This is actually February's embroidery. I was all ready to put it up a week ago but the war in Ukraine happened and I just felt like it was too frivolous to even think about it. Now after reading how other artists are saying we need our art and crafts to help with dealing with all this emotional stress. I do hope it does help you a bit with any stress you may be having.
As someone who has dealt with anxiety and panic attacks since I was a small child I know how creating something can cause the mind to focus and forget about other things. Sometimes reading will help too, but right now for me, I find my mind tends to wander unless it's a book I'm really interested in. That's why more and more I'm turning to my art. I know I should be working on new patterns but I just can't make decisions when I'm stressed. I've been working on 3 new doll patterns since last year but I just can't make a decision about the clothing fabrics. At least when I'm following an art tutorial I just follow the directions, so much easier. Kinda like when you follow my patterns. :)
Something I didn't include in the first free embroidery was that I'm using a white pattern on white cotton fabric. I found that it's not the easiest fabric to trace a pattern on.
Here are the directions for "February's" freebie.
1. Cut a square of your background fabric 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". If you aren't adding borders like I did you should cut the fabric larger so it will fit in your embroidery hoop.
2. Using a permanent marker like a Pigma pen, trace the design.
3. Sew a piece of lace or fabric to the bottom of the fabric. I sewed 2 layers of lace.
4. Add the borders following the directions in the freebie posted in February.
5. The hearts and tail can be appliqued like I did or just stitched with your favorite embroidery stitch.
-Trace the 3 hearts and the 3 tail pieces on Heat n Bond by Therm-o-web. This is a product that makes appliqueing small pieces so much easier. TIP: Don't hold the iron on for more than just a few seconds or you will also melt the other side.
-Once it cools peel off the paper.
-Lay the fabric pieces over the tracings and iron in place.
-Do a small blanket stitch with 2 strands of floss. For the 2 hanging hearts I used DMC 604, for the wing heart I used DMC 727, and for the tail I used DMC white.
6. The heart dangle lines are back stitched with 3 strands of floss ( I used DMC 704).
-Since the heart fabric didn't have much of a pattern I added 3 french knots on the left one (I used DMC 727, 3 strands) and a lazy daisy flower on the other ( I used DMC 727, 3 strands).
- the dots can be french knots or beads.
7. The bird's body is stem stitched with 2 strands of DMC 310 black.
- the legs are back stitched
- the beak is straight stitched
-the eye is a 3 wrap french knot or a bead
- inside the chest area make a running stitch with 2 strands of floss ( I used DMC 604)
- on the neck lines do a back stitch using 2 strands of floss (I used DMC 604)
- between the lines do a running stitch with 2 strands of floss (I used DMC 727)
- on the wings do a running stitch at the ends of the blanket stitch using 2 strands of floss (I used DMC 604).
- I used a solid fabric for the heart so I added some lazy daisy flowers and french knots. The 5 lazy daisys for each flower and the french knots are made with 4 strands of floss (I used DMC 604 and 704).
- the tail only has a few 3 wrap french knots using 3 strands of floss (I used DMC 604). Tip: add more flowers here if you used a solid fabric like I did for the heart wing.
8. All the dots can be beads or french knots. I didn't do them yet since I plan on adding beads. I'll also be adding beads and french knots on the lace.
Right click the pattern to save it to your hard drive. You'll need to print a pattern for tracing.
©Billie Jo Heisler 2022
All rights reserved
Disclaimer:
I drew this design by hand then used a software program to edit it.
Please consider the drawing 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.
The embroidery design is my own. I have not knowingly copied anyone else's work.
