Finally - the last part of the free bird wallhanging and more...

OK, here it is - part 9, the last part of birds-and-leaves wall hanging. If you're new to the blog and haven't yet seen this project, you can find a picture of the whole panel at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html

I've been posting parts of it every month or so after that until now, when we have the final part of the panel. So that should be the whole panel passed over to you, and I hope you have good luck with it!

Now, do you perhaps have any good ideas for a freebie that you'd like me to do? I'm always open to suggestions for new designs! I can't promise definitely to do something specific but I'll certainly give any ideas serious thought

Meanwhile, here is the file for part 9 of the birds-and-leaves panel (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet. Good luck!

At the moment I'm desperately trying to put together a collection of pictures for our annual NEOS (North East Open Studios) exhibition, which will open at the end of the month. If you're on Facebook, you can have a look at our exhibition preview

https://en-gb.facebook.com/ArtInTheBuchat

Anyway,  I've been going through some of my recent embroideries looking for things to exhibit, and have come across yet more of the good old familiar subjects - like for instance birds! I seem to do more birds than anything else, and here's a nice colourful one that's leaving bits of coloured light behind him. I haven't a clue what brought this idea on - probably watching the birds flying through the trees around our house and seeing flashes of light behind them as they broke through the thick leaves

A flying bird in colours

Now - last week I wrote in a very depressed mood about a big panel that I'd spent a lot of time on and which didn't turn out very well. I had a lot of VERY kind comments from people who said it probably wasn't as bad as I thought, and a couple of them actually wanted to see it for themselves. Well, OK, you asked for it! (well, some of you did anyway!) so here's the prodigal panel

Could do better...

There are seven large designs, all stitched separately. The designs themselves aren't all that bad, if a bit ordinary, but I just didn't put them together right. For example, look at the top right-hand pot, with the blue flowers. The pot just seems to be floating in mid-air, and not standing together with the other pots. And the painted background is too "noisy" and complicated, so that it overwhelms the flowers. And then there are the technical problems. If you look at the fabric around the single red rose, you can see a lot of wrinkles where the background fabric is rucked up. And then there are...but I won't go on!

Oh well, you can't get everything right all the time, and I've learned a huge amount from this experience. And I'm really grateful to all those kind people who were so encouraging!

Well, that was a pretty depressing couple of weeks. For the past month I've been working on a really large panel - it measures 25 by 15 inches, and involves seven different large designs, and you can imagine the work it took to digitise and put together. But last week I got it finished - and it's AWFUL! It really is just a mess. It's certainly colourful, but that's about all you can say about it. That's the problem with this kind of embroidery - you really don't know what something will look like until it's finished, but by then it's too late to change it. Oh well, now that I can see what I did wrong maybe I'll try it again, and hope that it will be easier (and better!) this time. Meanwhile I really need to post the next two designs of the bird-and-leaf panel.

If you're a newcomer to the blog and haven't yet seen this project, a picture of the whole thing is at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html. After that I posted two parts of the design every month, and today we have the 7th and 8th part of the design (the first and second designs in the bottom row)

Here is design number 7, and here is design number 8 (in .pes v.6) and here is the worksheet for design 7, and the worksheet for 8

Well, it's July and time for the next two parts of the big birds-and-leaves project. Just to remind you what the completed panel looks like, it's at https://theaccidentalembroiderer.typepad.com/the-accidental-embroiderer/2019/05/a-big-freebie-project-.html. This time we have blocks 5 and 6, which are: the central block in the second row (with two birds) and the third panel in the second row (all leaves)  Block 5 is here, and block 6 is here (both in .pes v.6) and the worksheets are here (for block 5) and here (for block 6)

Now - just to let readers know that for a while I won't be posting as regularly as I usually do. This is just because I'm working on several large pieces, all of which take a lot more than a week to finish, so I'll only be able to post them when they're ready. Which will take several weeks!