Book pile with a potted flower hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 6 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Book pile with a potted flower: preview of the stitched design

Three closed books lie in a pile, spines to the front and the broadest at the foot, with a flowerpot standing on top. Each book is an outline of navy stem stitch with a spine band near each end and a mark in the middle: a gold label between teal bands on the top book, a red heart between gold bands on the middle book, and a teal label between red bands on the bottom book. The tan flowerpot holds a green stem with one leaf on each side and a red flower of eight petals round a gold center. The bands, labels, heart, flowerpot, stem and flower are satin stitch; the leaves are fishbone stitch.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

6 colors of floss and 3 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.3 × 1.4 in	3.3 × 3.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2 × 2.1 in	5.1 × 5.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.7 × 2.8 in	6.9 × 7.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.3 × 3.5 in	8.4 × 8.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4.7 × 5 in	11.9 × 12.7 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 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 336 Navy BlueOutlines of the books
DMC 304 Medium RedBands of the bottom book, heart and flower petals
DMC 3809 Very Dark TurquoiseBands of the top book and label of the bottom book
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawBands of the middle book, label of the top book and flower center
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenStem and leaves
DMC 3828 Hazelnut BrownFlowerpot and flowerpot rim

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

Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsOutlines of the books
Satin stitch 2 strandsSpine bands, labels, heart, stem, flowerpot, flowerpot rim, flower petals, flower center
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves

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.