The Accidental Embroiderer

On with the Free Circular designs

Here’s another of the series of circular designs that I’ve been working on. I particularly like this one – I made a little bag with it and I have to say it looks very nice. As always, the pattern includes an appliqueed circular background to the flower, but you don’t have to se that if you don’t want to. The design will work just as well without it

So it’s just a colourful autumnal sort of design, for the 4×4 inch (100 mm x 100 mm) hoop. Here it is, in .pes v.6

I’m still having major problems with this new version of the blog, so I would be VERY grateful if you could let me know if you have problems with it. For example, if you can’t download the design, just let me know and I’ll send it to you directly

Back to the ancient Persians…

I thought we might have a rest from freebies for a week or so, so I could post some recent things that I’ve been doing. Most of my designs are based on original ideas that I get from watching natural things, like trees and flowers and birds, but sometimes I become fascinated with art that comes from from other people and past cultures. Recently I’ve become intrigued by old ceramic designs from ancient Persian pots, some of which date back to thousands of years before Christ, and I’ve been interpreting these ancient works of art in the very different medium of modern embroidery

So – here is a glazed design from an old Persian pot

And here is an embroidered interpretation

I’ve done a lot of these old interpretations, but to be honest this new blog is giving me major problems when I try to post things, so I will have to leave this interesting subject for another time. But I’ll be back shortly with another freebie (I hope!)

Yet another Free Circular Floral

Right – onwards and upwards with the circular designs! I seem to have done a lot of them recently, so I’l be posting more of them as freebies over the next few weeks

There’s nothing much to explain about this one – it’s pretty much just as it looks. As with last week’s design, it’s digitised with an appliqueed circular background, but you don’t need to add this if you don’t want to – it will be fine if it’s stitched straight on to the backing fabric. And of course you can leave out the circular frame entirely if you like

Here is the design file, in .pes v.6

A Free Floral – the first of many!

So it’s back to normal (I hope!) after a very long holiday break – made to seem even longer by the fact that here in the Scottish Highlands we were completely snowed in for something like three weeks

I spent a lot of this time going over my huge collection of old designs. I’ve been digitising now for nearly 15 years, and my files are full of designs that I no longer use, and I would really like to make many of them available to blog readers

So we’ll start 2026 with a free round design featuring flowers. I have several similar round floral designs which I’ll put up in coming weeks, but this will do to begin with. Here it is, in .pes v.6

It’s digitised so as to stitch on a circular appliqueed background, but you could just as well leave out the applique steps, as I’ve done on the stitchout that I’m showing

By the way, I’m still having problems with my new blog provider, so I hope that you can download the file successfully. Please let me know if you have any difficulties

Sparrows and hellebores

If you downloaded the free designs I posted in November, you might be interested in the idea of blog reader Mirjam, who suggested that they might be made into coasters. As it happens, someone did exactly this some time ago – you can see the results here.

Coasters from the designs

I’m not much of a seamstress, so I’m not sure I could do this myself, but at least I know it can be done!

Now – most of my time recently has been spent in preparing for, and going to, local art and craft fairs. I get a lot of requests and commissions from these, and one recent request was for a large embroidery intended as a gift for a woman who liked hellebore flowers and sparrows. So – how to combine these two subjects in one piece? To be honest I would never have thought of using either of them in an embroidery! Sparrows aren’t exactly eye-catching birds, and although hellebores have lovely flowers, the plants themselves are often clumsy and difficult to draw

But after a lot of cogitation and trials and errors, I came up with this. I just hope it will gain the approval of the recipient!

An unusual present!

Now, with the festive season approaching rapidly, I will take a brief break from blogging, but will be back in the New Year with lots of freebies, and I hope that you will re-join me then

Have a happy holiday!

Three Christmas freebies

Three Christmas freebies (I hope…)

Well, I’d be lying if I were to say that this blog is as easy to do as the last one – it’s a MAJOR headache. But let’s give it another try

I’m probably asking for trouble here because I’m going to try to post three freebies, which involves trying to post three images and three .pes files. But nothing ventured, nothing gained…

Here are three Christmas decorations – they’re very old and I think I posted them as freebies something like 12 years ago. But I don’t suppose I have many readers left from those years, so let’s give it a try. They have an appliqueed background with decorative motifs on top – you should be able to see how they’re meant to look

They’re for the 4×4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop, and as usual they’re in .pes v.6

Good luck! Buy the way, if you’ve sent a comment in to the last posting I won’t have answered it because that’s a complicated business now. But I did read them, and I really appreciate it. And who knows – I might get used to this new system in time!

Another Art Nouveau freebie

I’m still getting used to this new blog format, but with luck I should be able to post again with no problems (wish me luck!)

So – here’s a new freebie, as I promised. Many years ago I was fascinated by many of the older “schools” of design, such as Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau, and did a great many designs based on their principles. And here is something from my old Art Nouveau collection.

It’s a very simple little floral design which could be used in many different ways, and is perhaps most obvious as a quilt square. The green frame is quite optional- it stitches out last so can easily be left out if you prefer

It’s for the 4×4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop. Here it is in .pes v.6

Back again – I hope!

 

Well, here I am again! It’s been a long struggle to shake off the old Typepad system, but thanks to some capable friends, I hope things are now more or less back to normal. Some of the very old posts still need to be reinstated, but for the present everything is pretty much OK

So, I’m trying out my new system with a Christmas-themed freebie, one of the designs I made to use as a Christmas card. It’s for the 4×4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop, and if you wanted to make it into a card, it fits nicely into a tri-fold aperture card with an opening of the same size. As usual, it’s in .pes v.6

star tree v6


Good luck with it! I just hope it will download well for you
And may I ask a favour? If you know of any other machine embroiderers who may perhaps have read the blog in the past, could you perhaps tell them that I’m back? The new address is

http://www.theaccidentalembroiderer.com

Thanks!

A new blog coming up!

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!

IMPORTANT! Typepad is shutting down

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!