The Accidental Embroiderer

The deer in winter

Sorry to have missed posting last week. To be honest I’ve been a bit depressed about my recent designs, mostly because the colours tend towards the dark and gloomy. I know why that is – Aberdeenshire in winter just about defines dark and gloomy (except when it’s snowing, which it is now) And because I always draw what’s around me, everything I do now inevitably takes on the colours of an Aberdeenshire late winter. Oh well, there’s no point in trying to fight it, so here’s the next in the Camouflage series.

The camouflaged deer

This deer was trying to blend in to the leafless trees and tall grass down the hill from the house, pretending that he wasn’t really there, and actually doing a pretty good job of it. Technically it was an easy design to do – just a background of grass shapes, then the deer appliqueed on top, and then more overstitching over the appliqueed fabric

Now – I’ve been meaning to say for some time that I’m happy to sell many of the designs that I post, even if they’re not listed in the “Designs for Sale” section. The only ones that I can’t sell are commissioned pieces, because of course they properly belong to the person who commissioned them. But I’m happy to pass on most of the others. One reason that I’ve hesitated to do this in the past is that not only are many of these designs very complicated and tricky to stitch out, they also depend on hand-painted fabric for their effect. However I can describe how to paint the fabric, or even send you some fabric that I’ve painted myself. If you’re interested, get in touch and we can discuss it

More is more...

Yes, I know less is supposed to be more, and maybe sometimes it may be. But as far as these embroideries are concerned, I do like a really complicated design. It gives the eye something to play with and the brain something to think about. A while back I did a study of trees on a bank, which was OK (and in fact it got sold at one of our local exhibitions). But – I don’t know – it just looked a bit bare to me.

Bare trees on the slope

So I added some undergrowth and made the tree branches and twigs a lot more complicated, and I think it’s better

Not so bare trees on the slope

That’s one of the nice things about this medium – if you don’t like the way something turns out you can just tweak the design a bit and maybe change the colours, and you can make a real difference. Here’s another example – a study of some trees on the road down to Royal Deeside.

More bare trees...

It’s OK, but again, it looks a bit bare. And again the addition of some undergrowth and bushes in the background improves it

Better...

But it still could use a little more detailing. I think I feel some more undergrowth coming on - and maybe some long grass in the foreground - and maybe some more twigs on the trees...

A free bird for spring

Right – time for April’s freebie, and this is another one for all you bird-lovers out there (and you know who you are!) This is a modified version of the central bird in the “Dancing Birds” panel that I posted a while back. As always with applique designs, you should choose your thread colours to tone with the applique fabric you use. I did mine in pinks and purples, but you may prefer another colour scheme

 

The Dancing Bird

 

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

IMPORTANT NOTE! Some people seem to be having problems downloading the worksheet. If you have trouble with it, drop me a line (via the "Comments" facility) and I'll send you the file by e-mail. Don't forget - don't block your e-mail address from Typepad or I won't be able to get back to you!