Many years ago – so long ago that it feels like another life – I produced a series of designs and articles for Flair magazine. This was a British publication, alas no longer in print, that was devoted to machine embroidery. I’m not sure why it went out of business – I hope at least that my designs didn’t contribute to its demise!

A few weeks ago, while tidying up my workroom, I came across an old copy of Flair that featured one of my designs on the cover and I thought that it might be of interest to some more modern embroiderers

 

From way back in 2007…

This is a very simple design – I don’t think that I’d do anything that simple today. But as it was meant to be used by people who didn’t perhaps have much experience at embroidery, it was probably best to keep it simple. So here it is again…

 

A design with flair?? Well, from Flair, anyway!

 

And if you'd like it, you can download it here, in .pes v.6

I spent my professional life working as a research biologist, so as you can imagine I’m always interested in animals – both in their biology and their possibilities as models for art. And if you follow this blog you will know that most of my designs feature birds and animals – sometimes lifelike, and sometimes more cartoonish or abstract

Some time ago my friend Cherri suggested that I design some realistic animals for a quilt she wanted to make, and as you can imagine I jumped at the chance. So here are a couple of results. First there is this quite lifelike lynx. It’s not an animal I would have chosen to do, but I think it turned out well, The zig-zag pattern comes from the fabric that Cherri used for the appliqué step and again, although it’s not what I would have chosen myself, to my surprise it looks very good

 

A zig-zag lynx

And here is another animal – a little raccoon. Actually this is a very old design which I did many years ago, but it goes very well with the other creatures that Cherri used for her quilt

 

A very old raccoon

These designs have made me think seriously about doing more animals in a less arty, more realistic style. The animals are beautiful in themselves, so there's no reason why embroideries that reflect that shouldn't be attractive too

As many readers will know, I live in a beautiful part of Scotland, in the middle of the Cairngorm mountains. This place is so full of history that you can’t escape it – we’re surrounded by reminders of the past, ranging from recent manor houses from the 19th century, back through castles dating from the 13th century and earlier, right back to the remains of prehistoric times. But my favourites of all these early Scottish cultures have got to be the Pictish and Celtic civilisations, entirely because of the exciting and original artworks they produced, and I’ve used their art as inspiration of much of my own work.

The other day I was browsing through some old images of my embroidery from past years and I came across this fish, which is obviously based on Celtic images. I have no memory of when or why I did it, but I think I’ll use it as the basis of another, more complex design which will include even more Pictish and Celtic motifs. It sounds interesting – watch this space and the new version might just appear in the next few weeks!

 

A Celtic fish, reimagined for the 21st century

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working hard on a commission for a woman who wanted a series of funny, colourful birds. I’ve finished what she wanted and am now totally fed up with stitching out eccentric, colourful birds! However there is one bird left over, which I thought might find a home as a freebie with blog readers. It’s for the 5×8 inch (130 x 180 mm) hoop and is embroidery alone – no appliqué. The flowers and leaves stitch out first, and can easily be left out if you prefer. And do feel free to use whatever colours you like for both the bird and the flowers

A free pink heron

This won’t be to everybody’s taste, but you may be able to find a use for it somewhere. Here  it is, in .pes v.6

One thing that's stopped me from posting regularly is that at the moment I’m up to my ears in various private jobs and commissions. This means that although I’m still designing and digitising madly, I can’t really post the work here, or not at the moment anyway. So I’m going back in the files to find some old designs that haven’t yet seen the light of day here on the blog

This one is so old that I have no memory of when I did it, or what inspired it, although it was probably during one of my folk art phases. It was done for my friend Cherri, who stitched it out. As you can see, it’s a pocket design, showing the owl perched on the edge of a pocket. I love this sort of thing and have a lot of pocket designs sketched out in the files, so all I need now is time to digitise them! So I expect that you’ll see a lot more of them in the months to come

 

The bright owl sitting on his pocket

 

Bur meanwhile, this is a nice colourful example of the sort of thing that can be done

Things have been really busy recently, what with a very interesting painting workshop to attend, embroidery commissions to finish and also trying to prepare some new collections for my “store” at the Secrets of Embroidery website.

For my latest “Secrets” collection I’ve got rather carried away with the theme of colourful birds among leaves and colourful flowers – I’ve done so many of these that you can expect something of the kind as the next freebie in a couple of weeks

Meanwhile here are two from the “Secrets” collection. They’re not posted there yet although I should get around to doing that in the next couple of weeks. But this is more or less what they’ll look like when they get there

 

Well, you can't say they're not colourful!

I have just noticed that there is a little tiny glitch in the design I posted yesterday – it's so small that I didn't catch it when I tested the design. But it's there anyway! If you'd like the corrected version just re-load the design again from the original post – I've corrected the mistake, small though t is

Oh well, accidents will happen even with the best intentions!

Well, that break from blogging was quite long enough! I still haven’t finished all my commissions, but I’ve made enough progress to take a short break from them and get back to the blog. And it’s time for a freebie for June. It’s nothing spectacular, just a small, bright flower patch that might go well on pockets or perhaps on an embroidered quilt. It’s for the 4×4 inch (100 m x 100 mm) hoop and should be quite straightforward to stitch out

 

A simple bright flower patch

 

Here is the design, in .pes v.6. Once again, I'm not bothering with a worksheet, just because it's a very simple design and it's pretty obvious what the different colours are. But if you'd like one, or would like any help at all, just let me know via the "Comments" section

 

I’m afraid you’re not going to hear much from me in the next few weeks. The problem is that at the moment I’m working hard on a couple of large commissions, which I can’t really make public – or not yet anyway. So unfortunately I won’t have anything new to post. However when things get back to normal, I will too, and carry on posting new work every week

 

But meanwhile I will try to keep up with the freebies, and here is one for May. The design is based on a style that was popular around the 1950’s – what is sometimes called “retro” style. I hope you can find a use for it somewhere – perhaps on a bag or cushion, or even on a jacket?

 

Two birds from the past

 

Here they are, in .pes v.6

Why is life never easy? The other day my old Mackintosh computer died, and as I had all my records on it, going back for years, I was totally lost. I now have a new Mac, but of course not my records. Yes, I did back everything up, but for various boring reasons I can’t get at them, at least not for the moment

However, that’s enough of my problems! I’am VERY late with April’s freebie, for which many apologies. It’s a nice cheerful little spring tree, very colourful. I can’t remember where the inspiration came for it, but it might be useful on a cushion or perhaps a bag

Something colourful for spring

I hope spring is coming for you, where-ever you are. Here in the Scottish Highlands we’re still having snow, but that means we’ll appreciate warm weather all the more when it comes

Anyway, I'm having problems with Typepad at the moment (probably the fault of the new Mac) but if you click on this link here you SHOULD get the little tree, in .pes v.6. Good luck!