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floral embroidery

Floral Garden Bunting Project: a Wrap-Up on the 2023 Stitch-Along

     Anne      Leave a Comment

 

Last year, I shared monthly floral embroidery motifs with my email subscribers, with the aim of turning the 12 embroideries into a string of bunting at the end of the year. I’ve just finished mine and shared the final instructions via the newsletter. Since there’s been renewed interest in the project, I thought I’d share the patterns here as well to make it easier for everyone to download and keep track of. I’m so glad people are enjoying this sweet little project!! πŸ™‚

Find the quick download links below, and read on for more insight into the design process and some more useful links (really just self-indulgent flower talk & pretty photos!).

 

Floral Garden Patterns & Final Instructions PDFs

 

January-Silky-Anemone
February-Sprouting-Snowdrop
March-Sunny-Primrose
April-Budding-Crocus-1
Mays-Lily-of-the-Valley
June-Lovely-Lavender
July – Pale Hydrangea
August-Pretty-Dahlia
September-Feathery-Asters-1
October-Happy-Sunflower
November-Cheery-Chrysanthemum
December-Festive-Mistletoe
2023-Floral-Bunting-Instructions

 

January: Blue Anemone

 

Language of Flowers: Forsaken

 

(Maybe not the best way to start, but I didn’t choose the flowers according to their meaning in floriography, haha!)

 

When I started planning this stitch-along, I wanted to draw inspiration from the flowers that surround me throughout the seasons as much as possible. Since everything is covered in snow here for many months, I had to bend the rules a little some months and just go with flowers I liked and that completed each other well. I wanted something soft and blue for January, so I went with the blue anemone. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in real life, but it sure does look pretty as an embroidery!

Helpful post: I published a long & short stitch tutorial specifically for this flower, which you can also refer to for the other patterns that use l & s.

 

February: Snowdrop

 

Language of Flowers: Hope

 

 

A very apt meaning for this welcome sight, wouldn’t you say? After the bleakness of winter, the emerging snowdrops announce that there is hope for spring! Another one I have yet to see in real life, but I’m always so inspired by all the creative renditions of them, especially as embroidery motifs. They are always so popular, and with good reason. With only 3 thread colours, this little pattern is straightforward to stitch, yet still holds a small challenge in keeping a good stitch direction for the leaves and petals.

 

March: Primrose

 

Language of Flowers: Early youth

 

 

I had intended at first to keep all flowers designs in blue/white/purple shades for this project. However, after seeing Catherine from Bumpkin Hill‘s sweet little primroses from her Spring Sampler pattern, I was so inspired that I couldn’t help making up my own. I can never resist buttery yellow petals! Turns out the shades fit perfectly well with the previous two designs, and the ones to come.

If you also happen to love yellow flowers, I have a pattern in my shop for a lesser-known but gorgeous wildflower: The Sulfur Cinquefoil. Beginner-friendly if you’d like to give the long & short stitch a try!

 

April: Crocus

 

Language of Flowers: Abuse not

 

(Of what?)

 

I think the crocus has to be one of my favourite flowers, purely because it’s usually one of the first ones I see once the snow finally melts. It’s the surest sign of spring and warm weather, and forever associated with beautiful things like Easter, bird’s nests, and pastel eggs. Last year, the poor crocuses lasted only about four days. An ice storm over Easter preceded unusually hot weather (like, summer-hot weather!), and the poor darlings didn’t stand a chance. (Maybe the floriography is hinting at the weather to behave, ha!) One more reason why immortalizing blooms in embroidery is so wonderful.

 

May: Lily-of-the-Valley

 

Language of Flowers: Return of happiness

 

 

Is there anything on this Earth more delicately sweet and so perfectly detailed as the lily-of-the-valley? I pondered how best to embroider the delicate scalloped edge of the flower bells, and decided that simplicity was probably key: a soft line of split stitch. I had done something similar for the bluebells in this wreath design and it worked really well. Someday, I’ll have to stitch a bigger version of this beautiful flower!

