15” x 13” ivory linen

15” x 13” white muslin backing

Scrap of fabric for appliqued heart

2 buttons

01 brown Pigma pen for tracing

Size 7 embroidery needle

Size 3 milliner’s/straw needle

Paper blending stumps and emery board (Blick.com)

Jacquard Fabric Paint Colorless Extender (Blick.com)

Small round watercolor paintbrush (Blick.com)

Freezer Paper

Cosmo Floss

#5014 green

#8006 pink

#8027 yellow

#8039 taupe

#8052 blue

#8067 lavender

#77-32 silver metallic

Available on our website

2020 February Stitch Along Supplies

Full Size Traceable Pattern Follows

Heart Applique Pattern

If you’re turning under seam

allowances, you’ll need to add

them to the pattern. I traced

my heart onto my applique

fabric using a Frixion pen so the

lines would disappear when I

pressed the finished stitchery.

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

#914 CREAM

#916 CANARY YELLOW

#928 BLUSH PINK

#929 PINK

#956 LILAC

#1008 PARMA VIOLET

#1051 20% WARM GREY

#1079 BLUE VIOLET LAKE

#1080 BEIGE SIENNA

#1103 CARIBBEAN SEA

Available at Blick.com

Hi Everybody!

It’s almost February again, so time to gear up for the International Embroidery Month Stitch Along!

Here are all of the supplies you’ll need (feel free to use your own color choices of course!) and the pattern.

If you have the design traced, pencil tinted, fixative applied & dried, and the stitchery basted to the muslin backing, you’ll be all

ready to go on February 1st! I’ll be posting stitching instructions each day on Instagram and Facebook. We won’t be putting the

stitching instructions on the website, so make sure to either do them in real time, or do screen grabs if you fall behind!

We’re going to have so much fun! I can’t wait to see what everybody does with this one! Post your projects on Instagram with

the hashtag #crabapplehillSAL so we can share with everybody! On Facebook you can post a picture directly with your comments.

XO Meg

For stitch instructions, please either visit my website www.crabapplehillstudio.com and go to the

“Downloadables” page to print off or download my stitch guide… or check out my video tutorials at…

Youtube.com/c/crabapplehillstudio

• Shade the B, J, S, and V squares with #914 CREAM. Blend. Shade them further

with a tiny bit of #1080 BEIGE SIENNA. Blend. Use these same pencils to fill and

shade the teabag in the T square. Blend.

• Shade the D and X squares with #928 BLUSH PINK. Blend.

• Use the same #928 BLUSH PINK pencil to tint the roses in the R square area.

Shade the rose petals with #929 PINK. Blend.

• Use #928 BLUSH PINK to make polka dots inside the O square. Do not blend.

• Shade the P square, circular centers of the flowers on L and P squares and the

centers of the flowers at the top of the design with #916 CANARY YELLOW. Blend.

Shade the large flower center with #1080 BEIGE SIENNA and blend.

• Use the same #916 CANARY YELLOW pencil and sharpen it to make a check design

inside the G and Z squares. Draw a gridwork inside the M square. You can blend

the checks carefully, but don’t blend the gridwork.

• Sharpen your #929 PINK pencil and draw another gridwork of lines inside the M

square, just offset a little from the yellow lines. This will make a plaid design. Do

not blend.

Tint:

Blending and Smoothing Colors:

• Use paper blending stumps to blend the colors and smooth them.

• Blending can be done as you finish coloring each area or after all are colored.

Some areas will need to be blended before adding any additional surface designs.

Removing Colored Pencil Tinting Mistakes….YIKES!!:

• If you make any mistakes in coloring, now is the time to fix them! After they’re

coated with the fixative and heat set it’s too late.

• Remove color by dabbing with removable mounting putty such as Loctite Fun-Tak

(the stuff you use to put posters on a wall temporarily). This works GREAT! If it

stops picking up the color, pull and knead it for a minute.

Tint Using Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils:

• Use the color image for help in placing your colors.

• You’ll color on the fabric (no white underneath with pencils!).

• “Tint” means an all-over light color. You can leave some areas un-tinted and let

the fabric be a “highlight”!

• “Shade” means adding pools of darker color to show shape, curvature, or shade

where one element overlaps another.

• Dark shading makes an area recede. Light makes an area come forward.

Trace:

• Cut a piece of stitchery background fabric (I used ivory linen) at least 15”x 13”. Cut

a piece of white, prewashed, well pressed muslin to the same size.

• Press the stitchery background fabric well. Place your pattern under the fabric

and center it.

