Today I have two small Lazy Daisy stitch projects for you. These are suitable for a small frame. Or they would look wonderful decorating one end of two scarves, at the top or pocket of an apron, or even embellishing the back of a jacket. Do you need a small decorated pillow? They would rock that as well. If you need a stitch review, you can find it in Part 1 and Part 2.
Flowers in flowerpot
You can see the first project above. This design measures about 5.5 inches square. You can print out the image above at about 90% of its full size. Or simply sketch it from the picture inside a 5.5 inch box. This design is 100 years old and somebody drew it freehand to begin with. Who’s going to know if your dimensions are a tiny bit off?
Once you get the design transferred to your fabric, you will need to grab your colors. The original was embroidered in fine embroidery yarns like 1 or two strands of tapestry yarn. (It comes with four strands together.) You could use one strand of pearl cotton or four strands of embroidery floss instead.
Colors you will need
You will need:
- pale jade green for leaves
- orchid
- old rose
- heliotrope
- yellow
- delft blue
How to embroider the flowers and flowerpot
- Begin with the leaves in tree stitch. Start at the tip. Use the green.
- Use chain stitch for the stems. Also in green.
- The tendrils use the green in back stitch. (This is the curly line coming off the stem.)
The large flower is worked in chain stitch from the outside in. Starting with the outer row:
- The outer row is lazy daisy stitch in orchid.
- Work the row inside that with lazy daisy stitches in old rose.
- Complete a row of chain stitch in the rose.
- Inside the chain stitch, a row of lazy daisy stitches in heliotrope. The tips of the daisies will go into the chain of the previous row.
- Make the center in a yellow tree stitch. Start at one end and work to the other.
The circular flowers
Complete the two circular flowers by making eight long lazy daisy stitches. For the lower flower, make the daisy stitches in orchid. Then with rose, weave over and under the stitch arms like you see in the illustration above. Complete the flower with a yellow center of tiny lazy daisy stitches or French knots.
For the upper flower, make the spokes in heliotrope and complete the flower in the same color. Instead of weaving over and under, this time you will loop around and around the two threads that make each lazy daisy stitch as you see above.
After the first row or two you will loop around each individual thread of the daisy stitch, as above. This makes a nice, tightly woven flower. Make the weaving as large or as small as you like. Again, make a yellow center.
The bowl
The upper edge of the bowl is in separated lazy daisy stitches. They march in a line across the rim. Keep the loops a bit loose so that the line of stitches and their spaces appear even. This row is in delft blue. Then:
- Hanging from the top border of the bowl, seven woven drops dangle.
- Work a row of back stitch in rose just above the blue chain stitch.
- Also use back stitch for the two lines coming down from the sides of the bowl, but work these in blue.
- Use jade in regular chain stitch for the sides of the bowl.
- Also use jade for the bottom of bowl, but work closely-spaced separated chain stitches.
- Above this line, work four points in tree stitch, as you see in the illustration below.
Use four different shades of thread or yarn for these stitches. The first, or inner, stitch is yellow. Follow that with heliotrope, then orchid, and finally rose for the largest outside stitch.
Circular Medallion
I liked this design a lot. For some reason this one really appealed to me, and I’ll try to find something to embroider it onto.
This would be a great decoration for a vintage style handbag or small pillow. It measures six inches in diameter.
The colors
To work the second of the lazy daisy stitch projects you will need one or two strands of tapestry yarn, pearl cotton, or four strands of embroidery floss. The original instructions even suggested four-fold Germantown, which was worsted knitting wool. The worker would then separate the four strands and use one at a time. The color list:
- medium dull blue, like DMC 793
- dark dull blue, like DMC 792524
- light/medium blue green, like DMC 518
- dark blue green, like DMC 3760
- gray-green, like DMC 524
- heliotrope, like DMC 33
- flame, like DMC 347 or any red/red-orange that you like
Usually I don’t match DMC colors to vintage patterns, but the suggestions for this particular design were very vague. It suggested two shades of dull blue. What in the world is that? I had to consult a DMC color chart so I could figure it out for myself. While I was there, I decided to jot down the numbers that I found. If you have a selection of threads in this color range that you think works better, by all means use them.
The flower
This illustration shows how the flower center is worked.
- The very center horizontal satin stitches are in flame/red/red-orange.
- To the right and left of the flame stitch, work tree stitch. Begin at the center and work out to the edges. Use the lighter blue-green thread.
- Surround the oval with back stitch in heliotrope.
- The first lazy daisy row, closest to the flower center, is in dark blue.
- Use gray to complete a second row of daisy stitches, about half the size, at the ends of the first daisy row.
- Extending from the flower center, work the large petals in light blue tree stitch.
- Connect the petals close to their tips with buttonhole stitch done in heliotrope.
The rest of the embroidery
Here’s how to complete the embroidery.
- Work the central flower stem in dark blue-green tree stitch.
- The two leaves closest to the flower are the lighter blue-green. Use tree stitch for this as well.
- Work the small tendrils (curly lines) coming from the top two leaves in lighter blue-green, using back stitch.
- The large dark tendrils coming from the base of the flower stem are back stitched in dark blue-green.
- All other leaves and tendrils are in gray-green.
Next Lesson
And this concludes Lazy Daisy Stitch Projects. The next embroidery lesson series focuses on appliqué. If you enjoy the look of Twenties and Thirties appliqué quilts and needlework, you won’t want to miss it.
