Welcome to the ‘Bees and Blossoms’ Stitch A Long
This Stitch A Long is taking place for 10 weeks on the Stitchdoodles blog – Starting Wednesday 18th May 2022 and finishing on Wednesday 20th July 2022.
Each Wednesday during the SAL – a new tutorial will be published on the blog with all the information you need to complete a part of the Bees and Blossom Pattern.
If you are not familiar with a Stitchdoodles SAL and this is all new to you and you would like to join in, please go to this page to get all the information.
Do you need help with any of the stitches?
A Stitch A Long doesn’t provide you with the step by step instructions for the stitches themselves – it is a tutorial on how to stitch the pattern design – colours, techniques and stitches used etc. I will link to a ‘How to’ for certain stitches where I can, if you need further guidance, please take a look here …How to Teach Yourself Hand Embroidery Stitches
Welcome to Week 5
This week we will be stitching the Spikey Flowers plus a couple of elements on the right side of the pattern. See the diagram below – the items in the red area are what are being stitched.
Let’s start with the…
Spiky Flowers
You will need the following colours… #333, #211, #23
Use 2 strands throughout unless stated otherwise.
Start with the 2 smaller flowers either side of the centre one. Use these 2 photos for reference as you stitch…
How to stitch the smaller flowers:
#333: Back Stitch around each of the 7 petals.
#211: Pistol Stitch (1 strand) in between the large petals (see below for pistol stitch).
#23: Individual Chain Stitch (approx. 3/4 of the petals length) inside each of the purple petals. Straight stitch inside each one to fill.
#23: Add 2-3 tiny straight stitches inside the purple points.
Not sure what a Pistol Stitch is?
This is just a long straight stitch with a French Knot at the top. There is a quick tutorial here (scroll down to the bottom of the post)
How to stitch the Middle Flower:
#333: Fishbone stitch the 8 large petals from the tip down towards the inner petal shapes as shown in the photo…
#23: Split stitch to fill each of the Smaller petals within each of the larger purple ones.
#211 (1 Strand): Pistol Stitch in between the larger petals and stitch an individual chain stitch on top of the split stitch smaller petal shapes.
Now you have those lovely flowers stitched, you can add in a Honeycombe and Bee.
You will need the following colours: #729, #3853, 3820, #310, #712
Honeycombe…
#729: Back stitch around the edge of each of the spokes. To fill satin stitch each spoke vertically from the centre upwards.
#3853: Back Stitch the Hexagon edge.
Mini Bees…
These are stitched in the same colours as the main bee.
#3820: Satin stitch yellow stripes.
#310: Satin stitch the black stripes. To maintain the round head – first outline in split stitch or back stitch and then satin stitch.
#712 (1 strand) whipped back stitch the wings.
#310 (1 strand) straight stitch legs / antennae.
If you are struggling to keep the shape of the bee as you stitch then consider using split stitch for the stripes – if you do very small split stitch you are able to have a bit more control over the small space you are filling and to keep any little curves in where necessary.
Week 5 is complete!
Share your completed blocks in the Happy Stitching FB Group or on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
Week 6 is on the blog Wednesday 22nd June… See you then!
Happy Stitching!
