Mini hoop embroideries, inspired by the desert

Endless starry skies, sun-baked precious stones, succulents and riverbeds bring the desert to mind. And Desert Dreams is made up of six mini hoop embroidery designs that encapsulate this feeling of heat and vastness.

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Padded and raised stitches lift the embroidery off the surface of the fabric, creating dimension and texture. And gold thread adds the shimmer of mirages and the sun glinting off minerals embedded in gravel and rock faces.

The individual embroideries are designed to fit into Dandelyne’s 5.5cm (2.2 inch) mini hoops and can be made into jewellery, keyrings, handbag accessories… There's a gemstone, some ferns, a desert flower, rock art, a topographical design and the night sky (moon and stars).

The mini hoops are quick, easy and fun to embroider and assemble, and the Desert Dreams PDF pattern is available as an instant download from Etsy.

Note: Bluprint is making changes and as a result, I’m not able to upload any new patterns to my Bluprint shop for now.

Anatomical Seahorses, an elegant touch of the ocean

I’m back on the Anatomical designs, this time with two tiny creatures from the deep.

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It took a while to come up with the right colours for Anatomical Seahorses, as they can be muted and monotone in real life. But you do get yellowy sort of seahorses and I took a few liberties from there.

They didn’t take at all long to stitch and I love how delicately the eyes turned out.

There are two seahorses in this design because they’re quite long and thin, and this way there’s also one with its tail curled up and one with it hanging down, as you see them in nature (or at an aquarium, where I got to observe some Knysna Seahorses up close a few months ago).

I can already see these adding an elegant touch of the ocean to wall displays, tea towels and items for kids. The PDF pattern is available as an instance download from my Etsy shop.

Note: Bluprint is making changes and as a result, I’m not able to upload any new patterns to my Bluprint shop for now.

Heart embroidery sampler, for learning and practice

The ancient Greeks acknowledged several types of love, from romantic to friendship, familial and self-love – something to think about while stitching a heart-shaped embroidery sampler.

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Incorporating more than 20 different surface embroidery stitches, Heart Sampler is designed for learning new stitches and practising those you already know – have you embroidered pinwheels before? It shows you how to switch colours halfway through a row, which is handy to know. And it stitches up quickly, making it a good weekend embroidery project.

The pattern includes a mini hoop design, using Dandelyne’s 55mm (2.2”) necklace kit. And while the sampler is embroidered in fresh, cool colours, the mini hoop design is stitched in warmer reds and pinks, giving you a sense of how the larger design might look if you choose to go that route with your thread colours.

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There are also some printables included with the pattern – a greeting card, three gift tags and a pillow gift box that fits the mini hoop necklace – in two different colourways, so you can use them any time of year.

Heart Sampler is available as a digital PDF pattern that can be downloaded instantly from my Etsy shop. It’s also available as a bundle with 120 Embroidery Stitches, if you’re a beginner or unfamiliar with the variety of stitches used in this style of embroidery.

Note: Bluprint is making changes and as a result, I’m not able to upload any new patterns to my Bluprint shop for now.

Herbarium, pressed flowers embroidered

Last year it was terrariums, this year it’s herbariums.

I’ve not pressed flowers since I was child, when I did so with my gran using flowers from her farm garden. So it was a bit of a trip down memory lane creating the herbariums – embroidered and floral – for this pattern.

Embroidery stitches are especially well suited to nature, with many that effortlessly mimic flowers, leaves and stems. And so Herbarium came together quite organically, starting with the fishbone leaves that are so pleasurable to stitch. Fly stitch leaves are another favourite and so there are a few of those in there, and then some textural stitches to add dimension.

Herbariums are typically framed and so this one went into a hoop to create some hoop art. It’s an uncomplicated pattern with a feeling of lightness and ease of stitching about it, which you’ll easily finish in a day or two.

Herbarium is available as an instant download, PDF pattern from my Etsy shop.

Note: Craftsy is making changes and as a result, I’m not able to upload any new patterns to my Craftsy shop for now.

Yule Trees: Christmas embroidery + stitched cards

My second festive design for this year uses patterning to create a fresh, almost minimalist Christmas embroidery pattern and includes two printable embroidered greeting cards.

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The design is easy to embroider, it uses a number of different embroidery stitches arranged to create repeat patterns. And you can easily change the thread colours to embroider the trees in blues, greys, different shades of green… whatever colours you fancy.

The pattern includes two printable Christmas cards, with step-by-step photo instructions on how to embroider them. Stitching on paper is quick and fun, and can be done with kids as a holiday activity. Try out different threads and personalise your cards with additional embellishments. You can adjust the size of the cards as well, to suit your needs.

Yule Trees is available as an instant download, PDF pattern from my Etsy and Craftsy shops.