Desert dunes
WORKED ENTIRELY IN SATIN STITCH, THIS UNDULATING CACTUS SCENE IS RICH WITH SOFT COLOUR AND TEXTURE
MATERIALS
Fabric: 35x35cm, cream
Stranded cotton: 1 skein each of black, brown, gold, lavender, mauve, olive, pale pink, light pink, sage, tan, light terracotta, dark terracotta Embroidery hoop: 15cm diameter Basic embroidery kit
STITCHES USED
Satin Stitch
NOTES
Find the template on p61.
01 Transfer the design from the template onto the centre of the fabric using your preferred method. We traced ours using a heat-erasable pen. Mount the fabric into your embroidery hoop with the design placed in the centre.
02 The whole design is worked using six strands of stranded cotton for each colour. Start by stitching the five Saguaro cacti in black Satin Stitch, working the stitches horizontally across the shapes and making sure you keep the stitches close together.
03 Next, start fill in the background colours in Satin Stitch, working the stitches vertically. Start stitching at the top, then work downwards, always stitching into the edge of the traced outer circle. Your stitches will come up to the edge of the inner hoop. Fill the top row one with mauve.
04Start row two using pale pink. Where the two colours meet, try to stitch into the same holes as the bottom of the row above to avoid any fabric showing – this will give you a neater finish. Move on to row three, filling it with light pink, then fill row four with brown.
05 Row five is where you’ll begin to stitch around the Saguaros using light terracotta. Make sure you work your background stitches into the same holes as the Saguaro stitches. Start row six with dark terracotta. For the beginning of each row, start at the place where this connects with the previous row. Make this stitch as vertical as possible to keep the direction of the stitches consistent from row to row then continue to fill the row. This row contains a lot of sections of the Saguaros too, so take care to stitch neatly round them.
06 Fill in row seven with lavender, row eight with tan, row nine with sage and row 10 with olive. Fill in row 11 with gold to complete the desert design.
Jen Smith, aka Jen Ann Handmade, focuses on all things fun and colourful. Drawing inspiration from the great outdoors and the simple beauty of nature, her art is whimsical and cheerful. For Jen, the best cure for creative blocks and sore fingers is her beloved yoga.