• Pin the fabric to the pattern in several places. Using a light box and a brown 01 or

005 Pigma pen, trace your pattern onto the fabric.

• Remove pins and pattern when tracing is complete.

• Dry press the traced stitchery.

2020 February Stitch Along:

Page 1

• All you need to do is rub the colored areas with a sharp, clean blending stump. Do

one color at a time because the color will transfer from one area to another. I

have several blending stumps of various sizes so my colors don’t accidentally

overlap. You’ll notice that the colors will look more vibrant when you’ve blended

them.

• If you need to clean off one of your blending stumps, just file it with an emery

board (nail file). This will clean and sharpen it.

If you start at the top/left corner of the little squares and move across to

the left, you’ll notice that there are squares for each letter of the

alphabet. Most don’t have the letter in them. Some will indicate the

letter with an image, such as “Forget-me-nots”, “Needle”, “Quilt block”,

“Roses”, “Tea”, “Violet”, or “XXX’s”. They’re in order, so you’ll be able to

keep track whether they have a letter in them or not… just by singing the

A-B-C’s!

Baste:

• Hand baste the muslin and stitchery fabric together close around the edges of the

image and through the center of the piece in open spaces. You will embroider

through both layers.

Heat Set:

• You will need to heat set all of the treated and dried pencil tinting you’ve done.

Just press the dry stitchery with a hot, dry iron for several seconds.

• After the fixative is added and heat set, the colored pencil will be washable. I

would still use cold water and a gentle detergent just to be on the safe side,

though I have used a stain remover and didn’t have any trouble.

For stitch instructions, please either visit my website

www.crabapplehillstudio.com and go to the “Downloadables” page to

print off or download my stitch guide… or check out my video

tutorials at… Youtube.com/c/crabapplehillstudio

Set the Colored Pencils:

• Pin your fabric to the shiny side of a piece of freezer paper. This will protect your

work surface from any fixative that seeps through the fabric (It sometimes carries

a tiny bit of color with it.)

• Use a soft bristled artist’s paintbrush to brush a very thin coat of Jacquard Textile

Colorless Extender over all colored areas. I know there are other brands out there,

but this is what I’ve used and tested.

• Use the same sharp #929 PINK pencil to fill the wide area of the letter U. Blend.

• Sharpen #1103 CARIBBEAN SEA and fill in the wide areas of the letters S, c, h in

“Stitch”. Also fill all of the forget me not flowers in the F square, and the star

points of the Ohio Star Quilt block in the Q square. Shade all of these area with a

sharpened #1079 BLUE VIOLET LAKE pencil. Blend carefully.

• Sharpen the #1079 BLUE VIOLET LAKE pencil and make a little gridwork in the A

and W squares. Do not blend. Use the same pencil to make tiny XXX’s inside the I

square and make little vertical stripes inside the E and N squares. Do the same

stripes in the center square of the Q quilt block. Do not blend.

• The polka dots in the K and T squares are made with #1079 BLUE VIOLET LAKE. Do

not blend.

• Sharpen the #1103 pencil again if necessary, Sharpen the #1103 CARIBBEAN SEA

pencil again, and make little circles (rings) on the C and Y squares. Fill in the

backgrounds around the rings/circles with #1103 CARIBBEAN SEA. Blend very

carefully to keep the dots white. Shade the background areas with #1079 BLUE

VIOLET LAKE. Blend.

• Tint the violet’s center petals #916 CANARY YELLOW. Blend.

• Tint the violet’s top and bottom petals with #956 LILAC. Shade them with #1008

PARMA VIOLET. Blend. Tint the heart in the S square #956 LILAC.

• Shade the needle with #1051 20% WARM GREY. Blend.

• If you’d like, you can also tint the large leaves at the top of the design with a green

pencil. I used #1005 LIMEPEEL. If any background shows through your stitches,

it’s disguised!

Page 2

• Some colors will sometimes pull into other areas with the brush. If you use too

much fixative, the color can seep outside the lines with it. You just need to wet

the fabric...not soak it. No fixative should show up white on the surface of the

fabric.

• Remove the freezer paper and hang the fabric up to dry. Dry thoroughly...

(overnight is good!)

• Clean the freezer paper with water and a paper towel. You can re-use it for future

projects.

• Wash your paintbrush well with clear water. NEVER, NEVER scrub a paintbrush on

a surface to clean it! Just dab it sideways under running water and squeeze it with

your fingers. Smooth and blot the hairs with a paper towel and set upright with

the brush facing upwards to dry completely.

I’ll be posting the stitching directions every day in

February on Instagram and Facebook.

Crabapple Hill Studio © 2020 Meg Hawkey This pattern is for personal use only and not for sale or distribution