 

June: Lavender

 

Language of Flowers: Distrust

 

 

I’ll tell you what I distrust about lavender – the actual process of growing it! We were lucky to get a few buds on our potted plant last year. But in places where it grows freely and effortlessly, what is there to distrust about it? It’s rather reliable, always smells delightful, and has so many beneficial uses. I love it, and also love seeing the various ways and colours people choose when embroidering it. Mom says mine doesn’t quite look like lavender…maybe the leaves are a little too fat? Next time, I think I’ll go for bullion knots for the flower buds.

If you’re thinking of doing that too but the bullion knot stitch intimidates you, check out the hack I came up with in this post!

 

July: Hydrangea

 

Language of Flowers: A boaster. Heartlessness.

 

(I seem to have a knack for picking flowers with the most *joyful* meanings, haven’t I!)

 

 

I’ll admit, the white (cream?) hydrangeas are not my favourites. I much prefer the blue ones, or even the soft pink ones. But since the creamy white ones grow in such abundance around the house, I decided to show them some appreciation – for they are indeed lovely anyways – by including them in this project. The petals are formed with lazy-daisy stitches sewn in clusters of four, much like I did for the lilac in this wreath pattern.

Have a look at my lazy-daisy stitch tutorial if you need a refresher!

 

August: Dahlia

 

Language of Flowers: Instability

 

I think, if I may be able to settle on a favourite from this project, it would be this one. I just love how it came out, and it’s not a difficult stitch (yet it looks quite sophisticated!). The petals are a joy to fill in. Dahlias, as I’m sure you know, come in so many different colours and even different shapes. This particular one is inspired by a lone pale pink dahlia which blossomed in a pot on our front steps. The silky petals surrounding the bead-like center made it such a welcome sight every day.

Helpful post: Satin Stitch tutorial, for those sweet petals!

 

September: White Asters

 

Language of Flowers: Variety. Afterthought.

 

 

Afterthought indeed! It seems the white asters are often overlooked in favour of the more popular purple ones. But there’s something I dearly love about the wispy, feathery petals and the way the flowers grow in clumps. Nothing says “September” quite like a field full of asters lit by the golden sunlight under a blue sky. A mix of lazy-daisy stitches and straight stitches worked to achieve those thin, wispy petals, but you could stitch them with only straight stitches.

 

October: Sunflower

 

Language of Flowers: For a dwarf sunflower, adoration. For a tall sunflower, haughtiness.

 

 

What is fall without sunflowers? Absolutely one of my favourite flowers, for their cheerfulness and deep, rich colours. They may be haughty but they are so beautifully welcoming, growing tall around people’s homes and enlivening their gardens. I don’t have any myself, but there is wild Jerusalem artichoke growing in the backyard and the flowers look very similar to sunflowers!

 

November: Chrysanthemum

 

Language of Flowers: Condolences

 

 

By November, the majority of blooms are gone, the leaves have fallen, and there is often at least a snowstorm or two during the month. Having nothing in the garden to look at for inspiration anymore, I opted for a popular flower, chrysanthemum being the birth flower for November. I rummaged around in my floss box and found the perfect shades of peachy orange for the petals. I wasn’t sure how to stitch them at all, but after watching this lovely video on YouTube by Linh N. W. and remembering how Nicki Franklin of The Stitchery did her dahlias, I decided to try something similar. By layering rows of lazy-daisy stitches I was able to achieve the look I was looking for, and I was overall quite pleased with the final result!

 

December: Mistletoe

 

Language of Flowers: I surmount difficulties.

 

 

And to conclude this little series, I decided to end with a sprig of mistletoe. Usually depicted upside down, tied with a bow, I decided to stitch mine upright so it wouldn’t look funny beside the other ones. A hint of festivity for December, yet sober enough to blend in beautifully with the other designs. The creamy white berries are similar to the snowberries from my popular Winter Wreath in my shop.

