Welcome to Week 5! We couldn’t have an Autumn Design without a Pumpkin so this week we are stitching the Pumpkin Block.
It’s great to have so many people joining in and you can do this anytime.
If this is all new to you and you are wondering what this SAL is all about – please go to this page for all the details. You can join in anytime as the blog tutorials won’t be disappearing when the SAL ends.
Now to this weeks stitching fun…
Hello Pumpkin…
How to stitch the pumpkin…
Here’s the Colour and Stitch Guide for the block…
We will start by stitching the central area of the pumpkin:
#720: Brick Stitch – As explained previously – to fill a shape it is easy to start in the centre and then work outwards on each side. Do this to fill the oval shape with the fabulous bright orange.
If you need help with the Brick Stitch you can see the tutorial in this post.
Next, the 2 half moon shapes either side of the central oval need to be stitched in a slightly different shade for contrast…
#921:Brick Stitch. Due to the curve this can be slightly tricky – keep your stitches small and neat – if you can’t maintain the brick stitch because of this don’t be too worried as it will still look great with a back stitch worked as a filler. Small stitches make neater curves.
Since the colours are very close it can be difficult to distinguish the shapes that make up the pumpkin so to help with this we are going to add in some defining lines…
#919: Still with 2 strands, Split stitch the defining lines down each edge of the shapes stitched so far. This will just help to show up the colour difference and add more interest.
Now for the outermost curves of the pumpkin…
To finish, #921: brick stitch the remaining sides of the pumpkin.
#434: Split stitch the Pumpkin stem.
Now your fabulous pumpkin is complete.
To finish off the block, I added in some lovely mauve coloured berries on a few small branches. To complete, follow the Stitch Guide below.
For the berries you will figure out they are tiny so don’t even try to back stitch around the edges – they really are just a few tiny straight stitches made in to a berry shape as best you can. Small neat stitches should get you the result you want.
And that’s Week 5 all done.
Share your finished block on the Happy Stitching FB Group or send me some pics and I’ll post them here, can’t wait to see how your design is coming along.
Don’t forget you can also share your stitching on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
Happy Stitching!
