Gothic Woman with Flowers & Dragonflies Embroidery Design, Instant Download

The woman sits just left of centre in three-quarter view, her face built from minimal line detail, a small mouth, downcast eyes drawn with just a few strokes, long straight hair that falls in fine hatched lines. Shes wearing a bead necklace that comes across as a string of black dots looping at her collarbone. Shes not the centrepiece though, shes more like the anchor point everything else wraps around.

Lotus flowers grow up around her shoulders, two open blooms on the left with sage green outer petals and pink-edged inner layers and yellow stamen centres. Those 3 colours together is what breaks up what would otherwise be a very dark piece. Then theres the vines, thick black serpentine stems that wind through the lower half, wrapping and looping with heavy black leaves coming off them. Behind all of that is a soft grey shadow fill of broader foliage shapes, palm-like fronds and leaf clusters, which gives the composition depth without adding more actual colour.

And then the dragonflies. Theres one top right, one lower left, possibly a third depending on the size. Theyre stitched in cyan blue and dark navy with that slightly iridescent two-tone wing look, and they are the brightest elements by quite a lot. 8 colours total make this one of the more involved designs to set up at your machine, 7 colour changes on each run, but each stop is fast and the result honestly looks like nothing else Ive got in the shop.

This is a dense piece. The 12-inch tops out at about 91k stitches so youre looking at a proper long run, but even the 7-inch at 48k is impressive. A customer emailed me earlier this month after running the 9-inch on a heavy black velvet jacket back and said the shadow foliage disappeared into the fabric but the lotus colours and the blue dragonflies absolutely popped. Back woven fabric with a firm cutaway base before you hoop, the fine linework in the face and hair will shift otherwise. Pull the hoop snug and stitch at a steady pace. Skip satin or slippery fabric entirely because 91k stitches need a stable base. Ping me if you want advice on thread substitutions for the grey background fill, its the most flexible colour in the piece and swapping it out changes the whole mood.