Welcome to the ‘Festive Forest’ Stitch A Long
This Stitch A Long will take place for 12 weeks on the Stitchdoodles blog – Starting Wednesday 21st September 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 Festive 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 …
Welcome to Week 4…
Once you have completed week 4 you will have finished stitching a whole segment of the design…
As with the previous weeks, I will take you through each of the little elements separately.
Use 2 strands throughout unless otherwise stated.
Let’s start with…
The Fabulous Squirrel
You will need the following colours… #921, #3820, #310, ECRU
#921: Back stitch around the edges of the areas that will be filled in with this colour.
Long & Short stitch the body, head and legs making the stitch direction natural. (as in the direction you would imagine the fur to take).
Stitching the Tail… #921: Chain Stitch. Starting at the base of the tail, stitch individual chain stitch to fill the tail. Make them varied in length and in a fanned out direction rather than just straight across. Continue like this to the tip leaving a gap for some white stitches at the tip.
ECRU: Satin stitch the white on the face, chest and belly.
ECRU: straight stitch inside each of the chain stitch on the tail then chain stitch the tip with a few stitches to finish.
#310: Straight stitch the face details with tiny stitches – nose, ear and eye.
#3820: Back stitch the scarf edges, chain stitch to fill the scarf and straight stitch the end tassels.
Your Squirrel is complete – doesn’t he look cute!
The Doves
You will need the following colours… #834, #310, ECRU
#834: Split stitch around the entire doves edges including both wings. Back Stitch the bottom edge of the tail.
If there is a little gap between the wings – fill in with split stitch so it looks like the second wing is gold behind the larger wing.
Using the photos below as a guide…
ECRU: Split stitch or long & short stitch in a downwards direction, the head and breast stopping just as you start to come into the wing. (Dove 1)
Long chain stitch to fill the wing across its width and the tail section as well.
#834: Add tiny straight stitch to the inside bottom part of the chain stitch on both the wing and tail.
#310 (1 strand): straight stitch the eye and beak.
The Finishing touches for this week…
Acorn Decoration
The Large Acorn is stitched in the same way as you did for those in week 3.
In the colours shown, satin stitch the main bow and then stitch a long chain stitch to act as the hanging loop and anchor around the bow with straight stitches.
Snowflakes and stars
#415: Star stitch the silver stars! (This is 3 straight stitches crossed over each other then anchored down with a tiny stitch over the centre cross sections.)
ECRU: French Knots for the snow.
Once you have stitched the Stars and snowflakes on each side of the design this week is complete.
Can you believe you have done all that in just 4 weeks!
Make sure you show off your wonderful stitching 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 5 is on the blog Wednesday 19th October… See you then!
Happy stitching!
