Stitch Flowers: French Knots

Stitch flowers using the French Knots.

The French Knots are excellent in making flower clusters that are simple, beautiful and attractive. These knots are commonly used to fill the center of flowers but can work beautifully to represent small blooms. This pattern is inspired by the Coriander plant which has white clustered flowers. Did you know that carrots, celery, and parsley are all related to Coriander? So, they all have white clustered flowers! The leaves of the Corriander plant is called Cilantro. We call this aromatic herb ‘Coriander leaves’ and use the coriander seeds as a spice in our Indian Cusine. I have traded the green and white colors for blue and yellow. The variegated yellow color worked perfectly and was a delight when stitching the French Knots.

Fig 1: Get your fabric, hoop, and threads ready. I have only marked the stems. If it helps you may mark circles at the end of the stems to mark the periphery within which you will be doing the French Knots.	Fig 2: Start stitching the French Knots. Cluster them randomly at the end of each stem. If you are working with a variegated thread, work on one cluster and move to the next immediate cluster to get the colors beautifully.
Fig 3: The knots are all done.	Fig 4: I add the stems using the Whipped Back Stitch. I also added a small cluster in the center over the stems to give it a finishing touch.

TIPS to make your flowers beautiful:

1. Variegated threads can work great with clusters of French Knots.