Scotties at a flowering tree hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Scotties at a flowering tree: preview of the stitched design

Two Scottish terriers face each other across a flowering tree. Each terrier is one outline of navy stem stitch that shows beard, brow, pricked ears and upright tail, with its near ear and nose in satin stitch, a red satin stitch collar and a French knot eye. The green tree rises from a low mound to a large red flower of eight rounded petals round a gold middle, and a bough each side ends in a smaller one, with fishbone stitch leaves in pairs. A band of green satin stitch ground runs under all.

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.

4 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.6 × 1.2 in	4.1 × 3 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 1.8 in	6.1 × 4.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.2 × 2.4 in	8.1 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4 × 3 in	10.2 × 7.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.6 × 4.2 in	14.2 × 10.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)

In a 3 or 4 inch hoop the French knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them there, or choose a larger hoop.

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

What you need

DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenBoughs, leaves, trunk, ground and mound
DMC 304 Medium RedFlower petals and collar
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawFlower center
DMC 336 Navy BlueScottish terrier outline, ear, nose and eyes

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 strandsBoughs, trunk, Scottish terrier outline
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves
Satin stitch 2 strandsFlower petals, flower center, ground, mound, collar, ear, nose
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsEyes

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.