A Cosmos Tablecloth is done with hand embroidery. Doing embroidery by hand is painting with thread for me. Typically, where I spend hours each evening hand stitching “one-of-a-kind” family tablecloth treasures. Embroidery used to be a common pass-time, but it is becoming less and less common. I enjoy, hand stitching both patterns made by others and designs that I have drawn myself. Creating cloth treasures to celebrate special occasions with.
I wonder…
Will there be any family heirloom linens to pass down in the future?
This tablecloth started out as a garage sale score for me. It was part of a tablecloth painting kit, hidden, in a stack of sewing materials. I noticed a stamped pattern on it. Not being sure of what I was seeing, I unfolded it. Discovering, a stamped design with baskets and cosmos blossoms on every corner along with random flowers strewn across the center.
A perfect full-size tablecloth with edges finish stitched, and no stains. Only $2. How could I pass it up? I couldn’t wait to get it home and start stitching.
Cosmos is a wonderfully colorful wildflower allowing for a wide assortment of thread colors. I chose “satin stitch” to make the cosmos petals with. Because I wanted to have a vibrantly bright tablecloth in the end. Here it is drying on the clothesline at about 3/4 complete.
This tablecloth took a year to finish embroidering as I sat in the evenings with the family. It was used in my artist booth for the Inland Empire Gardeners, “Spokane in Bloom Garden Tour” on June 15, 2019. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and got a lot of compliments about this tablecloth, many even asked if it was for sale.
How much do you think it should sell for if I were to sell it?
Begin
Treasure hunting for supplies is one of the things I am always doing. This project is the result of one of those garage sales, thrift stores, and estate sale expedition days.
I got an unexpected surprise when I put the tablecloth on our dining room table to take progressive pictures of the embroidery. It extended way over both ends of the table even with all of its leaves intact. It was actually laying down on the floor.
Hummingbirds 09-11 are complete and here is the last corner of the tablecloth with them on it.
Number 09 is a character made with a mixture of different greens, blue on his wings, and some white spacing between the stitching to highlight his shape. He is perched on a branch for a second, staring at you. There are some considerations required to be able to correctly build believable foliage around the characters. The outline of the branch that he is perched on has to go between his claws, not through them.
Hummingbird 10 and number 11 are close together. 10 is the closest, and he is done in teal, aqua blue, and other blues. We are looking at him from above seeing his wings spread out on both sides of him. Number 11 is above and in a dive maneuver position and we see him from the side. He is made of mostly greens with a bright shiny orange area under his neck. His shadows and feathers have black outlines.
Hummingbirds 6_8 are done now. Here they are on the last corner of the tablecloth.
Hummingbird 6 is a mixture of lavender and purples with dark blue shadows on his ever-moving wings and tail feathers. Here he is with foliage beginning around him. To be truthful, I have never actually seen a purple hummingbird, have you? Now you have.
#7 hummingbird #7 is a character made with a mixture of oranges, reds, and dark shadows outlined in black. He is pictured in a side view and has a stark white underside to his neck as he perches. Perched hummingbirds are a rather rare sight to see in real life, so Mr. RedOrange here is a rarity.
Humming Bird 08 is mostly green but many other colors are used to round him out and add highlight or shadow. He is a character made with a mixture of purple, green, and even orange with dark shadows done in black. He is frozen in mid-flight as we look at him from the side. Typical satin stitches fill his body area but there are breaks and changes in direction to help portray feathers.
Humming birds 4 & 5 were just finished on this “tablecloth embroidery project”.
Four is a green-capped dude with a green neck and black on his wings and tail feathers. He has an orange body with yellow highlights. He is busy but frozen in mid-flight just as he reaches into a blossom full of nectar.
Hummingbird number 05 is another orange guy with green and teal highlights on his wings. His tail feathers are orange outlines. When the foliage gets drawn he is perched on a limb ready to reach into a nectar-filled blossom.
Hummingbirds 01-03 are complete on this smaller tablecloth (60″ square). 
#2 is a side view of a hummingbird in flight and he is stitched using a mixture of blues, and teal with black accents.
#3 is an underbelly view of a hummingbird in flight and he is made using blue, grays, green, and some black along with orange for his beak and feet. There are new stitching techniques tried on both of their wing feathers in an effort to display the ever-present movement better.
If you compare the first image of him with the second one you will see additional stitches and more colors added as the tablecloth progresses.
That is what I do, I embroider hummingbirds on tablecloths. These are sketches I have drawn to use as patterns to stitch these little characters on this one. The sketches are drawn with an iron-on purple pencil that I bought at the fabric store. There are nine positions drawn and I plan to mix and match them around randomly.