The Accidental Embroiderer

Finally - the last part of the free bird wallhanging

OK, here it is - part 9, the last part of birds-and-leaves wall hanging. If you're new to the blog and haven't yet seen this project, you can find a picture of the whole panel at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html

I've been posting parts of it every month or so after that until now, when we have the final part of the panel. So that should be the whole panel passed over to you, and I hope you have good luck with it!

Now, do you perhaps have any good ideas for a freebie that you'd like me to do? I'm always open to suggestions for new designs! I can't promise definitely to do something specific but I'll certainly give any ideas serious thought

Meanwhile, here is the file for part 9 of the birds-and-leaves panel (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet. Good luck!

Back to the birds

At the moment I'm desperately trying to put together a collection of pictures for our annual NEOS (North East Open Studios) exhibition, which will open at the end of the month. If you're on Facebook, you can have a look at our exhibition preview

https://en-gb.facebook.com/ArtInTheBuchat

Anyway,  I've been going through some of my recent embroideries looking for things to exhibit, and have come across yet more of the good old familiar subjects - like for instance birds! I seem to do more birds than anything else, and here's a nice colourful one that's leaving bits of coloured light behind him. I haven't a clue what brought this idea on - probably watching the birds flying through the trees around our house and seeing flashes of light behind them as they broke through the thick leaves

A flying bird in colours

Anatomy of a less-than-success

Now - last week I wrote in a very depressed mood about a big panel that I'd spent a lot of time on and which didn't turn out very well. I had a lot of VERY kind comments from people who said it probably wasn't as bad as I thought, and a couple of them actually wanted to see it for themselves. Well, OK, you asked for it! (well, some of you did anyway!) so here's the prodigal panel

Could do better...

There are seven large designs, all stitched separately. The designs themselves aren't all that bad, if a bit ordinary, but I just didn't put them together right. For example, look at the top right-hand pot, with the blue flowers. The pot just seems to be floating in mid-air, and not standing together with the other pots. And the painted background is too "noisy" and complicated, so that it overwhelms the flowers. And then there are the technical problems. If you look at the fabric around the single red rose, you can see a lot of wrinkles where the background fabric is rucked up. And then there are...but I won't go on!

Oh well, you can't get everything right all the time, and I've learned a huge amount from this experience. And I'm really grateful to all those kind people who were so encouraging!

 

 

A depressing week, but also the next part of the free panel

Well, that was a pretty depressing couple of weeks. For the past month I've been working on a really large panel - it measures 25 by 15 inches, and involves seven different large designs, and you can imagine the work it took to digitise and put together. But last week I got it finished - and it's AWFUL! It really is just a mess. It's certainly colourful, but that's about all you can say about it. That's the problem with this kind of embroidery - you really don't know what something will look like until it's finished, but by then it's too late to change it. Oh well, now that I can see what I did wrong maybe I'll try it again, and hope that it will be easier (and better!) this time. Meanwhile I really need to post the next two designs of the bird-and-leaf panel.

If you're a newcomer to the blog and haven't yet seen this project, a picture of the whole thing is at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html. After that I posted two parts of the design every month, and today we have the 7th and 8th part of the design (the first and second designs in the bottom row)

Here is design number 7, and here is design number 8 (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet for design 7, and the worksheet for 8

The next free birds - numbers 5 and 6

Well, it's July and time for the next two parts of the big birds-and-leaves project. Just to remind you what the completed panel looks like, it's at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html. This time we have blocks 5 and 6, which are: the central block in the second row (with two birds) and the third panel in the second row (all leaves)  Block 5 is here, and block 6 is here (both in .pes v.6) and the worksheets are here (for block 5) and here (for block 6)

Now - just to let readers know that for a while I won't be posting as regularly as I usually do. This is just because I'm working on several large pieces, all of which take a lot more than a week to finish, so I'll only be able to post them when they're ready. Which will take several weeks!

Not quite finished...

