The OASIS Embroidery Kit is one of my favourites, but it is a huge project! 
I have written this blog to help you pick where to start and to guide you in more detail than the printed instructions through this design :)

In the photos below you will see that I have traced this pattern on with a grey lead pencil, which is what you will do if you purchase the PDF of the pattern (coming soon!). However, the full kit will have the pattern already printed on with blue water soluble ink so will look slightly different. 

For this, I will assume you have the instructions that say the thread colours to use as well as the amount of strands - as I will not detail this here :)

Step 1 - Monstera Leaves

The Monstera leaves are a great place to start as they are a nice easy stitch to help get some momentum going.

Before filling an entire shape with satin stitch, it is often good practice in embroidery to go around the outline of the shape with a split stitch or back stitch as you can see below. Once you have your outline, work from the middle of the leaf outwards in one long stitch, going to the outside of the split stitch (so it will sit underneath the satin stitch). 

After Satin stitching the leaves, add the middle line using back stitch and the stems. As you can see below for the stems I used satin stitch - long stitches from the base of the leaf to the pot. 

Step 2 - Peperomia Plant Leaves

I recommend doing all of one colour of these leaves before moving to the next.

Feel free to have a play with different stitching directions - but keep them consistent to each colour section of the leaf. For example, you can see below with the dark green that the stitching direction changes from leaf to leaf (sometimes it's almost horizontal, other times almost vertical), but stays the same within the dark green section of a leaf to keep the finish smooth. To this point, different colours (sections) within the same leaf do not have be in the same direction either!

That was a really roundabout way of saying - do each little area with the same stitching direction for a smooth finish, but not all areas have to match. 

I also want to say, that after you have done all of the first colour to these leaves, it will probably look a bit strange. When I took the photo above I wasn't sure if they would come together, but if you look at the image below the certainly do - trust the process!

After you have filled in the area of the leaves, go ahead and stitch the stems with quite small back-stitches. 

Step 3 - Devil's Ivy & Pilea Peperomoides

Start with the Devil's Ivy. Pick one colour of the leaves and go around leaf by leaf using leaf stitch (fishbone stitch), then do all of the second colour. Once the leaves are finished, add the stems. It is easier to add the stems after the leaves are finished as you can see more clearly where they should go. 

If you are struggling with the leaf stitch as it is a small area, you can swap to a satin stitch instead. For this, do one long stitch from the base of the leaf to the tip all the way up the middle. Then, come back through just to the side of your first stitch, and come back down to the base. Continue this, each time doing the new stitch just next to the previous stitch until the area is filled. This will be much faster and give similar results :) 

For the Pilea, stitch the outline of the leaf using a split-stitch or a small back stitch.

Work your way around the circle with a satin stitch that always ends in the centre. It is easier to keep coming up from the outside of this circle, and go back through the middle than it is to try and come through the middle. 

After doing the leaves, add the stems!

Step 4 - Pot #1

Start with the pot on the left. Do the black back-stitch outline and the satin stitch for the bottom triangles. Fill the black area up the top at the base of the leaves - using a vertical satin stitch (just work your way around the leaves and stems). 

Next do the red triangles, using a vertical satin stitch.

Embroider each section of the pot using a vertical satin stitch (also ignore the table for now - I had already started it and realised the pots needed to be done first). 

Once you have finished the satin stitch, add the final black details over the top as shown below. 

Step 5 - Pot #2

For the next pot to the right, starting with only white, use vertical satin stitches to fill the entire area of the pot. Then, add the black stitches over the top. Each horizontal and vertical black line is just one long stitch, from one side to the other.

Fill the top of the pot in black using vertical satin stitches. 

Step 6 - Pot #3 

For the Devil's Ivy pot, use long and short stitch horizontally to fill in the area of the pot. Work your stitches around the leaves as best you can. 

Step 7 - Monstera's Basket 

The Monstera's Basket uses 4 strands of thread at once to create a more textured basket. Start with a row of back stitch along the top, and then work through each of the 3 sections with slanted satin stitch. 

Try and overlap them between the sections so there isn't a gap. If you need to go back and do this at the end that's fine - the more stitches used here the more they will add to the overall texture of this basket. 

 

 

Step 8 - The Table

I know I did this slightly out of order so sorry if there was any confusion - the table is best to be completed after all the leaves and pots so that it is really clear where it is meant to be. 

For the table top, use a variety of long and short stitches, all in the horizontal direction to fill the area. 

Stitch the legs using vertical long and short stitches. Imagine the stitches are replicating the grain of the wood - that is essentially what we are trying to do by mimicking the direction of the wood grain with the direction of stitching. 

 

Step 9 - Details of the Rug

Almost the entire rug is completed using horizontal satin stitches - exceptions being some back stitches. Keeping the stitching direction horizontal creates a smooth and cohesive finish. 

The first colour I did was the pink - the very top of the rug and the stitches around the bottom middle feature. Then the yellow, filling in each triangle up the top of the rug, and all the other diamond features. 

For the abstract blue/yellow squares along the top there are 2 ways you can do them.

Option 1 - Stitch the centre in blue, then do the yellow outline around it, and then fill the the outer blue. 

Option 2 - Fill the entire area in blue, and add the yellow on top retrospectively. This is faster, but also more difficult because you can't see the lines of where exactly the yellow should go. 

Step 10 - Fill in the rug

Fill in the background of the rug around all the details. 

After this step it should look close to this below. 

Step 11 - Final Rug Details

The final thing to do is to add the white details to the rug! These are just backstitches around the existing details. 

And many hours later... Voila!

Step 12 - Wash the pattern away & Back your hoop

Once you have finished embroidering, take the fabric out of the hoop (the hoop could get stained by the blue ink otherwise) and wash under a tap with cold or warm water. You may need to rub some of the blue off with your finger tips - if it is really stubborn you can use soap! It should all wash away in 2 or 3 minutes.

Hang it out to dry in a safe and clean space to dry.

Note: if there is a blue tinge once dried after you have washed the blue pattern away, just wash again with some soap until gone. 

Once dried, mount the fabric back onto the hoop and trim the excess fabric. Do a loose running stitch on the back of the fabric and pull tight to collapse the fabric in the back of the hoop. 

Step 13 - Share your embroidery journey with us! 

If you have any questions message me on any platform or just email :)

Steph x