Inspiration: Beginner's Embroidery Kit Heart Sampler
I'd come across this Floral Heart Embroidery Sampler when searching for the previous Heart Embroidery Sampler and liked design as well as the opportunity to practice even more stitches.
Materials
- A huge box of embroidery floss in a variety of colors (that belonged to a favorite aunt)
- Small, pointed, sharp thread scissors
- Fabric scissors to cut fabric, optional
- Embroidery needles
- Needle threaders, optional
- Hoops of various sizes, 8" for this project (a gift for which I'm grateful)
- Squares of various solid color cotton fabrics I got for free, cut to 10" x 10" or 12" x 12"
- A long, thin loop turner, optional (not pictured here)
- A container for the project and supplies (not pictured)
- Pencil, pen, chalk, or colored pencil to transfer the pattern (not pictured)
- A pattern (included below)
- Paper cutter or paper scissors--do not use fabric scissors on paper or they will get dull faster
Step 1: Gather supplies.
PatternA sampler pattern gives you the opportunity to learn several new stitches and attempt to make an appealing design with them. I followed the directions in the Inspiration link for preparation.
Embroidery Floss
I used a pleasing combination of blue, green, pink, orange, and yellow floss colors with multiple hues that coordinated with the pale cream fabric I had.
Hoop
Choose your hoop size so you know how large to cut your fabric square. I had ~9" fabric squares and chose a 5" hoop because that was the size of the pattern. I put a rubber band on the inner hoop to help with traction and that kept better tension on the fabric. I will trim these squares next time, as the corners flop over and get in the way.
Needle
The needle needs to be large enough to make threading it easy enough, but I think mine's too large and makes holes in the fabric that allow the knots to pass through, unless I double knot the end of the floss. I didn't knot my work in the back; this time, I anchored the thread by running it through the back of some previous work, sometimes a second time in the opposite direction, if I didn't have at least 1" of thread anchored.
Fabric Scissors, Thread Scissors, and Paper Scissors or Paper Cutter
You may need fabric scissors to cut the fabric. It's easier to have dedicated scissors, but if you're not worried about your edges being rough, it may not matter. Don't use fabric scissors on paper if you do have a separate pair, or they dull faster.
The thread scissors need to be sharp enough to easily snip the thread and small and pointed enough to snip a stitch if you have to remove some of your work.
You will also need paper scissors or a paper cutter to trim your pattern.
Loop Turner, optional
I used this to re-knot some trimmed work where the knots spontaneously came undone. It can also help with anchoring the final ends of your work.
Fabric
I've since learned there's cloth that's specifically woven to make such projects easier, called Aida weave. This fabric is a plain calico and worked well enough, but I need a smaller bore needle.
I washed, ironed, and cut several squares of various pastels, and ultimately chose a pale cream and a palette of orange, green, pink, yellow, and blue threads.
Container
I have a small box that fits everything including my current project. This makes it easy to tidy up without putting everything away.
Writing Utensil
The pattern transfer link (below) discusses several options and how to choose them. I used an H graphite pencil, which in retrospect was a bad choice for this pale fabric. I'm not sure what I should have used -- a light colored pencil or perhaps chalk; I have many options of both.
Step 2: Make and transfer the pattern, prepare the hoop and fabric, and choose thread colors.
I found a design I liked online, but realized after I'd selected it that it didn't have a pattern available. I imported the original image into a word processing software and changed it to grey-scale, then adjusted the contrast and saturation until I thought it would work as a pattern. I also scaled the image to 5". I printed out a large color version of the image in the hopes of being able to identify the stitches used.There are several methods for transferring a pattern. I taped my paper and fabric to my window on a sunny day and used an H graphite pencil as discussed under Writing Utensil. This still shows up on this pale fabric and I've had to adjust some of my stitches to cover it.
The theme of this is oranges and pinks, but I also needed yellows for flower centers, greens for the greenery, and blue for contrast. I will not be adding the metal piece.
Step 3: Choose stitches to use.
I was given a reference book for embroidery, and I'm going through it, choosing stitches I think are appropriate for the vines, stems, leaves, flowers, and other embellishments. This is much simpler than attempting to identify a variety of appropriate stitches online, then searching each one for instructions individually.I am diagramming and labeling this in my notebook, and will include that image when finished.
Step 4: Begin stitching.
