Felt Dove Garland

• Water-soluble marking pen

• 17x20-inch piece of wool felt: pale gray

• 7x9 1/2-inch piece of wool felt: olive

• Felt-tip marking pen: black

• Embroidery needle

• Embroidery floss: blue-gray, ocher, and pale gray

• 1 yard of 1/2-inch-wide ribbon: pale gray

Instructions

1. Trace the downloadable bird and leaf patterns onto white paper; cut out. Using patterns and a water-soluble marking pen, trace 20 birds onto pale gray felt and 12 leaves onto olive felt. Trace the downloadable embroidery patterns onto white paper using a felt-tip marking pen. Tape patterns to a light box or a sunny window.

2. Referring to the photo, place the felt with the traced bird over the desired embroidery motif; trace the motif onto the felt using the water-soluble marking pen. Repeat this step for all the birds. Using the water-soluble marking pen, freehand-draw veins on the leaves.

3. Referring to photo and using six strands of floss, embroider birds with blue-gray and ocher floss, using straight stitches, backstitches, French knots, and star stitches. Embroider leaves with pale gray backstitches.

4. Pair up the shapes. Referring to photo, sandwich ribbon between the front and back of each bird and leaf set as follows: Pin a pair of birds facing each other in center of ribbon, positioning ribbon near top of birds from beaks to tails. Add a leaf set behind each bird.

5. Continue adding two bird sets and a leaf set to fill ribbon. Machine-stitch across each bird motif at beak and tail and across base of each leaf, catching ribbon in the stitching.