 

And there we are! Another stitch-along completed, now that all these lovelies have been sewn up into bunting. There are so many things you can do with your finished embroideries (they would look lovely as stuffed hearts too!), but the bunting is a rather easy and fun way to display them all at once!

 

 

I really hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did, and thank you so much for your interest and participation. If you read this entire post I thank you sincerely (and you deserve a medal!). And now I must know…which embroidery here is your favourite? Which flowers do you personally associate/love particularly for each month? Comment below!

 

Fondly

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,

2023 Free Yearly Stitch-Along + Mini Needle-Painting Tutorial

     Anne      8 Comments

Hello! It feels like a while since I posted anything here, and now it’s already 2023! Happy New Year to you and I hope you are having a lovely January so far. I’m thrilled to announce a new stitch-along again for this year, free to all my email subscribers.

If you’re new around here (warmest welcome!), last year I ran the Tea Party Mini-Quilt stitch-along, which consisted of 12 mini-embroidered hexies turned into a mini-quilt. The project combined embroidery, EPP and hand-quilting, and was tons of fun! Each month, I sent out a small embroidery pattern to my email subscribers, and at the end of the year I put together instructions for making the hexies into a mini-quilt. (You can find more info about it in the post linked above)

This year, my theme will be “Floral Garden” and instead of a mini-quilt, we will be making a nice string of bunting. It’s something I’ve been meaning to try for a while now and this project will be the perfect opportunity. Of course, if you prefer to make a mini-quilt again, or anything else you fancy, feel free to do so!

(By the way, if you missed the Tea Party project and it sounds up your alley, you’ll be able to purchase the pattern from my shop shortly. Sign-up to the email list to get notified!)

 

The January Anemone

For January, I’m starting off with a fanciful version of a white anemone, after having been inspired amongst other things by this beautiful wreath from Stitch Floral. I knew I wanted a blue flower for January, and after much Pinterest scrolling and deliberation over the palest DMC shades, I finally settled on two beautiful blues and the palest purple and sat down to stitch.

Of course, I had to do a little needle-painting to get the effect I was looking for, and I wasn’t disappointed! Since it’s a mini-pattern, it doesn’t take too long to stitch and yet it yields a very satisfying result. If you’re new to needle-painting, fear not! Not every pattern in this stitch-along will feature needle-painting, and to make things easier I’ve put together a little tutorial for you, specifically for this flower.

I already have a tutorial for the long & short stitch here, which is the technique most often used and referred to as β€œneedle-painting”, but I wanted to simplify it a bit for this project. Since the pattern is so small, you don’t need to work many rows and the shape is quite forgiving. The addition of the grey-blue thread around the center will also hide any imperfections πŸ˜‰

You could decide to use the satin stitch if you prefer, but personally I find the long & short easier to get a better definition and control of each stitch.

 

Easy Long & Short Stitch Tutorial

1. So, to begin, you want to be using only 1 strand of floss in your needle. This is one of those stitches that is much harder to lay smoothly if you use many strands. (I’m using a darker blue for this tutorial than I did in the original pattern, for the sake of the photos.)

Start by outlining the shape with split stitch. This will give you a nice edge to work with.

Then, start your first β€œlong” or β€œshort” stitch in the middle of the petal, outside the split stitch edge. We want to be covering this edge by using it as our guide to start stitches evenly.

 

2. Work more stitches on either side of that first stitch, spaced out, in the direction you want your stitches to go. For this project, you want to angle them towards the center as much as possible, to create definition along the edges.

 

3. Begin filling in-between those guiding stitches by working β€œlong” and β€œshort” stitches. Since this is a small area, it doesn’t matter if most of your stitches are about the same length. It will end up looking a bit like satin stitch, but gives you more flexibility to work around the curved edges.

Keep your stitches nice and tight against each other – you don’t want any gaps! You can use the tip your needle to smooth out and “comb” through the stitches before making the next one.

4. You don’t need to stitch all the way to the bottom of the petal, since we will add the darker blue there. Stop when you have just a little bit left.

