dear kindred spirit, and until next time,

 

Fondly,

learn to needle-paint a pink lily
Pin to save for later!

New in the Shop: Easter Eggs Decorations

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Can you believe it’s Holy week already and Easter is next Sunday?! April seems to be absolutely flying by so far. I for one am very excited to welcome Easter (and sunnier, spring-like weather) and celebrate the resurrection of Christ with a warm cup of tea and a box of chocolate! I don’t drink tea or eat chocolate during Lent, so Easter Sunday is always made extra special by indulging in favourite treats again. Only a few more days to wait now, so in the meantime…I’ve been stitching flowery Easter eggs! Next to eating them, stitching them is best, right?

 

pdf embroidery patterns floral easter eggs

 

I have my sweet Mom to thank for this lovely idea. She thought it would be great if I added a few Easter-themed embroidery pattern to the shop. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it since it was already late March and I was still immersed in embroidering this robin…

embroidered robin bird

…but he is taking quite a long time, and I doubted he’d be done in time for Easter. So when Mom suggested embroidering Easter eggs, it seemed like the perfect idea to add new products to the shop and take a little break from my feathery friend. I’ve always loved painting eggs, so I thought why not come up with some cute designs and embroider them instead? I’m much better at embroidery than painting, anyways!

 

Floral Easter Eggs

So the embroideries quickly took form, but I found it a bit odd just to have a decorative egg by itself on the fabric. It would look much better as a decoration! Which is why I transformed them into little hanging ornaments, perfect for a touch of Easter decor, and perfect to keep throughout Spring as well!

embroidered easter eggs

Aren’t they just adorable? They’re available as PDF downloads in my shop so that you can make your own! All three designs are beginner-friendly and quick to stitch. Each pattern also includes a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the ornament. It’s really easy, and all you need in addition to embroidery supplies are a piece of felt, ribbon, some cardboard, and hand-sewing needle & thread.

You’ll have these whipped up in no time, just in time for Easter!

 

Visit Northern Belle Atelier on Etsy and grab your pattern today!

 

Tulip

embroidered tulip egg
Shop this pattern

This one is probably the easiest. You only need 4 embroidery stitches: satin stitch, stem stitch, whipped backstitch, and French knots. All stitch tutorials are included in the PDF.

 

Flower Meadow

embroidered floral meadow
Shop this pattern

This lovely meadow was such a joy to embroider, and is very easy to personalize. Follow the pattern or create your own!

 

Pansy

embroidered pansy egg
Shop this pattern

And finally, this lovely pansy stitched on a soft background. This one has the fun addition of using DMC Light Effects thread, which creates a beautiful shine. Also a beginner-friendly pattern, using few stitches but featuring lovely little details.

 

Which one is your favourite?

If you love them all and want to purchase all three designs, be sure to do so through this listing! I created a little bundle so you can have all three patterns for less the price of two.

3 floral embroidery eggs
Shop pattern bundle

I hope you enjoy these floral Easter eggs my dear friends! Are flowers already blooming in your garden? We’ve started sowing many flowers and vegetables inside, but it will be a couple more weeks before things bloom in earnest. At least the birds are singing happily, and it hasn’t snowed in over a week!

 

I look forward to chatting with you all again after Easter, cup of tea and chocolate eggs at hand. πŸ˜‰

 

Fondly,