Hello and welcome to the first week of the Autumn Splendour stitch a long. I am so excited to see all your lovely stitching and I have no doubt you will really enjoy stitching this pattern.
If this all new to you and you are wondering what this SAL is all about – please go to this page for all the details.
For the first week we are going to jump straight in by…
Stitching a fantastic Fox
All the elements in this block are stitched with 2 strands of DMC.
You will need the following colours…
- #919 Rust
- #300 Brown
- #3864 Stone
- #833 Olive
- #732 Moss
- # 221 Plum
- #310 Black
- #29 Mauve
Start by Stitching the Fox’s Coat…
This is going to be done in long and short stitch… Use the following photo’s as a guide for the direction of your stitching.
Firstly, with #919 Rust: Back Stitch the outline of the fox.
Only outline the areas with #919 that will be filled in with this colour – as shown in this photo…
The main body of the fox, the head and the tail are all stitched in #919 using long and short stitch. I started in the middle of the foxes body and worked towards the tail with the stitches gradually working downwards as they reach the hind leg.
As you can see in this photo, there is a small area next to the hind leg which you need to fill in as well.
The arrows on the fox in the second photo below show the direction of the stitches you are aiming for. This makes it look a lot more natural than just stitching straight across.
Stop the #919 at the hock of the hind leg as well as the elbows of the front legs – don’t make the finish lines too straight.
Next, you need to blend in the thread #300 Brown: stitch long and short stitch to fill the lower legs. (see the photo below).
Now for the smaller details…
With #300: Back stitch around the left ear and fill in the small inner part of this ear with straight stitch. Stitch the right ear with straight stitch to fill but leave a small gap on the front edge to finish in#3864.
To complete the remaining part of the fox…
#3864 Stone: long and short stitch to fill under the neck, the belly and the end of the tail – keep the stitch direction in mind as you fill in each of the areas. Fill in the gap of the left ear as well with this colour.
Finally, with 2 strands of black – stitch a french knot for the eye and straight stitch a small area on the tip of the nose.
Note… My stitches tend to be quite small and therefore I find 2 strands works well for small details like the eye and nose. If you feel it is too heavy then just use one strand to stitch these areas instead.
Your Fox is now complete.
All that’s left is the foliage and the edge of the block…
Use the following as a guide for stitching these areas…
If you need help with any of the stitches please see the drop down menu on the top of the blog underneath the ‘stitch guide’ tab and the ‘stitch fun’ tab – there are lots of tutorials for individual stitches there for you to take a look at from previous stitch posts and patterns.
How gorgeous is your fox – share your finished block on the Happy Stitching FB Group or send me some pics and I’ll post them here.
Don’t forget you can also share your stitching on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
Happy Stitching!
The Stitch a long foxes are looking fantastic… look at all these you have been busy stitching…
There is some confusion with thread color for the fox’s neck, belly and tail. Did you use DMC floss # 3864, 3865, or 3866?
Hi Ruth, I used 3864 – I’ve put the amendments in the blog post now. x