Welcome to the ‘Escape to Africa’ Stitch A Long
This Stitch A Long is taking place for 12 weeks on the Stitchdoodles blog – Starting Wednesday 31st May 2023 and finishing on Wednesday 16th August 2023.
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 Escape to Africa 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
Stitching Week 8…
This week we are stitching the Cheetah as well as the 2 smaller blocks on the bottom left – the snake and grass.
The Cheetah
You will need the following colours… #976, #3866, #310
Use 2 strands unless stated otherwise
#976: Start by outlining the areas of the body that will be in this colour with Back stitch and then start filling with Long and Short stitch.
Using the photo as a guide, pay attention to the direction of your stitching so it looks natural in relation to the body area.
Continue with the long and short stitch filling the rest of the body, hind quarters and about 3/4 of the tail – leave the tip of the tail…
#3866: Long & Short stitch to fill the front paws, in between the front legs, the belly and tip of the tail.
#310 (1 strand): Back stitch the lines that distinguish the front paws as shown in the photo below and then start adding French Knots over the leg (I used 1 strand of black and wrapped around the needle twice), you want the spots to be noticeable and neat rather than look like splodges!
#3866: Satin stitch the face and ear
#310: Continue as above with the French Knots over the rest of the body.
#310: Add French knots along the tail and around the head. Still with 1 strand, add a few straight stitches to the tip of the tail.
#310: Finish the face details by using the following photo as a guide – fill in the eye first and then they have a line that goes down from the eye to the jaw, a small mouth line and then the nose. Stitch a tiny ‘V’ in the ear.
To complete the Cheetah block, Using 4 different colours as shown, straight stitch the line blocks.
Now for the 2 smaller blocks…
The Snake
#725: Satin stitch the square shapes along the body
#907: Split stitch the rest of the snake
#310: Straight stitch the eye
The grass
Stem stitch the grasses in a mixture of the following colours…
#986, #907, #3782
Week 8 is complete!
Make sure you show off your wonderful Cheetah in the Happy Stitching FB Group or on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
If you need help along the way just ask in the FB group as there are lots of lovely people stitching along with you who can offer lots of advice and support if needed.
Week 9 is on the blog Wednesday 26th July… See you then
Happy Stitching!
Stitching the Block outlines…
You can stitch these as you go or leave them all to the end… #422 (3 strands): Back Stitch.