say hello to our newest stitch club pattern!

this new design is my whimsical take on a swedish folk art dala horse. as is the tradition for dala horse artists, i’ve drawn mine in my own style. so you’ll see some familiar stars, leaves, and flowers here.

for the embroidery, i have a very loose plan in mind. much of mine will be outline stitches, but i will use some fill stitches for the leaves and flowers.
i’m betting that there will be a lot of variations in the #cozybluestitchclub feed on instagram, and i’m looking forward to seeing how everyone stitches theirs!

have you been working on the dala horse? i'm just about finished with mine!

i've been sharing my progress over on instagram, but i wanted to give you a progress report here too. i'll keep this short and sweet:

• i used a lot of back stitch on this one! the leaves, feathers, stems, all are done in back stitch < 2 strands >

• i also used quite a lot of satin < 2 strands >: the saddle, the berries, the hearts, and some of the dots.

• i originally thought i'd fill in the leaves, but i like them this way, all lines and curves.

• i also added some fun extra details in red, with a single strand: i outlined the hearts, and made a few straight stitches on each berry to give them some depth.

• i think i'm almost done! i might add a few more little stitches here and there. sometimes i can't resist adding just a little bit more.

if you need a little refresher for some of these stitches, check out my 'basic stitches for hand embroidery'