The Accidental Embroiderer

The Show and a Horse

I’m really sorry to have missed posting last week, but it was the week of the NEOS show. For this show I always take my machine over to the exhibition and demonstrate the art of machine embroidery to visitors. The demonstrations are always very popular and everybody is fascinated with the way the machine works, and what it can do. But it’s always a tiring week and while the show is on there never seems to be time to do anything else

Here’s a picture of me and Laura, who makes stunning enamelled pieces

The Embroiderer and the Enameller

Anyway, now that the show is over, it’s time to get back to some design work. The other day it occurred to me that I’ve rather neglected horses as a design subject, which is odd because when I was a child I was totally horse-mad and did a lot of riding. So I’ve done a series of four horses, which are called The Elemental Horses, because each one will represent one of the four elements. There’s the Earth Horse, the Water Horse, the Air Horse and the Fire Horse. The first three of these are pretty much finished, so I only have the Fire Horse to do. Here’s a stitchout of the Water Horse to give you an idea of how the horses will look. The designs are loosely based on a zentangle style, but are not quite so complex and “busy” as a real zentangle

 

The Water Horse

 

Back at last, with a mysterious freebie from the past

ALL my apologies for my recent silence. Our internet connection has been down for almost two weeks, and believe me that’s no joke when you’re isolated as far up in the mountains as we are! I have a HUGE list of unread messages to go through, and I do apologise for what will be some very late replies.

 

The mysterious design from the past

But first things first – I’m way behind with the freebie for September. The other day I was going through some old files, looking for something that I could post as a free design, and I came across this. It’s one of a pair of designs that I apparently did in 2011, but for the life of me I can’t remember doing them and I can’t remember why I did them. The flower seems to be a campion, and the bird is some kind of warbler. Maybe I was going to do a series of wildflowers with wild birds – I simply can’t remember. I don’t think I even stitched the two designs out – at least I can’t find any stitchouts and I can’t remember doing it. Anyway, I’ve changed the design a little bit – making part of it applique rather than keeping the whole thing entirely embroidery - and I’ve given it a test stitching. If it’s popular I might put up its companion as another freebie sometime. A word of warning – be sure you stabilise this design well. I’ve run connecting lines of stitching for the flowers and leaves behind the stems, and if the fabric shifts in the hoop, these connecting lines may show. But if you use a good firm stabiliser and work with tightly hooped fabric, there should be no problems.

If you'd like this design, just drop a comment to the blog asking for it and I'll send it out to you. If this is the first time you've asked for the freebie, be sure to read the information on the "Free Designs" page (on the menu above)