Well, things are starting to get better. A couple of very talented local people have been helping me with the problem of transferring this blog to a new address, and although the new blog isn’t entirely finished, I hope it won’t be long before it is
Typepad – and this old blog – will close down on the 30th of September, so after that date I will be at this address
http://www.theaccidentalembroiderer.com/
As I said, the blog isn’t ready yet, but if you check back in a couple of weeks I hope that things will be back to normal. And I will celebrate being back with a lot of freebies, so don’t forget!
I've just had a very worrying e-mail from Typepad – thats the group that has been publishing this blog, but they are going to shut down. I will do all that I can to keep my records and subscriptions from the past and I hope that I won't lose touch with any of you. But if you don't receive the blog in the future, you will know what's happened
But let's hope for the best, and that the blog will reappear together with all its long history!
It’s that time of year when all my time and energy are devoted to producing works for the upcoming autumn exhibitions, and of course I’m trying my best to come up with things that will have overall appeal. Brightness always goes down well – people are often drawn to eye-catching colours, so now is the time to get out all my most colourful threads.
This next design was inspired by a T-shirt that was recently worn by Audrey, a fellow artist who lives locally. The shirt was an attractive mass of printed flowers of all sorts of kinds and sizes, but it was all done in very muted and boring shades of grey, and I couldn’t help thinking that it would be much more interesting if it were just a bit brighter
Well, you can’t get much brighter than this! I think perhaps I got a little carried away, but at any rate this should probably get people’s attention!
But the problem with this kind of embroidery is that I begin to see things that should be changed, after it’s all finished and it’s too late. This one – well, maybe it needs some stems and perhaps leaves to join things together. Oh well, I have a few weeks left to make changes
As you may know, I do a lot of designs for the Secrets of Embroidery website, and recently I’ve been organising a new collection for them. Without meaning to be rude, I have to say that many machine embroiderers who buy designs prefer to use the simpler and more conventional kind of designs, so the things I do for my “Secrets” collection aren’t always very exciting. My recent efforts are distinctly floral, and not very original, but I found these designs interesting to do. They are all oriented on the diagonal, as I thought that might be useful to people finishing off the corners of cushions and quilts.
However while I was playing around with them, I found that if you just made 4 copies of a diagonal design, and then rotated the orientation of three of them, you could make a very interesting construction out of them. That’s probably not very clear, so here’s an example:
Here is a floral design, designed on the diagonal
And here is the same design, moved into a more complicated construction
This design is free on the Secrets site, but I’m also putting it up here: just click on this link: Download Free diagonal v6 It’s just the single design – not the large 4-times one! It’s for the 4×4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop and is in .pes v.6
Right – as I promised in my last message, it’s time for another freebie. I haven’t the least idea where the idea for this one came from, apart from the fact that peacocks are among the most spectacular birds you could imagine, and are endlessly inspirational
The summer peacock
There’s nothing special about this one – it’s for the 5 x 7 inch (130 x 150 mm) hoop, but it’s quite a large project – it took me an hour an a half to stitch out. But it has a “presence” which might make all the time worth it, if you can find a good home for it. Click on this link: Download Peacockv6 to download it in .pes v.6
Well, that was certainly a busy couple of weeks! First, I had to prepare things for the craft fair and then set up the stall, and finally sit with it and chat with visitors. We didn’t have a lot of visitors – probably because of the unusual heatwave we’ve been having recently, which seems to have kept people in their nice shady houses. But I didn’t do too badly – in fact I sold a lot more things than I expected to, so I can’t really complain! Rather to my surprise, I sold not only a good number of cards, but also some of the larger pieces that I’d just put on the wall to provide some colour
And I learned something interesting! If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I have a boring tendency to design things featuring lots and lots and LOTS of birds – and then of course flowers, as well as birds with flowers. I do so many of these that recently I’ve been trying to be more original and come up with designs of other, perhaps more “arty” things
But guess what most people seemed to prefer! Cards with birds and flowers! So that’s a lesson for me, and in the future I won’t be worried about too many birds
So here are a couple of pictures of the stall – not very elegant, I admit, but colourful and attention grabbing!
OK, it’s back to a more normal life now, and I’ll be back shortly with some more freebies
I found these two birds hidden the files, relics of some forgotten project. They had originally been done with appliqueed bodies, but I wanted to give them away as freebies and I sometimes get the impression that some people, especially beginners, find applique a little too demanding. So I’ve re-done them, and they’re now entirely embroidered
Horizontal Bird 1
Horizontal Bird 2
I’m not sure where you could use them, but long thin designs can often come in handy as borders, or to fill in gaps in pieced quilts. They’re both for the 5 x 7 inch (130 x 180 mm) Click Download Horizbird 1 v6 for the first one, and Download Horizbird 2 v6 for the second, in .pes v.6
Now – I’ve been having my usual difficulties with Typepad, so if you have problems downloading these just drop a line to the “Comments” section, making sure to include your e-mail address, and I’ll get them out to you in e-mails
Right – it’s time for more freebies from the files. Ads it’s now officially summer, here are two summery designs
A flowery branch
A flowery bird
They’re both for the 5 x 7 inch (130 x 180 mm) hoop, and both are embroidery only, with no applique. Click the link Download Flowerbranchv6 for the flowery branch, and Download Birdandflowerv6 for the bird with his flowers, both in .pes v.6
Goode luck!
Recently I’ve been spending more time than I’d like with an excellent local physiotherapist, who’s been helping me a lot. The other day I was wearing a pair of earrings in the shape of owls, and she admired them, saying that she loved owls. So I thought I’d make her a little thank-you present in the form of one of my old owl designs
It’s just one of a HUGE owl collection I did some years ago. I’ve always liked owls as subjects – they’re interesting and unusual, and you can make them funny or realistic or dramatic or cute, but they always have character
I’m still going through my (immense) collection of old designs and haven’t managed to organise any new freebies for this week, but I’ll be back next week with more. By the way, if you have any ideas for free designs you’d like to see posted here, just let me know
What the physio wants, the physio will get!
Right – time for some more freebies, this time two variations on the theme of floral designs. First, there’s a simple little design that was inspired by the works of the famous artist William Morris. It’s only small, but it might find a home as part of a larger quilt or cushion project
Remembering William Morris
William Morris was a central figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain, and the second design today is something that looks as if it were inspired by that art tradition
More Arts and Crafts flowers
Both designs are for the 4×4 inch (100 mm x 100 mm) hoop, and both are embroidery only, with no applique. And both are in .pes v.6 HERE is the little William Morris, and HERE is the second Arts and Crafts design. As always, if they don’t download properly for you, just drop me a note and I’ll e-mail them to you
