Arabesques
As every year when Valentine’s Day approaches, I like to imagine a new embroidered heart, a creation designed to be a moment of tenderness and emotion. This tradition, which is very dear to me, has become over time a much-anticipated event, a special moment to celebrate feelings through thread and color.
For this 2026 edition, I imagined a heart composed of light arabesques and stylized flowers, rendered in soft shades of pink and green. A delicate and balanced pattern, where curves intertwine with lightness and where every detail contributes to creating an impression of harmony and delicacy.
I embroidered this heart with silk threads, structuring the color scheme around a gradient thread that served as my guiding thread to harmonize the entire palette.
For this, I used Soie d’Alger from Au Ver à Soie and raw silk from House of Embroidery.
Before getting into the technical explanations, I invite you to discover the color palette that brought this heart to life, a subtle harmony of soft and nuanced tones. However, I will also offer a more accessible alternative, created from a selection of DMC stranded cotton.
As usual, the design for this pattern is available for download HERE, so that you can embroider this heart yourself if you wish.
Soie d’Alger or DMC stranded cotton
4096 or DMC white
3032 or DMC 3688
3026 or DMC 150
2931 or DMC 778
1042 or DMC 3687
House of Embroidery raw silk or DMC stranded cotton
69 Woodland or DMC 934
5 Blue Gum or DMC 320
28 Aquatic or DMC 772
48C Freesia or DMC 4120
To guide you in making this heart, here are some close-up photos.
And here are the explanations.
The arabesques are embroidered using stem stitch with 1 thread and color 69.
The petals of the large flowers are embroidered using tlong and short stitch with 1 thread in colors 4096, 4924, 3032, and 1042. They are decorated at their base with straight stitches using 2 threads in color 48C.
The small leaves are made using close fly stitch with 2 threads and color 5.
Embroider the stems of the branches with stem stitch and the leaves using fishbone stitch, using 1 thread and color 5.
Embroider the small light green leaves using the satin stitch with 1 thread and color 28.
The hearts are made using satin stitch with 1 thread after underlining them with split backstitch. The largest heart is worked on a 2-thread padding. They are embroidered with color 3026.
The small flowers are embroidered using lazy daisy stitch with two threads and decorated with a French knot using two threads and one wrap, all in color 48C.
The scrolls are embroidered using stem stitch with 1 thread and color 69, and highlighted with French knots made with 2 threads and 1 wrap in color 48C.