If you’ve never seen a Rhodes heart before, you’ll love this simple embroidery stitch. First created by the needlework designer Mary Rhodes, this beautiful textural stitch can be used to add dimension to any project. Mary’s work was heavily influenced by texture and using stitches in a harmonious way in a project. The Rhodes heart is just one variation of this embroidery stitch, the original version of this stitch is square. You can use the Rhodes needlepoint stitch in various shapes such as a diamond, a circle, or even a double-ended fan. In this simple tutorial below, you’ll learn how to do a Rhodes heart. The simple beauty of this stitch makes it perfect for adding texture to a traditional sampler pattern, or even a funny pattern like the free Happy Mother’s Day pattern shown in the tutorial.
Rhodes Heart instructions
As is shown in the video, you’d work your way around the heart. Come up at #1, go down at #2, come up at #3, etc. The vertical stitch in the centre is always last. If you’d like to see tutorials of how to do other variations of this stitch, please check out this great article at The Spruce.
In the tutorial I’m using a full strand (6 strands) of floss, it gives the stitch a lot of fullness and density. Of course, you could use any floss you want. Using a few strands of a metallic floss will give the stitch a lot of delicacy, and using a thicker floss like #3 DMC pearl cotton would give a really gorgeous thick heart. Using variegated floss would also look really beautiful. Give it a try, and I’d love to see your experiments! You can add your photos to the Peacock & Fig Facebook page, or tag me @peacockandfig on Twitter or Instagram. If you stitch up the free Happy Mother’s Day pattern, you’re also welcome to share it in the Peacock & Fig Facebook group. 🙂
If you’d like to access the free cross stitch pattern shown below (along with all the other free patterns), just click the image below! 🙂
2 Responses
Elizabeth Murray
Thanks for this tutorial Dana, I think I might try and use it instead of the word “and” in a wedding sampler I am doing. I will put it between the two names. It will make it different from the pattern. I am enjoying your tutorials. Thank you
Dana Batho
Haha you’re very welcome Elizabeth! And that’s a great idea, it will look sooo beautiful. 🙂