Strawberry flower vine heart hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 5 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Strawberry flower vine heart: preview of the stitched design

A strawberry flower sits at the point of a heart made of two leafy branches: they rise from the flower, round over the lobes and end in a small curl each side of the cleft, with pairs of leaves as far as the curl. The branches are stem stitch and the leaves are satin stitch in a dark and a light green. The flower has five white satin stitch petals with green satin stitch sepals (the small leaves behind the petals) showing between them, a yellow satin stitch center and six gold French knots.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 6 inch hoop up.

5 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)	1.6 × 1.7 in	4.1 × 4.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 2.6 in	6.1 × 6.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.2 × 3.4 in	8.1 × 8.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.1 × 4.3 in	10.4 × 10.9 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.7 × 6 in	14.5 × 15.2 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.
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 986 Very Dark Forest GreenBranches and darker half of each leaf
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenLighter half of each leaf and strawberry flower sepals
DMC B5200 Snow WhiteStrawberry flower petals
DMC 726 Light TopazStrawberry flower center
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawStrawberry flower stamens

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 strandsBranches
Satin stitch 2 strandsLeaves (each half slanted to the center vein, in its own color), strawberry flower sepals, strawberry flower petals, strawberry flower center
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsStrawberry flower stamens

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.