One of my artist friends used to be an interior designer and some time ago I asked her what sort of designs would be most popular as "wall art" for someone decorating their home in a modern style. After some thought she said that simple, bold works in neutral colours would probably work well. Well, that hardly describes most of the things that I do! But I thought I might give "simple and neutral" a try, and dug out some old shell designs that I'd done some time ago. I arranged these into a simple panel shape and started stitching. Before I started, I thought that it would be a quick and easy job, because the shell shapes are very simple and they don't have a lot of stitched detailing. But I soon realised that the colours of each background and each patch of applique fabric would have to be carefully thought out and then painted, so although the stitching went quickly, the fabric took a LONG time to prepare

The unfinished shell panel

Here is the panel at the moment. It's about 2 feet long and 18 inches wide, and as you can see it needs finishing off, and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do next. Maybe stitch on a fabric backing and make it into a tapestry-like hanging? Or maybe frame or mount it as an ordinary painting? I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to put it aside for a while before I decide, because to be honest I'm fed up with looking at it! I need to move on to something new, at least for a while

A sunny design for summer...

 My friend Cherri (https://www.instagram.com/cherriberi1/) has developed a "thing" about sun faces. She's asked me for a lot of sun designs that she can incorporate into a quilt, and she started it all off with a request for a BIG sun which she could stitch on the back of a jacket. Here it is:

Cherri's sun

You can see from its size relative to the jacket that it's a big design! It was done in 5 parts. There are four files for the rays, each file with four separate rays which are stitched in a circle, and then a big sun face to go in the middle of it all

To be ruthlessly honest, I find sun faces just a little bit creepy, even if I draw them myself. But this one is cheerful and bright and maybe not too bad, so maybe if I look at it long enough I'll get to like it...

 

Better late than never - the next two bird-and-leaves freebie

First of all, MANY apologies for not posting for so long. For a while life was just too manically busy for me to have time to write, and after that we lost our internet connection for some time, which was, of course, a major problem. However things seem to be back to normal now (touch wood).

So - where were we? I'm well overdue for the next instalment of the freebie so I'd better get on with that. Today we have the next two squares of the big birds-in-a-tree panel. If this is new to you, have a look at the first post in the series, at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html

Today's files are numbers 3 and 4, which are the top right square of the panel (the yellow and orange bird) and the left-hand square in the middle row (all leaves)

Here is design number 3 (in .pes v.6), and here is number 4. Here's the worksheet for 3, and here's the worksheet for 4

A tribute to Leonardo

To be honest I'm not a great fan of Leonardo da Vinci's painting - for example, I find the Mona Lisa a bit insipid. But his drawings are quite another thing. They are strong and subtle at the same time, with genuine feeling for their subject. One of the many Leonardo drawings that I love is this study of a growing plant. It's both botanically accurate and aesthetically captivating, and I thought that it might do as an inspiration for an embroidery

Leonardo's flowers 

I started with a very simple interpretation of a swirl of leaves with flowers growing out of the centre, but when I stitched it out, at first I made the same mistake that I often accuse Leonardo of making in his painting. I added a vague but complicated painted background which immediately reduced the impact of the plant. There's no contrast, no drama.

No, no - not right...

So I restitched it, and deciding that Leonardo really did know best I followed his example and turned the whole thing into a more monochromatic drawing

Leonardo knows best...

This is much better - simpler and easier and more rewarding to look at. The colours aren't quite right but that can be fixed. Maybe the Old Master knew a thing or two after all!

 

Portrait of a parrot

I really enjoy doing embroidery portraits of animals so when blog reader Jackie asked me to try to design a portrait of her parrot Uggie, it was a very interesting challenge. The photos she sent show him to be a stunning bird - really gorgeous, and with such interesting layers of feathers.

Uggie the parrot

I'm quite pleased with the result - it's not an exact copy of the photo, but then it wasn't supposed to be. It was rather intended as an interpretation of his general "look". The feathers around his head and neck were particularly difficult to do. I haven't got them entirely right yet, but it's a beginning

Uggie the embroidery

As it turned out, the portrait was particularly significant, because Uggie sadly passed away a short time ago, so the embroidery can serve as a reminder of and a memorial to a much-loved companion