Stitch a Leaf a Day this October!

Who can’t resist stitching leaves? I know I can’t! There is something about them that not only adapts to almost any stitch but they are relaxing to do as well as incredibly pretty when done.

With that in mind I have had a tree design for ages that I wanted to stitch and decided with Autumn upon us now was the time.

This is no ordinary Tree!

There are actually 31 leaves on the branches of this tree which is one for every day in October! As I was prepping the fabric ready to go, I thought it would be a fun idea to let you have access to this as well and see if you wanted to stitch a leaf a day with me! I know its last minute but hey ho – you can join in anytime!

Here’s the Beautiful Tree

Imagine the possibilities just waiting to be stitched.

This Challenge was available during October 2022 however you can now find the template in the Stitchdoodles shop so you can join in any time of year.

How does it work?

All you have to do is stitch one leaf a day for each day in October – and each leaf has to be a different stitch! Once all your leaves are stitched, you can choose your favourites and fill in the trunk and branches. By the time you are finished you will have a gorgeous hand stitched tree that not only looks amazing but has also taught you so many stitches along the way.

Transfer the Template to your Fabric…

The template is just under 7 inches and fits nicely onto a 12inch piece of fabric. You can download and transfer it to your fabric and get stitching straight away.

Choose your colours…

This is the fun bit – choose whichever colours take your fancy! If this is something you struggle with there are lots of resources online to help. One of these is Stitch Palettes – this is a great resource to help you with choosing the right colours for your next project. To show you how easy it is, I used it for this design.

Go to this page at Stitch Palettes and on the right side menu bar there is a ‘SEARCH FOR’ option. I typed in Autumn to this and it came up with lots of wonderful options. Having scrolled though several pages of different colour palettes, I found ‘Auburn Autumn‘ which was perfect for what I had in mind.

If like me, you have an abundance of threads in your stash (!) then you are sure to find similar colours if not the exact ones in the thread palette you chose. I printed off the palette and then went searching through my colours to see what would match. Here’s what I ended up with…

As you can see, some of the colours matched exactly and some I found as near to the ones as suggested so they all blend nicely with one another. These are the colours I am going to use for my tree.

Hoop up your fabric and get stitching…

Thats all there is to it!

Now for the Big Question – which stitches do I use???

This is the really fun bit and with this kind of project it really is up to you. It can be as simple or as complex as you like – just depends on your experience and the time you have available.

This project is perfect for Beginners as well as Advanced Stitchers – you choose the stitches!

Choosing your stitches

In the blog post ‘How to Teach Yourself Hand Embroidery Stitches‘ you can discover lots of ways you can learn different stitches depending on how you learn best – from Books to online videos.

There is a fabulous resource created by the RSN called the RSN Stitchbank. There are hundreds of stitches shown there and it is being added to all the time. Each stitch is shown in step by step photos as well as video, it also details the history and use of the stitch.

I am going to choose a stitch from here each day to fill my tree and will keep you up to date on my progress and link to the stitches as I go.

Why not join in and do the same – keep it simple for those busy days and try a new one on a day you have more time to play!

Now this Challenge has finished, here’s my completed Tree…

Would you like to stitch your own Tree Sampler?

You can choose from one of the following options…

Purchase the Pre Printed Fabric
Purchase the Tree template

You can find out which stitches I chose for the leaves on the blog page…

Stitch Fun with Leaves

Make sure you share your fabulous stitching – tag me on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery or post some pics in the Happy Stitching FB Group.