We’re embracing a bit of freestyle design and stitching with this chain stitch spiral hoop! It’s a perfect project for using some of your loose ends (the useable bits of thread left over from other projects) and it’s so relaxing to stitch. It’s week 10 of The Happy Stitch Project – can you believe we’re in double figures?! Thank you so much for all your lovely messages this week 😊 It has been brilliant to see so many lovely projects, and to hear that lots of you are feeling more confident in experimenting with new stitches and your own designs. That’s what this project is all about! So this week, I wanted to create something that would allow us all to be free in our approach to the design and not worry about any imperfections (you might find this post interesting if you’re trying to let go of ideas of perfection).

Chain stitch spiral hoop: materials list

10cm (4″) embroidery hoop

18x18cm piece of fabric – I’m using linen here, but a good quality quilting cotton would work well

An air erasable pen

Some of your loose ends threads, or a chosen selection of thread if you prefer

Needle

Small sharp scissors

Watch the tutorial videos here!

If you’d like to watch the stitch tutorial video first, you’ll find it here:

And you can find the chain stitch spiral hoop tutorial here:

In the video I mentioned that I have a thread conversion chart on my blog if you need it, and actually I have two! There’s an Anchor to DMC chart and a DMC to Anchor chart for your reference if you need it.

Step 1

Position your pre-ironed fabric in your hoop, and tighten the screw to make sure it’s firmly in position. Take your air erasable pen, and draw a spiral shape – start in the middle here as it’s easier to see where you’re going that way!

Step 2

Thread a needle with 3 strands of embroidery thread, and trim the excess. Start your chain stitches from the edge and stitch towards the middle. I’ve used the darkest red first, and have worked through the rainbow colours towards the middle.

Step 3

When complete, you can finish the back of your hoop and display it as it is. I am actually going to be stitching some text on the inside of the spiral this week, as I think it will look really nice! I’m planning to use the air erasable pen again to write something out by hand, and I’ll also display it in a hand painted hoop too but I still haven’t decided which colour to use for that yet.

You may also like…

Sticking with the spiral theme, you might enjoy this yummy recipe:

Spiral courgette tart

Make some beautiful heirloom perpetual paper chains:

Perpetual paper chains

Find the previous project here:

Do your thing embroidered hoop

And if you need any of the links to the other posts from The Happy Stitch Project, you’ll find them on my links page.