Folded hexagon star hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Folded hexagon star: preview of the stitched design

This is a hexagon star quilt block: six brick red diamonds make a star round a small gold hexagon and six sage green diamonds fill its notches, squaring the star off into a larger hexagon. Each diamond is two folded halves of satin stitch, and the small hexagon is satin stitch too. The seams are teal stem stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a quarter of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop; from a 5 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

4 colors of floss and 2 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.4 × 1.2 in	3.6 × 3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.1 × 1.8 in	5.3 × 4.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.8 × 2.4 in	7.1 × 6.1 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.5 × 3 in	8.9 × 7.6 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4.9 × 4.2 in	12.4 × 10.7 cm	5/8 in (16 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 5/8 in (16 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 355 Dark Terra CottaPoints of the star
DMC 989 Forest GreenDiamonds between the points
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawHexagon in the middle
DMC 3809 Very Dark TurquoiseSeams

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

Satin stitch 2 strandsPoints of the star, diamonds between the points, hexagon in the middle
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsSeams

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.