Join Me For A Free Style Sew Along!!!

Exciting news!!! I recently posted some photos on Instagram, of some DMC floss I recently bought (at the new DMC display at my local Walmart, of all places!) without a specific project in mind. I was so surprised and excited to find the new display that I just couldn't help myself, and picked up a handful of bright, cheerful colours 🎨 Fellow Instagram stitcher Marianne Matthews (@mariannemathewsxx) messaged me with a great idea. She asked if I seen any of those pretty free style floral embroideries that are popular right now, and I knew exactly the style she was thinking of!

Projects like Mary Corbet's Voided Floral Monogram:

Ever since she posted this beautiful project on her Needle N' Thread website, I have been very intrigued by the idea of spontaneously stitching flowers! Mary has three great posts about this project that are well worth reading: Embroidering a Voided Floral-Themed Monogram, A is for Almost Finished, and Hairy Edges, Knobby Bits & The Back of the Hoop. She goes through her stitch process from start to finish!

Inspired by that idea, Marianne and I have decided on a simple Double Heart pattern:

We are flipping the voided part though, filling inside the outline instead of outside of it.

There are no rules or set dates for the SAL, it's totally stitch-at-your-own-pace 😃 The only requirement is to use a simple motif and fill it with spontaneously stitched flowers! You are welcome to use the double heart. Other suggestions: a simple five petal flower outline (a flower of flowers!), a geometric shape (diamond, circle, square, triangle, rhombus, star), an initial or monogram, a name, a short word (joy, hope, love)...the possibilities are many, and if you search "outline clipart" you may find some inspiration!

To create the heart, I found a free use clipart design I liked and then I shrunk the same design to make the cutout in the middle. Both Marianne and I are stitching a lattice in the center, but you could leave it blank, or stitch a single large flower or little bouquet. Anything you like!

This is my VERY tentative little doodle of what I'm thinking of stitching - proof that you don't need to be an artist to be an embroiderer 😂 I'd like to do a trio of Stem Stitch roses on the top left hand curve, with leaves on either side, and a slanted lattice in the middle. The squiggles are roses, lazy daisies and straight-stitch aster type flowers 🌸

For colours, I am going to try to stick mainly to the brights I bought, perhaps adding a few others:

Floss colours from left to right: 3846 (turquoise), 907 (green), 3607 (pink), 3837 (purple) and 444 (yellow). They are a little brighter than I would usually choose, but it's nice to try something different. And they are very cheerful! For fabric, I'm using some of my favourite turquoise that I had left over from my Joyful Jester project, which is very fitting because that was my first truly spontaneously stitched project 😃

Please excuse the streaky windows; the bright sunlight was not kind!

I did a quick window transfer, taping first the pattern and then the fabric to the glass. I used a fine black Pilot FriXion pen to trace the design:

I'm expecting to stitch over the lines, but in case I don't, if you blast this ink with a hair dryer (or any heat) it will disappear. I know there have been concerns about the ink reappearing when it gets cold, but this is a fun, fast project and I don't mind taking that chance. I wouldn't recommend using this pen for heirloom quality work though, just in case! I added some dots as guidelines for the spoke placement on the roses, using coins (a quarter for the large, a nickel for the small ones) as a template.

I'm also excited about using my brand new 8" Anchor Sparkles embroidery hoop, which I lucked into at Walmart on the same trip where I bought my floss! They have recently redone the embroidery section at my local store and I really hope that this will be maintained. I have sized my heart to print at about 5.5" in size but you can adjust it as needed. If you have any trouble downloading the pattern, please let me know!

Here's a picture of the Anchors Sparkles hoop; they are supposed to be available 6", 8" and 10" and in yellow and purple too. They also have a lip on the inner hoop to grip the fabric tightly, very much like my favourite Susan Bates Hooplas:

I really love the silver glitter embedded in the translucent blue plastic:

So that is the stitchy news from here!

I'd love it if you joined in and stitched along with me! You can join us on Instagram, or share your pictures on your own blog. You can also send me photos to post here, if you aren't online elsewhere. Please use the hashtag #freestylesewalong to share, so I can find you, and tag me! I'm @aureliaeglantine on Instagram 😊