Cute Hen and Chick Embroidery Design, Instant Download

Its a mother hen with a single chick pressed right against her leg, the way they do when something spooks them. The hen takes up most of the frame, body in rust brown with the feathers done in short directional stitching that fans from the quill line, not a flat fill. The comb and wattle are satin in scarlet, bright against the warm body, and the underside feathers lighten to cream. The chick is compact, mostly butter yellow with an orange beak, and sits lower in the composition so the size difference reads clearly.

Nine sizes from 4.51 inches wide at the smallest up to 8.51 inches at the largest. Stitch counts go from 34,820 all the way to 77,374, which is alot of thread at the top end. Fourteen colour regions total with the full sequence already set up in Wilcom. I went back through the underlay settings twice because the feather zones need proper column underlay or the satin sections on the wattle lift off stretchy fabric and youll lose that sharp red edge. Density runs at 1,216 so use a firm cutaway stabiliser, not tear-away, the pull count is too high for tear-away to handle cleanly.

Best fabric for this is a cream or off-white tea towel, flour sack weight cotton, where the rust and scarlet really pop. Its also worked well on a tote canvas and on an apron bib. And the 8.51-inch version at full scale on a natural linen panel looks like a proper farmhouse print, I had a customer frame one in a 10-inch hoop and hang it in a kitchen last spring. Stitch the smaller sizes on a shirt pocket or a zip pouch and the detail still reads at arm length because the directional feather fill catches the light differently to plain satin. Dont be surprised by the prep time on the colour sequence, it runs in the right build order so theres no reordering needed.

Bobbin tension matters with this one, keep it snug and consistent or you get draw-in on the wide satin sections of the comb. The 14-colour load takes abit of setup but once its hooped and running it goes straight through without backtrack changes mid-stitch.