Ace of spades with a palmette hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Ace of spades with a palmette: preview of the stitched design

The ace of spades is shown on its card. One large spade stands in the middle of the card, outlined in navy stem stitch, on a foot of navy satin stitch. Inside it a palmette of seven gold leaves fans upward from a small red boss; the leaves are fishbone stitch and the boss is satin stitch. A small navy satin stitch spade sits in each corner of the card, the upper two upright and the lower two upside down. The card outline is navy stem stitch.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: stem stitch and fishbone stitch, with some short satin stitches; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

3 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)	1.1 × 1.5 in	2.8 × 3.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.7 × 2.3 in	4.3 × 5.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.3 × 3.1 in	5.8 × 7.9 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2.8 × 3.8 in	7.1 × 9.7 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4 × 5.4 in	10.2 × 13.7 cm	3/8 in (10 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 336 Navy BlueCard outline, large spade, foot of the spade and corner spades
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawLeaves of the palmette
DMC 304 Medium RedBoss of the palmette

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 strandsCard outline, large spade
Satin stitch 2 strandsFoot of the spade, boss of the palmette, corner spades
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves of the palmette

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.