5 Little Monsters: She is a Wildflower Embroidery

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The first of each month I participate in a craft challenge with a group of craft bloggers. This month the theme of the challenge was "Garden". I decided that I didn't want to something actually for the garden but instead something that was flowery and reminded me of a garden. I decided on a flowery embroidery project. I wanted to try something kind of new so I combined the embroidery with a little bit of paint and I really liked the end result.

A few months ago I saw a picture on Instagram, I don't really remember who posted it or any details of the picture except that it was a little girl's room, maybe a nursery, and on the wall was a picture with the quote "In a field of roses she is a wildflower". When I read the quote I immediately thought of my middle daughter Lucy. I feel like it totally fits her and when I showed the quote to my husband he said the exact same thing. She just has her own unique little personality, she isn't worried about fitting in or being like everyone else she is just Lucy and she is perfect and beautiful just the way she is. It also reminded me of an old poster that the LDS church put out that was around when I was a kid that had a picture of a vase of roses with one daisy in it and it said "Be your own kind of beautiful". I feel like that is something I want my girls to know and believe. You don't have to look a certain way, or do certain things, or fit in and be exactly like everyone else, just be who you are because you are your own kind of beautiful, be a wildflower in a field of roses. Lucy is still really little but I already see that quality in her and I hope that she is always able to recognize the beauty that she has to give. I knew that I wanted to make her something with that quote on it to put up in her room but for a long time I just didn't get around to it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to make something for her.

I have also been wanting to make something that combined embroidery with stenciling and paint. As I was thinking about this project I remembered a stencil that I had gotten a while ago from The Crafter's Workshop that was just a whole bunch of flowers and I thought it would be a perfect way to combine stenciling and embroidery. So this project ended up being a fun way to try some techniques that I have been wanting to try, use a quote that I have been wanting to use, and make a project for my daughter. The finished embroidery fit in an 8x10 frame.

Here's how I made it and how you can make your own...

How to Make a She is a Wildflower Embroidery

Finished size 8" x 10" (embroidery unframed)

You will need:

white fabric about 10" x 12" (I used some home dec weight fabric because that is what I had a big enough piece of on hand but anything should work)
fabric paint (I used Plaid Fabric Creations in Aqua)
6" x 6" flower stencil (I used Daisy Cluster from TCW)
foam paintbrush
fusible fleece 8" x 10"
pattern for words
pencil or removable fabric pen
embroidery floss in various colors (I used old unlabeled floss so I don't know the colors but I used green and dark purple for the words and light pink, dark red, light purple, dark purple, light green, light blue, light yellow, and yellow orange for the flowers)
embroidery needle
8" x 10" unfinished wood frame (I bought mine at Michaels)
paint for frame (I used Plaid Folk Art paint in Citrus Green)
iron and ironing board
scissors

Instructions:

The first thing you will do is stencil on your fabric.

Place the stencil so that it is centered towards the top of what will be the 8x10 part that will be showing when it is framed. I just held the stencil carefully in place while I painted. Using the fabric paint and the foam brush carefully stencil onto the fabric. It is a good idea to have something underneath of your fabric in case the paint seeps through a little, I just used a piece of cardstock. Be sure to get into all of the little spaces between the flowers, when you lift up the stencil you should have a blue background with white outlines of flowers. When you are done, carefully remove the stencil and follow the directions on your fabric paint for drying and setting. The paint I used said to dry for a period of time, then heat set with an iron, then wash. I skipped the washing step and just let it dry and then ironed to heat set.

Place the pattern for the quote below the stenciled section and trace with a pencil or fabric pen.

Iron the fusible fleece on to the back of your fabric, centering it in the area that will be framed when finished. This helps make it so that you can't see through the fabric and see the threads between stitches, I just think it gives it a nicer finish.

Embroider the words and flowers. I used 3 strands for the words, backstitch for most of it and satin stitch for the wider sections of Wildflower. I used 2 strands for the flowers. I used backstitch for most of the flowers, lazy daisy stitches on a couple of the smaller ones, and I left some flowers without any embroidery at all.

Paint your frame. I needed a couple of coats on mine. Put the embroidery in the frame. I used the board that came with the frame and just wrapped the excess around the back and taped it down.