Christmas Cardinal Embroidery Design V2, Instant Download

Christmas cardinal design here, the most realistic bird piece in my catalogue. A male northern cardinal sits in profile on a thin brown twig. Chest is bright fire-engine red bleeding into cream underbelly. Back is deep crimson with a hint of brown round the wing edge. The black face mask wraps from his beak around the eye like a tiny bandit, and that signature pointed crest stands up sharp on top.

His beak is parted just slightly, looks like hes mid-song. To the right sits a fat holly cluster. Eight or nine leaves in forest green with painterly white highlights, six small ruby berries packed between em. Reads like a page out of a winter field guide. Not a cartoon at all.

I get notes from birdwatching mums about this design every november. Last december a buyer ordered the largest size for her aunts christmas tea towel set. The aunt keeps a backyard feeder going through january. She sent over pictures of all four towels lined up on the kitchen rail, the whole thing read like a magazine spread.

Nine threads, eight swaps, density landing around 751 spi which gives lands medium-dense. Hoop firm cutaway behind it cause the feather shading layers build up fast. Counts run 16526 at the smaller 3 inch version up to 28187 at the 5 inch. Theres 4 widths packed in the zip. Ease back machine speed through the breast feather sections where the directional fills overlap.

Best fabric is cream linen, oatmeal cotton, or pale grey waffle weave. Avoid pure white cotton cause the cream belly dont read against it. Place the file on the towel hem roughly 3 inches up from the edge. Run a test square first. Send me a note if anything stitches funny. Its no big deal. Im on chat most days. Youre never stuck on file format. Thats my promise. I dont charge for swaps.