After a false start with a Star Stitch flower terminated in French
Knots, I tried a Basket Stitch stem and decided I should do the flowers first.
After a Long-Short Stitch or Needlework Painting flower, I realized I should have tried that method on a larger flower where I could make larger stitches—I was
worried a larger flower would take too long with this method. I should
have done the central French Knot last and done the painting from the
front.I then used the Petal Stitch for a vine with intentional irregularity, because (A) nature isn't 'regular' and (B) I needed to hide some graphite.
I used three French Knots surrounded by Bullion Stitch flower. I used a different needle as advised, but I need a different one still. If the width of the eye is wider than the width of the rest of the needle, it makes French Knots and Bullion Knots difficult.
I've decided to do one flower or embellishment and one stem or vine each time.A Coral Stitch vine and the beginnings of a Wheatear Stitch vine; then I decided to do the flowers first. Now I have excess green thread I tacked up with a spare needle to keep it out of my way. I started a fancy flower (I don’t remember the stitch name), but I’m not sure I want to keep it and I’m not sure I can easily remove it, so I tacked up the orange too. A pink modified Star Stitch flower on the left, a pink Woven Wheel flower, and a red Granitas Stitch flower.
A cluster of pale pink Tulip Stitches. Light green Feather Stitch with pale yellow intentionally irregular Link (or Detached Chain) Stitches for buds to hide the graphite.
Step 5: Plan the stitches.
I had a rough list I made in Step 3, but that was from before I had this book. I made this list for which stitches would be most appropriate for the various design elements, and made a schematic of my pattern in my notebook with numbered vertical lines/vines and lettered flowers and other elements.This way I can spread out the wider or more intricate stitches across the design.
Step 6: Continue stitching.
Orange Seeding Stitch with a green Cable Stitch vine. Pale pink and darker pink Ribbed Web flower, surrounded by red French Knots in the gaps, then a red and pink Laced Running Stitch, and finally a pale pink and medium pink Whipped Running Stitch.
Woven Wheel Rose in pinks and reds. Woven Spider Web flower with Scalloped edging in oranges and yellows (variegated thread).Feathered Chain Stitch vine in dark green. Two Pistil Stitch flowers in yellow-orange. I picked out the red French Knots from the Ribbed Web flower and replaced them with a medium pink. I used the same pink to Whip the red Back Stitch that circumscribes the flower.
New, from left to right: Scroll Stitch vine in medium green. Stem Stitch stem plus Link Stitch Leaves in dark olive green. Satin Stitch cluster flower in variegated orange. Three Lazy Daisy flowers in similar orange-yellows. Medium pink Berry Stitch flower cluster. Broad Chain Stitch stem and Link Stitch Leaves in the same Dark Olive green. I removed the ugly unfinished flower. I'll have to look it up again and re-do it with colors that don't contrast as much, or a variegated thread.
Step 7: Keep the back tidy and anchor threads.
DetailsStep 8: Finish stitching.
Step 9: Design the piecework pattern.
My mom has leftover scraps, pre-cut squares and triangles, that she won't use, so I can select from those for free. 
I used a giant sheet of graph paper, from a pad I also picked up for free, and drew grid lines every 2" -- the approximate width of a sewn square. Using her rotary cutter, mat, and ruler, I used another sheet to cut 2" squares and cut half of those into "half-squares", so called to differentiate these triangles by those called "quarter-squares." I laid those out until I had a design approximating a flower.
This is a pillow that will be 18"x18", or 9x9 squares and 3x3 blocks.
I used another sheet of graph paper, and transferred one-fourth of the design to that -- I can make four pairs of blocks from that and rotate them about the design; the center block will have the embroidery piece appliqued.
Step 10: Determine the pieces needed.
I sorted through her thousands of scraps and hundreds of fabrics first by color, then separated each hue (here, orange and pink) roughly by shade and tone. I tried to select unique fabrics for each piece, but in some cases used a striped piece cut vertically and the same one cut on the diagonal; in other cases used the reverse of a fabric if it looked enough like a true print.
This is the same design as used for the Floral Heart Embroidery Sampler, but with a different color scheme, as noted at the bottom of the page on the left.
There are 121 total pieces in this pattern, and at least 115 unique fabrics for this face. This is not including the backing that I will quilt the face to, or the background for the embroidery, which I will applique in the center of the piecework, or the back of the pillow itself, which will be one large piece.
