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 6…
This week we will start by completing the top section of the design which includes the 2 birds and another row of double running stitch.
Stitching the 2 Birds…
For the Blue Bird on the top right, you will need the following colours… #796, #321, #166, #310, ECRU
Use 2 strands throughout unless otherwise stated.
#796: Back stitch around the edge of the birds body and tail and then fill in with split stitch. Leave the tail feathers empty.
Split stitch the birds face.
Using the following photo as a guide, fill in the rest of the birds details as follows…
#166: Satin Stitch the wing & stitch 3 individual chain stitch to fill the tail feather section.
#321: Satin stitch the scarf and hat.
ECRU: French Knots for the Hat trim and bobble.
ECRU: long stitch inside the tail chain stitches and add a few straight stitches to the birds breast.
For the eye: #310: Stitch a French Knot for the eye and then with ECRU add a few little straight stitches around the french knot to make it stand out more.
Finally… #310: Straight stitch the legs and beak.
The Bird on the left is stitched in exactly the same way. Instead of the blue, I used #221 for the birds body…
To complete the top section of the design, using #321, stitch the top line with the same whipped double running stitch that you did last week. If you need a recap, you can find it here…
Whipped double running stitch
Now we can move on to whole new section…
Stitching the Cake Centrepiece…
You will need the following colours… #829, #371, #834, #415, ECRU
Stitching the Wooden Table…
#829: Stem stitch the stripes going up the log.
For the top circle edge, vertical straight stitch the front edge decreasing as you come to the back edge and then in to a back stitch to finish the circle.
#829: Back Stitch along the top and bottom edge of the brown vertical stitches on the table top.
#371: Chain stitch to fill in between the brown stripes for the trunk and then chain stitch around the cake to fill the top section as well.
Stitching the cake…
#834: Stem stitch up the cake to fill the main section up and around the icing drips.
See photo below…
ECRU: Satin Stitch/Long Stitch the Icing.
#415: Split Stitch the Base.
To stitch the decorations on top – these are really tiny so it is best to use 1 strand for all stitches.
The colours are pretty obvious and the stitches are as follows…
Poinsettia: Satin stitch petals, straight stitch leaves and french knots to centre.
Straight stitch all the other decorations and if you can, couch a wiggly line down the christmas tree cookie for a bit of chocolate.
If you really struggle with the tiny stitches then think about adding a few christmas buttons or beads instead!
Now the cake is all ready for the festivities we will need th add in the guests over the next few 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 7 is on the blog Wednesday 2nd November… See you then!
Happy Stitching!
