The Accidental Embroiderer

Over for another year

Well, the NEOS show is now finished and I'm exhausted! Who would have thought that just sitting and sewing and talking to people could be so tiring? But it was brilliant to be able to talk to so many people - the embroidery machine is a huge draw and fascinates everybody, and many people had some really interesting ideas for embroideries that I might do

I had a large table in my usual place and as usual rather over-did the display

 

Too much of a good thing?

OK, maybe it is a little bit over the top - maybe rather too many colours and shapes and all sorts of different things to look at - hangings and cards and loose embroideries among other things. But it did get people's attention, and after all that was what it was supposed to do!

A good beginning

As you're probably tired of hearing me say, our annual North East Open Studios exhibition is about to open, and yesterday I went along and set up my machine there and got prepared for my usual embroidery demonstrations. These demonstrations are always very popular, as most people have never seen an embroidery machine in action and don't often have any idea of what it can do

So I was setting things up and putting out some sample stitchouts for display when someone came along and bought one of them! This was the rooster I mentioned a few weeks ago

 

The popular rooster

It's certainly a good beginning to the exhibition for me! However, I won't be posting here for a week or so, because I'll be at the exhibition full time and won't really be able to think of anything else. Now - I know that a few blog readers live quite near here in Aberdeenshire, so if that's you, please do come along to "Art in the Buchat", which is our exhibition at the Glenbuchat Hall. It's on from the 11th to the 19th of this month, and we'd all love to see you!

An early Halloween freebie

I was going to post this in October so it would be a little closer to Halloween, but then I thought perhaps if people were going to use this for decoration it might be useful for them to have it a bit early so they would have time to plan the work and stitch it out

Most of the designs I do are based entirely on my own artwork, but this one isn't - I only wish it were! It's a famous image - the Black Cat by the French Art Nouveau artist Theophile Steinlen. I'm sure it will be familiar to many people and it's been in my "Inspirations" file for many years.

 

Theophile Steinlen's original Chat Noir

 

It was very easy to convert it to an embroidery design which might go well on Halloween decorations of many kinds.

This sample was stitched by my friend Cherri, using a zipper bag design from her stash, and making some very effective fabric choices. I love the black cat print she used for the bag - it really sets off the design well

 

Cherri's version of the Black Cat

 

I'm offering it in two sizes - small (5x7 inches, 130 x 180 mm) and large (8x12 inches, 200 x 300 mm). The design is very effective when stitched at the larger size, but I know that not everybody will have the larger hoop size on their machines, and in that case the smaller version might come in handy

Here is the large version, here is the smaller version, and here is the worksheet

This isn't a simple design: it has three applique areas, but I hope that it will be worth the effort! If it really is too much, you could always leave out the moon