Candlewick flower basket hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Candlewick flower basket: preview of the stitched design

A basket in candlewick work, in which lines are drawn as rows of knots, holds three flowers under its arched handle. The basket and the handle are drawn in navy knots, and a navy lattice makes the weave of the basket. Each flower is two rings of pink knots around one gold knot, the middle flower standing taller than the two beside it, and each stands on a green stem. Four green leaves sit low on the stems: one on the left stem, two on the middle stem and one on the right stem. The basket, the handle, the flowers and the flower centers are colonial knots, the weave is back stitch, the stems stem stitch and the leaves satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. More than a hundred colonial knots.

4 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)	1.5 × 1.6 in	3.8 × 4.1 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 2.4 in	5.6 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.9 × 3.2 in	7.4 × 8.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.6 × 4 in	9.1 × 10.2 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.1 × 5.6 in	13 × 14.2 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)

In a 3 inch hoop the colonial knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them there, or choose a larger hoop.

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 BlueBasket, handle and weave
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenStems and leaves
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseFlowers
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawFlower centers

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

Colonial knot 2 strandsBasket, handle, flowers, flower centers
Back stitch 2 strandsWeave
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsStems
Satin 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.