Well, I'm still working on those commissions so I've raided the old files for a freebie for February, and came up with a couple which might do. They date from the dim-and-distant past, at a time when I was experimenting with designs from different cultures. These little blue designs were inspired by old Chinese plates which explain their round shapes. They're really very simple designs, but none the worse for that, and they're both for the 4×4 inch (100 mm x 100 mm) hoop

The Blue Tree

The Blue Bowl

Here is the file for the Tree (in .pes v.6), here is the Bowl, and here is the worksheet for them both

I hope you are all well – here in the Grampian Highlands we are shortly expecting another 3 feet of snow to be dumped on top of the 4 feet that we already have, so we wouldn't be going anywhere even if Covid wasn't still lurking in the shadows…

At the moment I'm working hard on a couple of commissions which aren't ready to post yet, so I've been going through some old designs to find something to put up.  Here's a nice bright design of birds in a tree – nothing complicated abotu it but it works pretty well. One thing about it – I had intended to make it quite a large design, and to stitch it in two parts – the tree top in one hooping and the trunk added later in a second hooping.

A folk art tree – the awkward version

Well, technically it was OK, but there was something awkward about it. I eventually figured out that I had been too constrained by the square shape of the frame and had somehow forced the design to fit into it. So then all I had to do was just to add a nice curve to the bottom edge to make it look a lot better

The folk art tree – more relaxed

First of all, my apologies to those readers who had problems accessing the free design last week, or problems in opening the image. I have no idea what wrong – everything was posted exactly as usual. I am inclined to think that Typepad may have been having problems of its own which made access to their blogs difficult. Anyway, things seem to be back to normal now – let's hope they stay that way!

Regular blog readers will know that I'm fascinated by Celtic and Pictish art, You could call it the "native art" of this part of Scotland – we seem to be surrounded by it, and you can find it in all sorts of unexpected places. I love doing original drawings in the Celtic style, but I can't claim that this week's design is very original – I only wish it were! I I'm not sure where I found the model for it – it could perhaps be based on something from the Irish Book of Kells or the Lindisfarne Gospels, but those works have mostly religious images and this double bird isn't the least religious

A double challenge for the digitiser

It was tricky to digitise – all those overlapping feathers need special treatment to get them to stitch out smoothly. If you digitised them in the ordinary way you'd be left with a design that was more jumps than stitches! But with a little lateral thinking it was possible to minimise the jumps to a point where it's easy enough to stitch out. There are still jumps. of course, but not too many

Well, I'm still having inexplicable problems with PEDesign v.11, and in spite of many e-mails I can't seem to be able to get any replies from Brother to my anguished pleas for help. I suppose I'll have to be magnanimous and put it down to them being stressed by the current situation

But I've found an old design which will make a nice cheerful freebie. It's based on the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch decorative style, which I've always liked – maybe it will help us look forward to spring a little bit. It's for the 5×8 inch (130 x 180 mm) hoop, and it's quite simple – just seven colours and all embroidery with no appliqué. Its true that there are quite a few jumps in it, but as I keep saying, if a design has to jump, then it has to jump! 

A Pennsylvania Dutch motif for the springtime

The design (in .pes v.6) is here, and the worksheet is here

Well, the holidays are over, and in some ways I'm glad to get back to ordinary life. Christmas and New Year were in many ways rather sad this year, for us as well as for many others. So, as much as I love the holidays, it's time to concentrate on other things.

Now – it's a new month so I would expect to be posting a new freebie. However I'm having MAJOR problems with my PE Design software. When I try to convert designs from PE Design v.11 (which is what I work in) to PE Design v.6 (which most blog readers can open) very weird things seem to happen, and I really don't want to take the chance of maybe offering corrupted files as freebies. So this month's freebie will have to wait until I can sort things out

But meanwhile here are a couple of little animals that I hope may cheer us up a little. They're in the folk art style, which I always find fun to work with, and colourful, flowery animals can't be bad to look at. These two are part of a new series of folk art animals which I'll get round to posting together some day

The laughing dog

The smiling cat

But meanwhile, I'd better get busy and find something to post as a freebie next week!

I've discovered another inspiring artist, although I'd be the first to admit that her works are a bit out of the ordinary. Her name is Elke Trittel, and I can't seem to find a web page that gives a complete overview of her work. But she does a lot of animals and plants in what can only be described as a weird style – my friend Cherri describes it as "psychotic", and although I wouldn't go quite that far, she does produce some very unusual work. What I particularly like about her is that she uses colour in a totally fearless way, applying vivid and clashing colours to very simple shapes, and I find that very inspiring

So here is a stack of fishes inspired by Elke, although they're perhaps a bit sedate when compared with her work. But I'm working on improving my courage with colours!

Inspired by Elke