Dala horse pattern

art of Julia Morrill that gets put on many products at zazzle.com/julia_art*

Swedish Dala horse coloring picture

During the 19th century, it became custom to paint the wooden horses with richly coloured floral patterns, similar to the Dalecarlian paintings that decorated furniture and interior walls. Those who travelled around the country to sell products of the cottage industry—like baskets, grindstones, and wooden casks—added the Dala horses to their selection of goods.

I'm enjoying trying different colors and designs on paper before I go to all of the work of painting the wooden horses. It eliminates a lot of mistakes and speeds things up a bit because I can refer to my designs instead of creating each horse from scratch. Some color combinations work better than others so it helps to make several copies of the black and white page so you can try each design in different colors.

I’m blaming Trish. You see, just before Christmas I shared a tutorial for a Dala Horse block on the Moda Bakeshop, as part of their fabulous Countdown to Christmas (you can download a printable PDF pattern here). The lovely Trish - on Instagram - suggested a sew-along and I think I knew then and there that it was going to happen. Especially when I was staring at the scraps from my Sailing By sampler: hello Swedish blues and yellows. Also, I have no willpower. A casual…