Quilted wedding cake hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 6 colors · 6 kinds of stitch

Quilted wedding cake: preview of the stitched design

A two-tier quilted wedding cake sits on a cake stand, seen from the front, crowned with a flower of three satin stitch petals between two fishbone stitch leaves. The whole side of each tier is quilted in diamonds of back stitch between two piped rows of chain stitch, with five French knots where the lines cross on the top tier and nine on the lower, standing in the same columns, and the tiers are outlined in stem stitch.

Size and details

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

6 colors of floss and 6 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.5 × 1.7 in	3.8 × 4.3 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 2.5 in	5.6 × 6.4 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3 × 3.3 in	7.6 × 8.4 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.7 × 4.2 in	9.4 × 10.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.2 × 5.8 in	13.2 × 14.7 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 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 989 Forest GreenLeaves
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseOuter petals and piped rows
DMC 152 Medium Light Shell PinkInner petal
DMC 3828 Hazelnut BrownCake outline and quilted lines
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawPearls
DMC 414 Dark Steel GrayStand outline

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

Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves
Satin stitch 2 strandsOuter petals, inner petal
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsCake outline, stand outline
Back stitch 2 strandsQuilted lines
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsPearls
Chain stitch 2 or 3 strandsPiped rows

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.