Because it’s Wednesday, because we’re half-way through the week, and because I love playing with embroidery designs, I think today’s a great day to share a free hand embroidery pattern with you!
I’ve been playing with this design for a purpose, which I’ll tell you about below. I haven’t had a chance to pursue working the design yet – hoping to start something this weekend – but in the meantime, I thought I’d share the embroidery designs with you.
I extracted the components from this pattern from an old ecclesiastical design. Grapes & wheat are symbolic in ecclesiastical embroidery, but it just so happens they also work well for secular kitchen and table embroidery, too.
You’ll find the design that these components came from in my Church Patterns e-book, for those who are looking for church-related embroidery designs.
These particular grapes & wheat have a very contemporary flavor, so that’s why I started doodling around with them.
I wanted something that would work well on the narrow, straight end of something like a table runner or that would look nice centered on the front edge of a hand towel, and I think the above design would work for both of those placement ideas.
I might jostle it about a little more and elongate the design a bit – we shall see!
But I also wanted to explore something that was much more corner-suited – something that worked well in a 90-degree corner situation. Hence, the second version just above.
I’m thinking tambour embroidery for this. I have a new tambour hook I want to try out very soon. (If you’re not familiar with tambour embroidery, you can read all about it here, along with tips, techniques, and patterns.)
And I’m thinking – since the linen is a natural color and rather fine linen – that I will try this in tambour work, in white on natural.
Admittedly, part of me is still hemming and hawing over the color. I like color, after all…
So that’s what I’m toying with, design wise, at the moment, for just a very quick project all around. The purpose of the project, really, is to test a couple things – specifically, the linen towels that I recently came across, that I think might make good blanks for embroidery, a new tambour hook, and a transfer method.
I’ll be back with results of my tests, but in the meantime, perhaps you’ll enjoy doing something with the pattern.
Printable PDF with the Embroidery Designs
Here’s a handy-dandy PDF printable with the designs on it. The upright should print at about 5″ high, if you choose “no scaling” or “100%” or something similar in your printer dialogue box.
Contemporary Grapes & Wheat Hand Embroidery Design (PDF)
I hope you like it and find some use for it!
Have a Wonderful Wednesday!
If you’re looking for more hand embroidery designs here on Needle ‘n Thread, you’ll find a slew of free embroidery patterns available here. You can also find several hand embroidery pattern books available in my shop, including one on Church Patterns, one on hand embroidered kaleidoscope designs, and one featuring 16 full monogram alphabets in various styles.
