Toy horses at a flowering tree hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Toy horses at a flowering tree: preview of the stitched design

Two painted toy horses face each other across a flowering tree. Each horse is one stem stitch outline, with a mane of three round locks, a flowing tail, two hooves, a neck band and a saddle cloth with a scalloped border, all satin stitch, and a French knot eye. The stem stitch tree rises from a low mound to a large navy flower with a gold middle, and a bough each side ends in a smaller one, with paired fishbone stitch leaves. The flowers, mound and ground line are satin stitch.

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)	1.7 × 1.4 in	4.3 × 3.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.6 × 2.1 in	6.6 × 5.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.4 × 2.8 in	8.6 × 7.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.3 × 3.5 in	10.9 × 8.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6 × 4.9 in	15.2 × 12.4 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 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 320 Medium Pistachio GreenBoughs, leaves, trunk, ground and mound
DMC 336 Navy BlueFlower petals, neck band and saddle cloth
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawFlower center, tail, mane, hooves and saddle cloth border
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaHorse outline 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, horse outline
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves
Satin stitch 2 strandsFlower petals, flower center, ground, mound, tail, neck band, mane, hooves, saddle cloth, saddle cloth border
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.