Welcome to the ‘Winter Splendour’ Stitch A Long
This Stitch A Long will take place for 10 weeks on the Stitchdoodles blog – Starting Wednesday 12th January 2022 and finishing on Wednesday 16th March 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 Winter Splendour 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.
Week 4!
Well done for reaching week 4 – I hope you are enjoying the SAL so far and I am really enjoying seeing all the wonderful stitching everyone is doing.
Now you have reached this point of the SAL, your design should be looking something like this…
This week we will be stitching 2 blocks, and I think we should start with the easier one of the two…
The Teapot
You will need the following colours…
#3042, #550, #3021, #834
Use 2 strands throughout unless stated otherwise.
This is a nice and simple block to stitch…
#3042: split stitch to fill the main areas of the teapot.
#550: Split stitch the edge of the lid, and the handle. Satin Stitch the top bit(!) and the heart decoration.
To finish…
Decorate or not! I chose to decorate my teapot with a few lazy daisies in the #550 but you could leave it as is if you prefer.
#3021: With 1 strand, back stitch around the edges, spout and handle.
#834: Back stitch the outer edge of the block.
The second block this week is…
The Squirrel
You will need the following colours…
#612, #840, #436, #310, 986, #3042
Using the following 2 colours: #840 and #612 – take 1 strand of each colour and place them both in the needle together. Stitch the head and body in long and short stitch. Start at the head and work your way downwards.
There is a quick guide to long and short stitch on this page (scroll down a bit.)
You will probably find when stitching the top front leg that you are pretty much stitching satin stitch as you want to make sure you maintain the lines of the limb – you don’t want to blend it in.
Stitch down to the top of the hind leg and then change to the following colour…
#436: Long & short stitch as shown in the above photo the top curve of the hind leg and the smaller foot.
Change back to the 2 single strands of colour in the same needle (#840 & #612) to finish the body of the Squirrell…
Note… in the following photo my pugs generously shared a bit of their hair to add to the effect – this was not supposed to be in the photo so please ignore!
Stitching the tail…
#436: Back stitch the tip shape, then…
1 strand each of #840 & #612 (same as body)…
Chain Stitch rows from the bottom up to the zig zag edge.
Stitching the tip of the tail: I decided to have a bit of fun with this and use a bit of turkey rug stitch – it is such a small area to give this a go. There is a tutorial here for this stitch if you want to do the same.
If this is a bit too much as you are just starting out – no need to worry – I would substitute with some French Knots instead or even simpler would be filling with seed stitch.
To finish off your Squirrell there are a few small details…
- #310 French Knot for the eye.
- #840 stitch a single chain stitch for each ear and then fill each with a straight stitch of #436.
Yay – this cute little guy (or gal!) is all stitched and you should be so happy!
To finish this block:
#986 Fishbone Stitch the leaves and back stitch the stem.
#3042 Back stitch the outer block edge.
Share your fabulous stitching in the Happy Stitching FB Group or on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
Week 5 is on the blog Wednesday 9th February… See you then!
Happy Stitching!
