Free-Hand Embroidered Deer

For Mothers Day this year, I wanted to make something really unique for my wonderful mom. I decided to embroider something that could be hung up in my parents room at their cabin. My maiden name is Buck, so I thought it would be nice to do something with the animal of the corresponding name. I found the picture below and had an idea of what I wanted to do, a sort of stained glass mosaic pattern on canvas.

I traced the deer onto the canvas and began embroidering triangles. I did these mostly free hand and did not feel the need to take the time to draw the lines on. I did draw lines for the legs at first until I got the hang of what I was doing. 

Close Up!

Extreme Close Up!

           I added a little outline of Minnesota to personalize it a bit. Oh Minnesota, my home sweet home.

The antlers were the most difficult, but I think they turned out well in the end.

I alternated colors and did a simple satin stitch for the insides of the triangles.

I left the Minnesota patch empty so that it would stand out and I liked the end result. 

Here is a close up of the filled in triangles. I forgot to take the final picture before giving it to my mom, but will try to get one soon! I framed it in a modern frame and it now hangs in their cabin bedroom. It was a challenging, time-consuming, but rewarding project. Plus I love the way it turned out. Making something like this for my mom made me appreciate her all the more. She definitely deserves more than a store bought gift and I think the hours I poured into this embroidery were well worth it. Love you mom!