Tree of Life – PDF Pattern

Description

This is a PDF pattern, immediately available after purchase. It is delivered to you in both Letter and A4 paper formats. Letter is used in the United States, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines – for the rest of the world, please download the A4 format.

Ten years ago I started my business Modern Folk Embroidery, and the pattern you hold before you was the very first design I put out. Looking back at some of those early designs, I decided that it was time to re-draw the design I did back then, make a few tweaks and present it to you in a fresh, new way. Originally the pattern was presented on its own, with a separate alphabet provided for personalisation. When re-drawing the pattern, I decided that it would be fun to stitch the alphabet as an integral part of the design.

The pattern comes in two parts, and you can decide to stitch the tree of life on its own, both patterns as separate designs, or stitch them beside each other as seen on the cover artwork: the choice is yours!

The Tree of Life is a motif that has been used throughout the world in many cultures – and is one element that pops up in samplers around the world as well. It can have the form of a traditional tree, but sometimes even a flowerpot with a plant can represent the tree. For my design I took inspiration from samplers from the Dutch region of Friesland, where trees of life formed an essential part of their samplers. The design is dated with roman numerals MMXXI, which is 2021 – but feel free to personalise your design in any way you see fit! The lowercase J was left out on purpose, to reflect a quirk found on old samplers. As the I would double for a J it was often left out. If you want to stitch the J, simply look at the lower case L which coul be mirrored with a dot, to make the letter J.

CHART DETAILS

Each design measures  83 crosses wide and 107 crosses high. If you stitch it on 32 count, it will measure approximately 5 1/4” by 6 5/8” (13.5 x 17 cm). Stitched next to each other as seen on the cover, the design would measure 165 crosses wide (10 3/8” or 26.5cm wide). The tree chart has a total of 2891 crosses, the alphabet a total of 2828. Worked with 2 strands of DMC, you can stitch approximately 2000 crosses per skein of floss – this means that you will need about 3 skeins to stitch both of these designs together. To achieve the look of the cover, try stitching with Zweigart’s “Slate” linen, and DMC 822. As this is a monochrome design, feel free to use your imagination to pick whatever colours you like!