Rolling hills at sunrise hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 5 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Rolling hills at sunrise: preview of the stitched design

A landscape of rolling hills fills a round ring, the same left and right. A gold half sun with five orange rays comes up behind the far hill in the middle. A hill at each side carries three dark green cypress trees on its top, the middle tree the tallest. The near hill lies across the front, banded dark green at the top and the foot with two lighter greens between; the other hills are banded in the two lighter greens. The sun, the rays of the sun, the cypress trees and all the hills are satin stitch. The ring is dark green stem stitch.

Size and details

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

5 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)	1.9 × 1.9 in	4.8 × 4.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.9 × 2.9 in	7.4 × 7.4 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.8 × 3.8 in	9.7 × 9.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.8 × 4.8 in	12.2 × 12.2 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.7 × 6.7 in	17 × 17 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 3852 Very Dark StrawSun
DMC 922 Light CopperRays of the sun
DMC 989 Forest GreenLighter green far hill, lighter green side hills and lightest green near hill
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenDarker green far hill, darker green side hills and middle green near hill
DMC 986 Very Dark Forest GreenCypress trees, darkest green near hill and ring

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 strandsSun, rays of the sun, far hill, cypress trees, side hills, near hill
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsRing

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.