Birdie Stitches Block #8

Birdie Stitches Block #8

So I am excited to be sharing Block #8 with you however, not so excited about the fact that this means that it is August….blah…school will be starting and my little Chloe will be going every day.  Last year Chloe went to school every other day and then every other Friday–so, at most, she went 3 days a week—surely this year it would only stand to reason that at most she attend school 4 days a week, right?!? =p

Anyhoo, I know that you all aren’t hear to listen to “my little girl is growing up” woes so on to  Block #8!  Summer always reminds me of sunflowers so here ya go:

Birdie Stitches Block #8

Block Construction(All blocks will be constructed in the same manner):

Center square: 8.5″ square

 Border Squares: (20) 2.5″ squares

I like to assemble the block before doing the embroidery work–it’s just a little bit easier to hoop it up.  Sew together 2 sets of (4) 2.5″ squares–these strips will measure 8.5″long–sew one set to the top and bottom of the 8.5″ center square.  Sew the remaining 2.5″ squares into two sets of  6.  These will measure 12.5″ long–sew one strip on each side of the block.  And Voila! a 12.5″ square block all ready for embroidery.  You will find the embroidery pattern below in pdf format

Birdie Stitches Block #8

(Note:  If you ever have trouble with the size your pattern is printing out at, be sure that your page scaling is set to “none’ prior to printing)

A couple embroidery notes:  I used 6 strands of thread for all of the embroidery.  This pattern incorporates a simple back stitch and french knots.  Please note, as I used 6 strands of floss I only wrap the needle once for my french knots.  I used a water erasable marker to transfer the embroidery pattern onto my fabric–this was done after the block was assembled.

And here we have our completed blocks so far:

Completed Blocks

We have some stellar blocks over in the flickr group.  Be sure to add yours–I really enjoy seeing them!

For those of you following along with Birdie Stitches–if you would like to receive email notifications when I post on my blog you can now sign up to receive them.  I had numerous requests about adding this feature so there ya go. =)