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Mary Corbet

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I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Maple Leaf – Free Hand Embroidery Design

 

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Sometimes, you need to embroider just a touch of the season. Instead of a full-fledged, all-out, massive seasonal embroidery project, a simple nod to the season may do.

And what better nod to fall than the maple leaf? It’s the quintessential emblem of autumn color.

Granted, it’s not the only fall foliage that enflames the landscape (I’m rather partial to the sumac that lines the backroads of Kansas like a blazing fire this time of year), but the maple leaf is certainly the grand contender when it comes to flashy autumn color changes.

So, for your stitching pleasure, here’s a single maple leaf design for hand embroidery – simple, quick, and seasonal.

Maple leaf embroidery design

What can you do with it?

The better question might be what can’t you do with it? You can stitch this simple maple leaf on anything for fall. Maybe you’re planning to set up a festive Thanksgiving table – how about cloth napkins? It wouldn’t take long to stitch up half a dozen or so with a maple leaf in simple line stitching. Think: chain stitch, backstitch, stem stitch, running stitch…

Maybe you’re working on a crazy quilt and you’d like to drop an autumn accent onto a square?

Maybe you just want a tiny little autumn leaf on a tiny little needlebook? You can reduce the pattern size and make something extraordinarily simple and sweet.

And don’t forget that you can go a little more in-depth with a design like this, and work it in long and short shading! Maybe you could go fetch a beautiful, newly-fallen maple leaf from outside and mimic the colors you see in it. That would be a lovely challenge!

Whatever crunches your autumn leaves will work! So many possibilities…

PDF Printable

Here’s the handy dandy PDF printable for you:

Maple Leaf Hand Embroidery Pattern (PDF) – feel free to save it to your computer and use it for your personal projects.

For those who have stitched any of the autumn variety designs on this ready-to-stitch towel set, you’ll probably recognize the leaf! I used versions of it, along with oak leaves, pumpkins, and more, in the designs in that set.

I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy this simple embroidery design!

Looking for More?

If you’re looking for more autumn embroidery, this article has a line-up of other autumn embroidery designs available free for personal use here on Needle ‘n Thread. There are some fun ones in there, including a really fun acorn and oak leaf kaleidoscope. There’s even a turkey on the list…

If you’re looking for something ready-to-stitch for autumn, I have two different towel sets available – the autumn variety towel set mentioned above and this Festive Fall set.

If you’re looking for specific instruction on stitching similar designs, my Festive Fall e-book (with the patterns included) may come in handy. It takes you step-by-step through stitching the designs in the e-book.

Have a lovely Monday! I hope your week is off to a great start!

 
 

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(2) Comments

  1. Dear Mary

    I love Autumn I was out walking on Saturday 19 Nov with my Sister in law and my 4 year old Great Nephew and we were walking through all the fallen leaves and he wanted to pick up all the different coloured leaves and they were such rich autumn red, orange yellow, brown and so vibrant and glowing that we had a great time picking them up and discarding the ugly ones. Thank for sharing with us the autumn leaf pattern above and for all your free patterns. A lovely choice.

    Regards Anita Simmance

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