Mushroom Forest Embroidery Kit, 8 in Hoop

About the designs

These are little forest-floor scenes, each one a cluster of mushrooms with ferns, seed heads and wildflowers growing around them. The black fabric works like a night sky behind them, and the colors pop. Choose from:

• Red toadstools and ferns: red spotted toadstools, a yellow cap and small orange buttons under a big curling fern.
• Lone toadstool: one large red-capped toadstool with blue, red and pink wildflowers at its foot.
• Teal caps and wild rose: tall teal and white mushrooms beside a coral flower, with orange caps and green fronds.
• Tall caps and wildflowers: a tall brown and cream mushroom among teal caps, orange poppies and white daisies.
• Fern hollow: small mushrooms in blue, orange and brown tucked between ferns and seed heads.
• Pastel mushrooms: pink, lilac and blue mushrooms with soft pastel flowers and sprigs.

The Lone toadstool has the fewest elements and makes a great first project. Fern hollow and Pastel mushrooms are the busiest, with many small shapes.

Stitches you will use

You can work the whole picture with a handful of classic stitches. Satin stitch fills small shapes like petals and the stripes on a bee. Long and short stitch blends one shade into the next across a wing or a mushroom cap, which is what gives these designs their soft, painted look. Back stitch and stem stitch draw stems, antennae and fine lines, and French knots add pollen, berries and stars.

Split the floss into two or three strands for fills and use a single strand for the finest details. Keep your stitches short on curves, and work from the back of a shape to the front so the top layers sit neatly over the ones behind.

What is in the kit

• Black cotton fabric printed with the design
• Embroidery floss in every color the design uses
• Embroidery needles
• An 8 in (20 cm) embroidery hoop
• An instruction sheet

How long it takes

Allow about 10 to 15 hours. The mushroom caps are the big fills; the ferns are rows of short straight stitches that build up fast once you find the rhythm. Busy designs with lots of tiny caps sit at the top of that range.

Finishing and display

When the last stitch is in, tighten the hoop, trim the fabric to about an inch (2.5 cm) beyond the frame and run a gathering stitch around the edge to pull it to the back. A circle of felt over the back makes it neat. The hoop hangs from its own screw, leans happily on a shelf, or can go into a picture frame. The mushrooms look especially good in a kitchen or a reading corner, and a group of two or three makes a small gallery wall.

Delivery and returns

Delivery is $6.95, and free on orders from $49. The delivery estimate for your address shows on this page and at checkout. You can return the kit within 30 days of delivery; return shipping is yours unless it arrives faulty or wrong. See delivery and returns for the details, or compare the other embroidery kits.