The Accidental Embroiderer

Fish from the past?

Looking back at the records, I see that I’ve been writing this blog for at least 10 years, and probably more. The problem is that my record-keeping in the early days wasn’t up to much, and I rather lost track of what I posted and what I didn’t. Anyway I’ve found this panel of fish in my files, and I don’t THINK I’ve posted it before.

 

A splash from the past??

As I remember, I sold it at some exhibition or other, but I still have a scan of the original. I’ve been musing over it and I think I’ll carry on the idea a bit further – that is, I’ll do some more similar fish with different decorations. That way they can all swim together in an even bigger school and perhaps grab some more attention at a future exhibition

Another different applique border

Some time ago - on the 26^th of April, to be exact – I posted a picture of an experiment I’d been doing to try and make the borders of appliqueed material more interesting. Rather than using the plain heavy satin stitch border you usually see, I tried to disguise the border and bring it into the design a little bit

Well, here’s another example of the same thing. It’s a portrait of a robin sitting in some branches (it’s a European robin, as you can see – not the American version!) and the robin is sitting on an appliquéd patch

 

The robin on his appliquéd background

The applique border has been used as a stem of the tree, and so it has leaves growing out of it, and there’s also another twisty twig with yet more leaves stitched on top of it all

Overall I’m quite pleased with the result. Of course all designs can’t be conveniently turned into this kind of thing, and in many cases you have no choice but to let the applique border be seen clearly for what it is. But it’s nice to be able to try something different from time to time

 

A more conventional freebie

After that rather mad cartoon cat in June, this month we have a somewhat more staid and conventional freebie. It’s just a simple floral design, which you might be able to combine with the leafy freebies in March and May this year to contribute to a quilt or cushion. It’s very straightforward – just embroidery with no applique

 

A simple flower (well, three flowers...)

I hope you'll find a use for it. Here is the design (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet