Run, rabbit! and more...

OK, I know it’s only spring (although at the moment here in the Scottish Highlands it’s snowing heavily) but all the same, as I’ve mentioned, I must make a start on some works for our summer exhibitions. These works need to be more complicated and “arty” than the decorative things I usually do, so they take a lot more time

At our exhibitions, I’ve noticed that pictures with animals are popular, so I thought I should do some pictures featuring our local wildlife, and I’ve started with a running rabbit

Rabbit running in the green

One thing I love about using embroidery for animal pictures is that you can get such interesting textures with the threads. Of course in a conventional painting you can add some texture with a paintbrush, but you never get the same three-dimensional effect that embroidery gives, and it really adds a lot of interest to a picture - assuming of course that it’s a picture of a furry animal! You can't really see the effect very well in this scan, but you'd notice it if you saw the real thing

As some readers will know, I’ve been designing and digitising for many years now, and as a result I have a HUGE collection of designs in my files. I have no idea how many there are but it’s up in the thousands. I know I should try to file them in some kind of sensible way but I never seem to get round to it, and as a result it can be difficult to find a particular design, or to discover what use I’ve made of it

Which means that this month we have a freebie which I don’t THINK I’ve offered before, but I'm just not sure. It's one of so many designs in the files, so if you have it already, many apologies.

A bird from the past

It’s a classic William Morris sort of bird  and I know I’ve offered a lot of free birds recently, but I hope there’s room for another one in your collection. It’s for the 4x4 inch (100 x 100 mm) hoop, and HERE it is, in .pes v.6

I really wish I could post on this blog every week, the way I used to, but now that the exhibition season is approaching, I need to produce works which will be right to hang on gallery walls - that is, they need to be less decorative and more “arty”.  And that means that they are usually very complicated and take a LONG time to do. Oh well, I’ll post when I can. And I’ve just finished a design which will do as a small scale work for an informal exhibition somewhere

Flutter

It comes from an abstract sketch of three birds fluttering in a tree, and it’s colourful enough to draw the eye. I’m not sure if I think it’s very good, but it’s astonishing how these colourful little things can sell unexpectedly, so maybe this one will find a new home. Or, looking at it critically, maybe it would make an interesting round mat of some kind. So I might just re-invent it as a kind of table decoration

Anyway, I will be back as soon as I can - that is, when I have something new to post.

First, I was really pleased by the number of people who said they liked the Flower Bellpull in my posting of last week. Several people asked if it was for sale anywhere, so this is just to say that you can find it (along with more of my designs) in my Secrets of Embroidery shop: https://secretsof.com/machine-embroidery/designs/The-Accidental-Embroiderer

Anyway, back to this month’s freebie. It’s spring now (or it’s supposed to be) so here is a little spring-like design to celebrate the season. It’s for the 5x7 inch (130x180 mm) hoop, and it’s embroidery only, with no appliqué.

Two colourful birds for spring

It’s a fairly complex design, but if you hoop your fabric securely and follow the colour suggestions, it should turn out all right

There are a HUGE number of jumps in it, but I’m afraid they’re unavoidable. If your machine can cut jump stitches, there should be no problem, but otherwise I’m afraid you’re in for a long session with the scissors

So - good luck! Here is the design, in .pes v.6

In the dim and distant past, when I started to write this blog, I tried hard to post something new every week - and mostly I succeeded. But more recently I’ve been finding this difficult, because I just don’t have a new design ready to go up each week. This is entirely because I’ve been doing more and more complicated designs, which take a lot longer than a week to draw, digitise and stitch out. And this week we have the result of what must be about a month’s worth of complicated and detailed effort

I’ve always loved the “bellpull” format - that is, long, thin designs. They’re a challenge to design but they can look so effective when they’re mounted and displayed. So for the past few weeks I’ve been concentrating on a detailed and elaborate bellpull design. It’s made up of 6 5x7 inch (130 x 180 mm) panels, which are designed to align together when they’re stitched in sequence on a long, narrow strip of fabric

Now - this image is so large and long that you may have problems viewing it, but I thought I should try to show it close up so you can see the details. The whole thing turned out more or less as I wanted it to, so I shall now breath a deep sigh of relief and go back to designing something a little less challenging!