April Showers Embroidery Pattern

On the first Monday of each month, I share a free embroidery pattern for you to stitch. This month’s April Showers embroidery pattern was such fun to design and work on because the idea for it has been in the back of my mind for quite some time.

For over a year now, I’ve had an unfinished Dresden plate just waiting to be completed. In fact, if you follow me on Instagram @supermomnocape you may remember seeing it. It was made from leftover charm squares of Fancy Free by Lori Whitlock for Riley Blake Designs.

In my Instagram post I mentioned that I planned to embroider the center circle of the Dresden plate.

I had the basic idea of what I wanted but it wasn’t until a few days ago when looking at the pretty spring colors in the block that the idea began to gel and the April Shower embroidery pattern came to life.

I’m super pleased with how it turned out!

April Showers Embroidery Pattern Details

To duplicate what I’ve done use 2 strands of DMC embroidery floss except where indicated.

For the blue lettering, stitch in backstitch, using DMC 48.

Backstitch the cloud and rain drops with grey DMC 318. Use one strand of floss for the raindrops.

The sun is a whipped backstitch with backstitched rays in yellow DMC 743.

Work the green stems of the small flowers in DMC 472 and the large flower in DMC 581.

Embroider the small pink flowers using five lazy daisy stitches in DMC 776. The centers are french knots in the same yellow as the sun.

The center flower is a woven chain rose (woven wheel) that uses the lazy daisy stitch rather than a straight stitch for the wheel that the floss is woven through. Use DMC 472 for the large lazy daisy stitches as shown on the pattern and then weave the variegated pink DMC 48 around the lazy daisies. (I used the darker pink section of the variegated floss.)

While the pattern is designed to fit the center of a 12.5″ Dresden plate, it could just as easily be stitched to create a needlebook, a small coin purse or pincushion.

One of the things I love about embroidery is that you can take a basic design and make it your own by using floss colors of your choice and then turning the finished piece into whatever item you like.

Click the link below to download April’s free embroidery pattern.

April Showers Embroidery Pattern

Yesterday, I hand stitched the Dresden plate and the April Showers center to a medium gray background.

Here’s a photo of the whole block:

I had hoped to be able to make several more of these Dresden blocks with different embroidered centers for each but I haven’t been able to find any more Fancy Free charm packs so I’ll be turning the above orphan block into a pillow cover.

Now it’s time to share what you’ve been working on!

STITCHERY LINK PARTY #138

For those who are newly subscribed or are visiting for the first time, on the first Monday of every month I host a link party in which I invite you to share your hand embroidery projects.

If you’ve never linked up to a link party before and would like to join in, I’ve written a quick tutorial on How to Link Up to a Link Party. It provides step-by-step instructions for linking to this party (or any other link party you might like to participate in.)

The rules for the Stitchery Link Party are simple:

1. The project can be anything as long as it includes hand embroidery stitches in some form. Such projects might be but are not limited to redwork, blackwork, goldwork, bluework, (etc), counted cross-stitch, crazy quilting, crewel, silk ribbon, pulled thread, hardanger and sashiko.
2. Link directly to your blog post, not to your blog home page. You’re also welcome to link to a Facebook or Instagram post, if it is set to public.
3. If you happen to sell your embroidery or embroidery patterns, feel free to link up to a blog post you’ve written about a project you’re selling, but No direct links to shops or websites selling things.
4. This will be a curated link party. In other words, if a link does not conform to the three simple rules above, it will be removed.

The next three are more requests than rules. They are by no means a requirement to take part in the party:

1. Please link back to the Stitchery Link Party with a text link somewhere in your post or on a page where you list your parties.
2. As well, please share the love and visit one or two (or more) of the other links and take time to leave a comment.
3. It would be wonderful if you decided to follow me but it’s not necessary in order to take part in the link party.

 Loading InLinkz ...

Be sure to save this April Showers Embroidery Pattern post by clicking on the Pinterest button underneath this post.

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!