Harvest star of wheat ears hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 5 kinds of stitch

Harvest star of wheat ears: preview of the stitched design

Six ears of wheat and six pointed blades stand by turns round a medallion, making a star of twelve points. Each ear is nine gold satin stitch grains on a tan stem stitch stalk, and each blade is tan fishbone stitch. The medallion is a ring of brown stem stitch that holds a flower of six gold satin stitch petals round a rust padded satin stitch middle, with a brown French knot between each two petals.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading, with a little padded satin stitch; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

4 colors of floss and 5 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 × 1.9 in	4.1 × 4.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 2.8 in	6.1 × 7.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.2 × 3.7 in	8.1 × 9.4 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4 × 4.7 in	10.2 × 11.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.7 × 6.5 in	14.5 × 16.5 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)

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 3828 Hazelnut BrownBlades of the wheat and stalks of the ears
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGrains of wheat and petals of the medallion
DMC 3781 Dark Mocha BrownRing of the medallion and knots of the medallion
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaMiddle of the medallion

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 strandsBlades of the wheat
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsStalks of the ears, ring of the medallion
Satin stitch 2 strandsGrains of wheat, petals of the medallion
Padded satin stitch 2 strandsMiddle of the medallion
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsKnots of the medallion

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.