The Accidental Embroiderer

A scarcity of dinosaurs

While I was looking after my table at the NEOS show, someone came up to me and asked if I had any embroideries of dinosaurs, as she had a young relative who loved them. I had to admit that dinosaurs didn’t feature in my repertoire of designs, but after some discussion we decided that dragons ran a close second, and dragon designs might be acceptable to a young boy with a taste for huge, monstrous creatures

As it happens, I had done a series of dragons some years ago and three of them presented themselves as possible dinosaur substitutes. So I stitched them out and sent them to her. I believe she intends to make a cushion out of them, and I hope that the result will be one satisfied small boy

 

As good as dinosaurs?

I suppose that I could consider dinosaurs as subjects for embroidery, but in the first place they have rather blobby, clumsy, undefined shapes, and then of course they don’t come in bright colours – or at least not as far as we know. So perhaps I’ll stick to dragons for the time being

A mysterious goose

First of all, I’d like to welcome all the people who have subscribed to the blog in the past few days. I think this must be as a result of a mention on Facebook some days ago – in any case there’s been a huge spike in the number of visitors and the number of new subscribers. I’d better just mention, however, that I don’t give freebies out every week – usually I post a new freebie around the beginning of each month, and the rest of the time you’ll just have to listen to me maundering on about embroidery designs in general. However if you are new to the blog, have a look at the "Free Designs" tab at the top of the page, and it will tell you when all my earlier freebies have been posted

So today we have another report back from our recent North East Open Studios exhibition, which went very well. I was surprised at the number of things I sold. I love it when people buy things – not so much for the money, but because it’s proof that other people see and enjoy things in much the same way that I do. Art is, after all, a kind of communication, and it’s good to know that my designs can communicate

 

A goose of unknown origins

I found this goose in a pile of old designs, and took it along to the exhibition just because I liked it. It was immediately bought by someone who was very enthusiastic about it, and wanted to know where I’d got my inspiration. I was so embarrassed to have to tell her that I had no idea! We do have a lot of wild geese in the fields around here, but where I got the idea for this decorated one I just can’t say. It just mysteriously appeared in my mind - another inspiration from the subconscious, I suppose

Another flowery freebie

Many of my recent freebies have been of flowers and leaves of some kind, and I’m afraid this month we have yet another. It’s just a straightforward flower-and-leaf composition – maybe not wildly exciting, but it might be useful. It’s tilted on one corner, as you can see, so it might be of use in embellishing some of those awkward corners of quilts and cushions. But I’ll see if I can come up with something new next month – any suggestions?

 

Nothing out of the ordinary, but perhaps useful?

 

Here is the design, in .pes v.6