The first crazy quilt section - free embroidery

This is a have fun piece. You can have as many yo-yo lily pads and fish as you want. Add beads to look like rocks in the blue water or as a border. I found a fake suede ric-rac trim to use for the border. It's held in place with french knots.

Start with the goldfish. I used 2 shades of orange and one yellow to do the straight stitches over pieces of orange felt to make a padded shape. You can do a series of long straight stitches, then stitch over them so the fish is a little raised instead of using the felt. Follow the arrows on the pattern for the direction the stitches should go in. The fish bodies are about 3/4" long and about 1/4" wide but make them the size you want. You may want to try making one on a scrap of fabric first. The fins are pieces of thin ribbon. I used 5/8" rayon bias ribbon for the fins and tail.The back fin is about 1/4" long and cut at an angle at one end. Gather the opposite edge and sew where the red line is on the back of the fish, spreading out the gathers so it;s about 3/8" long. The side fins are the same except they are gathered tight and sewn where the black x's are. The tail is a 1" piece with both ends cut at angles. Gather it at the center and sew to the back tip of the body. The eyes are 2 small black seed beads but you can do french knots instead.

The lily pads are circles of green bali printed fabric made into yo-yos. Use 1" - 2" circles of fabric gathered into the yo-yos for the various sizes. Notice that I partly covered the fish so it looks like they are swimming under them. Look at the photo for ideas for placements. The 2 lilies are made with white silk ribbon doing Japanese leaf stitch, but white floss can be used to make lazy daisy stitches. Look at the photo and you'll see that one is a circle of petals and the other is made to look like a side view. I used dark green floss to make a straight stitch for the stem, french knots at the bottom of the flower, and 2 stem stitched grass like stems.The center of the full circle flowers has a french knot using yellow floss.

The heron  is made using bullion stitches. I found the directions in an old bullion stitch book so I can't give them but by looking at the photo you may be able to see how to make it. I had a look online but couldn't find anything like it. Sorry!

The clusters of green over the brown edging was made using tatted rings but a similar look can be made doing bullion stitch loops. Another choice would be to do turkey stitch, then cut the loops or not.

Since this was made ages ago I don't have the names/numbers of the colors used. It's the only section that has something (the heron) I can't give the directions for. There is an amazing fish youtube video that I posted about last year you may prefer to make.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwBcSZxTeYo

Next month is all flowers so get your fav colors of floss ready.

February is National Embroidery Month!

 

 Since this month is national embroidery month I put all my embroidery patterns at Etsy on sale at 20% off. Above is a new one I just listed. It's called Pocket of Hope. The little pocket is made to hold a memento, small photo, or a folded piece of paper. Perfect for a gift with a wish or prayer written on it!

Directions to put it on a quilt are also included.

The sale runs thru March 1.

Finally my free embroidery for Jan.

 Ok, This will be very different from any others I've posted. I have 3 crazy quilt wall hangings I've been working on and then ignoring for years. I decided to get out the smallest one and work on it with you. Below is the basic pattern on how I laid out the fabrics. I started with no pattern and just sewed them as I worked.The actual size is 14" x 14". Some of the areas are already embroidered so there's no full pic yet because I want you to be surprised each month.

I call this piece "Bali in the Garden" because I used all Bali fabric in tans and greens except for the 2 blue sections. The chart below has where you should put the colors. You can skip the tans and use all greens but do use blue fabric where it's marked. These will be ponds. You need 4 different greens, 1 tan, 1 darker tan or light brown, and the blue. The fabric I used in space 9 is green, tan, and light brown. Use what you like but stay away from bold prints. One of my greens has a palm frond design (4 & 11). The rest look like hand dyed fabrics. 

The 3 pages of patterns were traced from my finished design so they are only approximate. You need to cut the fabric about 1" bigger than the patterns. The areas along the edge of the design may need about 1 1/2" - 2" because you want them to come to the edge of the base fabric. I used a piece of 14" x 14" muslin for this. Each space is numbered to show which piece of fabric is sewn on when. If you don't know how to crazy quilt there are tons of sites and videos to get you started. 

For sections 6 & 7 and 9 & 10, you sew them together then sew them to the main piece. Some sections will need to be hand sewn in place.

Notice that in section 3 there is an option piece. This is because I added a tiny fairy from a piece of fabric after I had sewn all the sections on the base fabric. Maybe you have a tiny scrap of a favorite fabric you'd like to add here.

A BIG tip I have is to baste the edge of the entire piece under after all the pieces are sewn on. Fold under what you plan on for the seam allowance. This is so none of your embroidery gets too close to the edge. I had this problem a few times in section 4 so that's when I did the basting.

The small print will let you know which pieces to sew together before sewing them to the base fabric, what colors to use where, and other tips. This is not a full size pattern.

These patterns below are only approximate as I made this as I went. You may want to combine areas 6&7 and 9&10 into just one fabric, that will be fine. . Remember that when you cut out the fabric to not cut them the size of the patterns. You  need seam allowances!The jpgs are full size so right click them to save them to your hard drive and then print.

Crazy quilting is a fun way to use up leftover pieces of fabric. Just remember that this mini quilt is woodland or garden themed. Next month will be the center section 1. This pond is edged in brown ric-rac and will have goldfish!

If you have no interest in crazy quilting do the embroidery as blocks.

©Billie Jo Heisler 2025

All rights reserved

 Disclaimer:

I drew this design by hand then used a software program to edit it. I have not knowingly copied anyone else's work.

Please consider the drawing and all of the embroidery copyrighted. You have my permission to print copies of the drawing in any size for your own use but not to share or sell. If you want to share the pattern please link to the blog pages.

What I did with the 2023 embroideries

 

Here's both sides of the tote I put the embroideries on. I finish this back in Nov but never took a pic till now. I had planned on doing some embroidery where the blocks join but got to the point where it became just get it done. I carry a lot of totes when I go shopping. Have you seen the tv series Elsbeth?  I get like her but my totes look full where as the ones she carries look empty.

I'm going to do a second post with what I have planned for the free embroidery. It's very different this year.