Mandalas to Embroider by Carina Envoldsen-Harris is a beautiful collection of easy-to-embroider mandala patterns.
I love stitching mandalas so much! (You can find instructions for stitching freestyle mandalas here. And here’s a mandala sun I made using this round graph paper.)
The book is great for beginners, with a short spread about materials and a few pages showing how to do some basic embroidery stitches – all you need for these pretty designs.
There are patterns for 12 large mandalas and 12 small mandalas – and they’re all iron-on transfers.
And – I love this thoughtful detail – the book has a pocket in the back cover to hold those transfer pages after you cut them out.
I love it when the publisher of a book really thinks about how it will be used.
I was going to stitch one of the tiny designs and maybe wear it as a necklace. I love this group – all named after artists. 🙂
But in the end, the paisleys sucked me in. 🙂 I decided on Paisley Constellation.
There’s a two-page spread for each design, showing the pattern, a color chart, stitch guide and the finished design all in one place. I love that!
Here’s a closer look at the information page.
See how clearly everything is laid out?
Of course, I ignored it completely. 🙂
As soon as I got my design transferred (just a super easy iron-on) and hooped in the purple hoop I decided on a bunch of cool colors for a watery-ish look.
I always start stitching the biggest outlines first.
After I was almost done I decided that it need a little pop of warm color, so I made the flowers dark pink, and decided on a light pink for all the little stars.
Here’s my finished hoop!
I’m so happy with how it turned out!
The one thing the book doesn’t have is instructions for finishing your hoop art. But I’ve got you covered. 🙂
There’s a video here showing how to frame art in a hoop – without using any glue.
And there’s a post here showing how to cover up your messy back when you frame it in a hoop. This is especially nice for a project like Christmas tree ornaments, where the back can actually be seen. And all the small designs in the book would make FABULOUS Christmas tree ornaments.
My mandala was so much fun to stitch – I’d love to do another in a completely different colorway. You can transfer each design about 10 times before the ink runs out. That’s a lot of stitching fun!
Get Mandalas to Embroider here. And have fun with it!
Happy stitching!
Best,
Wendi
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