Grandmother’s fan hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Grandmother’s fan: preview of the stitched design

The fan of the grandmother’s fan quilt block is drawn without its square and seamed in back stitch: nine slender blades with rounded ends open upward from a quarter circle at the foot. Every blade is filled with satin stitch laid across it, five in pink and four in gold, turn about, and the quarter circle is gold satin stitch in two halves.

Size and details

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

3 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)	1.5 × 1.1 in	3.8 × 2.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 1.7 in	5.6 × 4.3 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.9 × 2.2 in	7.4 × 5.6 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.7 × 2.8 in	9.4 × 7.1 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.1 × 3.9 in	13 × 9.9 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 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RosePink blades
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold blades and foot of the fan
DMC 208 Very Dark LavenderSides of the fan and seams

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 strandsBlades, foot of the fan
Back stitch 2 strandsSides of the fan, seams

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.