Winter Woodland embroidery sampler

It's definitely still winter here but that's a great excuse to cozy up inside for some extra stitching time!  Put on your favorite record or Netflix show, make some tea and settle in, here's the perfect embroidery project for you.

This Winter Woodland color printed sampler is available at littledear.etsy.com and is one of my favorites. I'm going to give you a few details and pointers on how I stitched mine, I hope it will help you out and get you excited to work on your own!

This is a versatile design that you can stitch in different ways, either outline the shapes, or fill them in solidly. I'm using DMC 3781, 434, 437, 504, 502, white and ecru with 2 threads of floss throughout. For the animals, start by outlining them in a color darker than the interior,  I'm using the Back Stitch. 

Now fill in the outlines with a lighter color using Satin or Long and Short Stitches. I find Long and Short Stitches to be pretty intuitive, you can vary the angle and length quite a bit depending on the shapes you're stitching, or go back and fill in a few extra stitches here and there as needed,  it's all good. 

Last, add the tiniest face details in the darkest color over top. I've used Satin Stitches for the pine cones, with darker Straight Stitches on top. The branch is Stem Stitch and the pine needles are Back Stitched. I've used a combination of Satin Stitches and French Knots on the snowflake dots, and Satin Stitches on the leaves and tree berries. You can see in the first photo that you could alternately use Lazy Daisies for cute leaves as well!

I hope this gives you some ideas to use for your sampler! If you need a little extra stitch help, I've got lots of embroidery tutorials at my website, be sure to check them out, and also join my mailing list download some free patterns!

http://aimeeray.com/embroidery/

Have fun! xo