Dog bone star with hearts hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 5 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Dog bone star with hearts: preview of the stitched design

Three dog bones are laid across one another to make a star of six arms, one bone upright and two on the slant. Each bone is outlined in brown chain stitch, with an inner line of tan stem stitch just inside the outline. Where the bones cross, a round middle outlined in brown chain stitch holds a daisy of twelve white petals around a gold center. A red heart sits between each two arms, six in all, each with its point toward the center. The petals, the center of the daisy and the hearts are satin 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.

5 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)	1.7 × 1.8 in	4.3 × 4.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.5 × 2.7 in	6.4 × 6.9 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.4 × 3.6 in	8.6 × 9.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.2 × 4.5 in	10.7 × 11.4 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.9 × 6.3 in	15 × 16 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)

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

What you need

DMC 3781 Dark Mocha BrownOutlines of the bones and round middle outline
DMC 3828 Hazelnut BrownInner line of the bones
DMC B5200 Snow WhitePetals of the daisy
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawCenter of the daisy
DMC 304 Medium RedHearts

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 strandsOutlines of the bones, round middle outline
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsInner line of the bones
Satin stitch 2 strandsPetals of the daisy, center of the daisy, hearts

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.