Mini Meadow - Cuckoo flower part 2, and a sneak peek

I hope you've been able to enjoy the lovely weather, perhaps even some sewing in the sunshine.

Here, our meadow mini quilt is growing, and today we're sewing the stems using a couching stitch.

The weather is too nice to miss, so I'm opting to do the couching by hand.

For the chunkier stems, a thicker yarn is used, held in place by a finer thread. For the thicker yarn I used some cotton yarn, I had to hand, however a couple of lengths of embroidery floss would work equally well.

Top half of stem couched.

Step 1. Mark the position of the stem, using an erasable marker.

Alternatively you could use your sewing machine to sew a guideline on which to position the stem, and also provide a stitching guide to achieve evenly spaced hand stitches. Simply set the machine to a larger stitch length.

Step 2. Thread the thicker yarn, through to the front of your panel. Laying the yarn along the marked or stitched line.

Step 3. Fetch the finer cotton thread to the front, next to the thicker yarn.

Make a short horizontal stitch over the thicker stem, to anchor it in place

Step 4. Continue to sew small even stitches, along the length of the stem, till the stem is secured.

Some finer stems will be added later on, when the whole panel is quilted.

You can find the template for the Cuckoo flower in the free patterns section.

Over on the sewing machine our next meadow plant is beginning to bloom - out in the fields there's huge drifts of it right now - still it's for next time...

For now, I hope you enjoy the pattern, and that there's more sunshine in store.

From our little hive to yours,

Happy sewing Xx 🌸 🐝