Always Loved Never Forgotten Forever Embroidery Design, Machine Embroidery Pattern, Instant Download

Most memorial cardinal designs are just a flat red blob on a branch with some serif text, and honestly that bothers me more than it probably should. This one actually has something going on. The cardinal sits in the upper right, satin-stitched with proper directional fill so the wing feathers actually read as individual feathers instead of one solid smear of deep red thread. Gold beak, charcoal face mask, fine detail lines in charcoal black along the tail. Then the typography takes up most of the composition, and thats where it gets interesting. The words Always, Loved, Never Forgotten, Forever Missed stack through the design in three different styles. Loved cuts through the middle in sweeping wide cursive, the block text above and below it grows heavier as it goes down. A handful of tatami-fill hearts are scattered between the words in different sizes, and tucked into the lower left is a tiny six-point snowflake in line-art style. Im pretty sure the snowflake is intentional because cardinals in snow is basically shorthand for grief in a lot of families. Its a quiet detail and its the right one. Five sizes from 3.5 inches wide up to 7.5, with stitch counts climbing from around 11,000 stitches at the smallest to 24,474 at the 7.5 inch, so dont even think about tearaway. Use cutaway stabiliser, the cardinal body has real density and it will pucker on anything flimsier. Cream linen or cotton twill shows off the charcoal text best because the contrast reads sharp without fighting the red bird. A woman who makes sympathy quilts sent me a note last week about using the 5 inch on natural canvas tote bags for a bereavement group she volunteers with, said families kept them for years. Hoop slightly above centre on a pillow case so the cardinal clears the bottom seam. Add topping on any terry cloth or the tatami hearts sink into the loops entirely. Skip light jersey, the satin fill pulls the grain sideways and youll spend half an hour re-hooping. Pop cutaway close to the stitching line and press with a light iron through a pressing cloth to set the satin columns flat.

Let me know if you cant get the colours to match mine.