Blood drop with a heart hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Blood drop with a heart: preview of the stitched design

A large drop with a heart inside it has a small drop on either side. The large drop is a single red line that comes to a point at the top, and the red heart sits in its lower half. A short curved pink line of shine lies inside the drop on the left, at the upper left of the heart. The small drops are rust and sit outside the large one, level with its upper half. The drop is outlined in chain stitch, the heart is long and short stitch, the shine is back stitch and the small drops are satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Uses long and short stitch; from a 6 inch hoop up the widest satin stitches are long.

3 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.2 × 1.6 in	3 × 4.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.8 × 2.4 in	4.6 × 6.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.4 × 3.1 in	6.1 × 7.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3 × 3.9 in	7.6 × 9.9 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4.2 × 5.5 in	10.7 × 14 cm	9/16 in (14 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 9/16 in (14 mm) across. Satin stitches longer than about 12 mm (just under 1/2 in) tend to work loose: divide the shape into sections, or work it in long and short stitch.

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 304 Medium RedDrop and heart
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseShine
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaSmall drops

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Chain stitch 2 or 3 strandsDrop
Long and short stitch 1 or 2 strandsHeart
Back stitch 2 strandsShine
Satin stitch 2 strandsSmall drops

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.