Well, Typepad is still not able to show any images on my blog posts which, believe me, is INFURIATING, and if this isn't fixed soon I will be changing blog providers. 

However, it does look as if I might be able to post files, so I am taking a chance and will try and put up a free design. Of course I can't show you a picture of it, so you'll just have to trust me on this! The design is of a Celtic knot in two colours, for the 4×4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop. 

I'm taking a chance on this, as I don't know if you'll be able to get the design. If you have problems, please let me know!  Anyway, good luck…

Here is the design, in .pes v.6

Something has gone wrong with Typepad. I can still post text but I can't add images to my posts, and since there's not a lot of point to an embroidery site without pictures, I haven't posted anything for some days. And you may have noticed that some of the pictures attached to past posts are missing too

As well as all that, I'm really late with November's freebie, but I don't think there would be any point in even trying to put up a design file as things are at the moment. So – as I said, my apologies for my silence. I'll be back as soon as I can, as soon as Typepad gets its act together, and will try to put up some extra freebies as compensation

While I was looking after my table at the NEOS show, someone came up to me and asked if I had any embroideries of dinosaurs, as she had a young relative who loved them. I had to admit that dinosaurs didn’t feature in my repertoire of designs, but after some discussion we decided that dragons ran a close second, and dragon designs might be acceptable to a young boy with a taste for huge, monstrous creatures

As it happens, I had done a series of dragons some years ago and three of them presented themselves as possible dinosaur substitutes. So I stitched them out and sent them to her. I believe she intends to make a cushion out of them, and I hope that the result will be one satisfied small boy

 

As good as dinosaurs?

I suppose that I could consider dinosaurs as subjects for embroidery, but in the first place they have rather blobby, clumsy, undefined shapes, and then of course they don’t come in bright colours – or at least not as far as we know. So perhaps I’ll stick to dragons for the time being

First of all, I’d like to welcome all the people who have subscribed to the blog in the past few days. I think this must be as a result of a mention on Facebook some days ago – in any case there’s been a huge spike in the number of visitors and the number of new subscribers. I’d better just mention, however, that I don’t give freebies out every week – usually I post a new freebie around the beginning of each month, and the rest of the time you’ll just have to listen to me maundering on about embroidery designs in general. However if you are new to the blog, have a look at the "Free Designs" tab at the top of the page, and it will tell you when all my earlier freebies have been posted

So today we have another report back from our recent North East Open Studios exhibition, which went very well. I was surprised at the number of things I sold. I love it when people buy things – not so much for the money, but because it’s proof that other people see and enjoy things in much the same way that I do. Art is, after all, a kind of communication, and it’s good to know that my designs can communicate

 

A goose of unknown origins

I found this goose in a pile of old designs, and took it along to the exhibition just because I liked it. It was immediately bought by someone who was very enthusiastic about it, and wanted to know where I’d got my inspiration. I was so embarrassed to have to tell her that I had no idea! We do have a lot of wild geese in the fields around here, but where I got the idea for this decorated one I just can’t say. It just mysteriously appeared in my mind – another inspiration from the subconscious, I suppose

Many of my recent freebies have been of flowers and leaves of some kind, and I’m afraid this month we have yet another. It’s just a straightforward flower-and-leaf composition – maybe not wildly exciting, but it might be useful. It’s tilted on one corner, as you can see, so it might be of use in embellishing some of those awkward corners of quilts and cushions. But I’ll see if I can come up with something new next month – any suggestions?

 

Nothing out of the ordinary, but perhaps useful?

 

Here is the design, in .pes v.6

Well, NEOS is over for another year and I’m glad of a little peace and quiet. (For new readers, NEOS is “North East Open Studios”, a yearly art event during which we hold a group exhibition for local artists) It all went very well, and to my surprise I sold quite a lot of things. However there was one funny incident, which I thought that the embroiderers who read this blog might appreciate

A man came into the exhibition, and after walking around for a while, settled in front of one of my pieces, a large embroidery featuring three crows in a tree. Finally he told one of the people there that he’d like to buy it. She took it off the wall, and said conversationally “Yes, it’s a lovely embroidery, isn’t it?”