 

5. Add stitches with the grey-blue colour by starting through the previous row and ending right along the center edge. You will only need to add a few stitches with this colour, just to give it that extra pop and really make the petals come out. Vary the lengths of the stitches so you have visibly long and shorter ones.

And there you go! You’ll notice that the petals will sort of melt into each other, but that’s ok! The more you keep your stitches angled, the more definition they’ll have.

I hope this was helpful and I can’t wait to see your beautiful anemones! Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram and use the hashtag #northernbellesal if you share your creations. Happy stitching!

Fondly,

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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,

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Two Different Ways to Embroider Hydrangeas

     Anne      2 Comments

Hello friend, it’s already time for a new mini-embroidery pattern for the 2022 Tea Party Mini-Quilt Stitch-along! For August, we have a sweet little posy of hydrangeas in a vase, freshly picked from the garden and ready to adorn our tea table. I spent a very peaceful afternoon playing around with different stitches and colour combinations to embroider the hydrangeas, and thought I’d share a bit of my process with you here today.

 

 

An endlessly fascinating and beautiful subject, florals can be embroidered in about as many different ways as there are embroiderers. I absolutely love scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest to see how everyone likes to stitch flowers. There are so many lovely colours, and so many stitches to choose from! The best way to figure out what works best is to just try out different things and have fun.

 

August’s Hydrangea Posy

I absolutely love a good hydrangea bush, all puffy with big pastel pompoms. And when dried well, they look nearly just as good in a vase as they do crowding the front steps. They are also wonderful to look at during the colder months.

For this mini-embroidery pattern, I knew that the hydrangeas would be quite small so anything too detailed (like long & short stitch) would likely not work. French knots and lazy-daisy stitch are both so versatile and useful for depicting many kinds of flowers, especially for small subjects. So I had a go an embroidering hydrangeas with both stitches, and ran a little poll on Insta to see what people preferred.

The French knots won, but I admit I was more drawn to the lazy-daisy stitch version. I love the fullness that the French knots give, but I feel it could also be mistaken for other flowers (like chrysanthemums or zinnias) and looks a bit too abstract. The lazy-daisy stitches give it a bit more definition. You can place your stitches to form an β€œX” to imitate the petals, but since the flower was pretty small, they kinda crowded over each other and ended up looking a bit messy.

 

French Knots vs. Lazy-Daisy Stitches

I think the size of the flower greatly influences the type of stitch that works best. For a very small flower, the French knots are perfect for giving it dimension and texture. The lovely combination of the sweet shades of blue #3811 and #827 leave it with no mistake that it is in fact a hydrangea. (Plus, when it’s your embroidery, you can absolutely claim that it’s whatever flower you say it is, even if it doesn’t exist!). If I were stitching a hydrangea bush or flowering pot, I would definitely use French knots, since they would be depicted from even further away.

But for a single flower, I really do love the lazy-daisy stitches.

I made this one bigger, and used the same two shades of blue. It’s not as dimensional, but it does have more definition and works better for this size. The bigger is it, the easier it is to add details. If I were to stitch a much larger, detailed version, I would probably use satin stitch or long & short, and perhaps bullion knots to add some texture, much like I did for the lilac branch project.

 

Which version?

This was a fun little exercise, but in the end I just couldn’t decide! Both versions ended up in the August pattern! Everything is stitched with 2 strands, but you can of course substitute the lazy-daisies for French knots or vice versa. Or use another stitch altogether, if you have another way to embroider hydrangeas! I’d love to know.

Also, if anyone has any great tips for drying hydrangeas to display, please let me know! The last bunch I tried failed miserably, and the ones I did manage from a few years ago have sadly lost most of their colour.

I hope you enjoyed these different ways to embroider hydrangeas, and that you enjoy stitching the August pattern. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram (@northernbelle.atelier) and use the hashtag #northernbellesal. I always love to see your work!

 

Fondly,

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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
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