Autumn Embroidery Wall Hanging

I'm going to show you how to embroider a small wall hanging using just a few easy stitches.

You need:

- Embroidery Floss- I got most of these colors in a pack, so they don't have numbers. I just chose a variety of fall colors.

- Wooden Embroidery Hoop

- Fabric- The remnants section of your craft store is a great place to find very cheap fabric for embroidery since you only need small pieces. I used a silver cotton fabric for this project.

- Scissors

-Embroidery Needle

- Felt

Get ready by cutting a piece of fabric a little bigger than your hoop.

Start out by cutting a length of brown thread. I used about 3 arm spans for this. Fold it in half several times until it is about 4 to 5 inches long and twist it lightly. We will be attaching the tree with a modified couch stitch.

Lay the bundle on the fabric where the base of the tree will be.

Prepare your sewing thread by separating the floss. I used three strands for almost all the embroidery on this piece. Tie a knot at the end of the thread and put your needle through as close to the edge as you and slightly behind your bundle of thread that will become the tree. Finish the stitch by putting the need down through the fabric almost in the same spot it came up. It should go around the trunk of the tree as shown.

Twist the thread a bit and make the second stitch about a centimeter away from the first.

Continue twisting and stitching up the trunk, shaping as you go. When you reach the first place you would like to have a branch, continue to the next step.

Branches are made the same way the trunk was, but instead of twisting the entire bundle of thread, you will need to first separate the threads. I generally just divided them by 2 and continued with the same number on each branch.

When you reach the end of a branch, make a tight stitch and cut off the excess.

On the back of your work, thread your needle back through your previous stitches. This will help keep the back neat.

Continue until you have all of your branches completed

The leaves are very simple. Each leaf was about 5 or 6 stitches. The first two come from the same point and the rest of the stitches come from a point a little higher than the first.

As mentioned before, I'm using three strands of thread at a time. To change colors, I started with three yellow strands. I did a few leaves like that and then, swapped one of the strands for a light orange. I did a row of leaves like this and then added another orange strand. Check the annotations on the pictures for descriptions of what color combinations I used.

The pumpkins are a very small satin stitch. Since they were going to be less than a centimeter in diameter, I just did this freehand, but you could draw them in first. I also added some tiny leaves.

I wanted some more plant life in my scene, so I used a back stitch to add in some stalks for plants and a few sprigs of grass.

Using a lighter green, I added plants around the stems. To tie a french knot, push your needle up through the fabric roughly where you would like the center of the knot to be. Wrap the string around the needle fairly tightly. (I use one wrap for smaller flowers and 2 for larger ones). Put the needle back down near where it came up and continue pulling the wrap part taught as you put the thread through.

Using a Burnt Ochre color, I added some more backstitched plants and some flower petals. Using black thread, I gave each flower a french knot center.

Using only two strands of the same brown as the tree, I gave the flowers stems, made some stalks for the pumpkins and added in a few horizontal brown lines for the ground.

Remove your embroidery from the hoop. Trim the trunk so that it will be hidden underneath the hoop and replace the hoop.

Use another hoop (or do this first (I forgot)) and trace the inner edge of the larger ring onto felt. I did this using an exacto knife, but you could use a pen or marking pencil. Cut out the circle.

Trim the fabric around the hoop, leaving about 1/2-1''. Loosely stitch with any color thread all the way around. Pull tight and tie off.

Using thread that will blend into your felt, whip stitch around the outside.

You did it! Hang on a wall and enjoy!