He stared at her in horror. “You mean it’s an EMBROIDERY?” And he walked out of the door and left it behind

 

Oh no! It's an embroidery!

 

I thought this was very funny but I couldn’t figure out exactly what was wrong with embroidery. Someone suggested that perhaps he associated embroidery with old-fashioned handiwork like cross-stitch, and didn’t want to be seen buying crafty things like embroidery, when he meant to buy arty things like paintings. Oh well, it didn’t matter. And the piece was sold a couple of days later to someone who didn’t seem to mind that it was embroidery

 

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted and I really do owe an apology to regular readers. And even now I’m still not quite finished with preparations for the big NEOS exhibition next week, but I thought I’d at least better post a freebie so people don’t forget me!

This is one from the files – a bright Pennsylvania Dutch inspired design of two birds. It’s for the 5×7 inch (130 x 180 mm) hoop and it’s just embroidery – no applique in this one. The are a few jumps – it’s impossible to avoid them entirely when you have duplicate motifs that aren’t connected. But I hope this won’t be too much of a problem for you

Two bright birds in a Pennsylvania Dutch style

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with some pictures from the exhibition so you can see what it was like. Meanwhile, here is the design (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet

Regular blog readers will know that every year I exhibit with NEOS – North-east Open Studios. (North-east Scotland, that is) It’s a big and very exciting event and involves exhibitions of hundreds of artists from all over this area. NEOS isn’t until early September but the date is getting ever closer, and I’m beginning to get nervous that I might not have enough things ready for exhibition. So I won’t be posting on the blog regularly until after NEOS is over, although I‘ll post September’s freebie as usual

And talking of freebies, here’s a summery flowery design for August, which was inspired by all the wild roses we have growing here.

Flowers for summer

It’s for the 5×7 inch (13 x 180 mm) hoop and there are a LOT of jumps in it. This was unavoidable in a design with so many separate parts but I hope they won’t be too much of a problem for you. Again I don’t think it needs a worksheet – there are four shades of reds and four shades of yellowish tones, which are the flowers, followed by different reds and yellows for the centres. Just choose colours you like and they should be fine

Here is the design, in .pes v.6. By the way, a few people always have problems downloading these freebies. If that includes you, just drop me a line (via "Comments") and I'll e-mail it to you

Looking back at the records, I see that I’ve been writing this blog for at least 10 years, and probably more. The problem is that my record-keeping in the early days wasn’t up to much, and I rather lost track of what I posted and what I didn’t. Anyway I’ve found this panel of fish in my files, and I don’t THINK I’ve posted it before.

 

A splash from the past??

As I remember, I sold it at some exhibition or other, but I still have a scan of the original. I’ve been musing over it and I think I’ll carry on the idea a bit further – that is, I’ll do some more similar fish with different decorations. That way they can all swim together in an even bigger school and perhaps grab some more attention at a future exhibition

Some time ago – on the 26^th of April, to be exact – I posted a picture of an experiment I’d been doing to try and make the borders of appliqueed material more interesting. Rather than using the plain heavy satin stitch border you usually see, I tried to disguise the border and bring it into the design a little bit

Well, here’s another example of the same thing. It’s a portrait of a robin sitting in some branches (it’s a European robin, as you can see – not the American version!) and the robin is sitting on an appliquéd patch

 

The robin on his appliquéd background

The applique border has been used as a stem of the tree, and so it has leaves growing out of it, and there’s also another twisty twig with yet more leaves stitched on top of it all

Overall I’m quite pleased with the result. Of course all designs can’t be conveniently turned into this kind of thing, and in many cases you have no choice but to let the applique border be seen clearly for what it is. But it’s nice to be able to try something different from time to time