The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Embroidery and Embellishment => Topic started by: Sara-S on September 05, 2019, 17:29:05 PM
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I have been learning this over the last few months. My favorite use of it is to make holiday wall hangings. Typical size is 12” x 12” (approx. 30cm x 30cm.) I mostly do this on my Brother 575 machine. My biggest challenge is outlining designs. I tend to make a lot of mistakes, though the fill-stitching generally covers them. Does anyone else do this?
Here is an example;
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That’s very neat for free machining...great stuff.
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Love this, it is something I would love to learn.
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I went on a course years ago. I wouldn't know where to use it though -<
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Yes, but I didn't do 'lettering' - I mainly worked on calico where I had painted a light background and then went in with zig-zag and straight stitch to make a landscape (bluebell wood). After about 20 years it still hangs on the wall and was not encased in glass and gets hoovered lightly now and again and is still looking good.
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Yes, but I didn't do 'lettering' - I mainly worked on calico where I had painted a light background and then went in with zig-zag and straight stitch to make a landscape (bluebell wood). After about 20 years it still hangs on the wall and was not encased in glass and gets hoovered lightly now and again and is still looking good.
I bet it’s lovely. Could you post a picture?
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I should have had a photo but can't find it at the moment....will post later at some point.
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@Celia is there anything I can do, to help you get started?
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Thank you for the kind offer but I think finding the time would be a good start. Maybe as the winter approaches I will give it a try and maybe I could get back to you
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I have no idea why, but apparently, 9/19 is “Talk like a Pirate Day”. So I embroidered a sign for that.
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@Sara-S what is a pirates favourite letter? ..... Arrrrgh (R)
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I once tried it thanks to some YT videos, and I finally learned how to use the mysterious transparent plate that came with my machine accessories. But I mainly made clusters of circles looking somewhat like soap foam. Except from a few samples, I never completed any finished project.
You seem to have achieved quite a good command of this technique. I love the pirate embroidery !
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@Sizun thank you. I have so much fun doing these.
I am currently taking a sewing class, given by my union (for the retired teachers.) Today, I got to give a demo about this for the class. We vary a lot in ability and interests, so I was surprised at how many people actually came over to see what I was showing. A few tried it in my machine. One lady wants to use it to do lettering, for a baby quilt.
I don’t know who had more fun; her or me.
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Today’s embroidery is a sign I made for the Jewish New Year. The Hebrew letters, pronounced “L”Shanah Tovah” mean “Happy New Year”
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So happy new Year to all who are celebrating!
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I'm not celebrating, but Happy New Year to you, too.
@Sara-S
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I finished another embroidery today. This is an anniversary design. Our 28th anniversary is later this month.
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I am currently playing with free motion machine embroidery, and having fun and palpitations at the same time 0_0
I have to think outside the box, most of my knowledge is about dressmaking and not 'free hand' and asking my machine to go in all directions rather than sew a seam!
First tries are ok-ish actually, well, from a distance anyway 0_0
Still getting to grips with directions, and info like best threads to use etc. Am now on t'interweb looking for ideas because I don't do playing without a purpose very well, I much rather having something to work towards, can't be doing with squiggles and wiggles that don't mean anything, would rather make a picture even if it's rubbish and ends up in the bin, and keep doing it until my technique improves.
Wish me luck!
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Justpottering there are some gorgeous books about by Liz Hubbard (sadly she passed away far too early age 46 in November 1990) on free motion embroidery - a hardback book called Thread Painting published by David and Charles, my copy has the most beautiful scarlet poppies mixed in with wheat on the cover - it looks stunning, then there is a smaller paperback booklet called Gutermann Thread Painting and this one is published by Search Press. Both books have used Gutermann threads, and at the time of publishing Gutermann used to offer their thread reels in special packs of threads so Poppies a range of reds through to oranges, Marigolds were yellows and light oranges, Greenwood were greens and of course there were other pack colourways as well. Each reel in the pack was only 50mtrs and there were 10 reels to each pack. Liz also used some paints to colour wash fabric before stitching, so say a sky, and then she would embroider a landscape picture using mostly zigzag stitch and the results absolutely stunning. She also has sewn cottages, gardens, river scenes - all are so pretty. Liz used to go into schools where she lived and got children to design their own pictures and stitch them out.
Another author of free motion embroidery is Alison Holt and her book is called Machine Embroidered Landscapes published by Batsford.
Have a look on abebooks UK website, or perhaps Amazon market place for these books. By the way you do not have to have a super fancy machine to be able to do this, Liz's machine was a Bernina Matic 803 so think back to around 1970's for this machine - the hard back book was published 1988. There is a good section at the front of the book showing you how to go about using your machine to create free machine embroidery so that is helpful.
Hope this is helpful to you for whatever you are trying to achieve with this type of embroidery - go and have fun.
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Thanks elnnina sounds perfect will have to investigate :ninja:
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Look what I did today :)
I learn better when I have something to make so as a first effort with lots of mistakes I shall rinse and repeat until I get better but not bad for first go
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I think that's absolutely lovely! 0_0
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That's brilliant @justpottering
It takes a LOT of practice to master free embroidery or free motion quilting.
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That is beautiful you must be pleased with how it looks. I have enough trouble with just doing some free motion squiggles.
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It takes a LOT of practice to master free embroidery or free motion quilting.
I believe you Brenda, this is going to take a LOT of practising but I'm in the mood for a new challenge and I enjoyed this although it takes a lot of patience changing threads every time there's a new colour, I used ordinary cotton/polyester threads would like to try with embroidery thread so I've ordered some :)
There are some amazing examples of this sort of thing so I shouldn't be short of inspiration for practising :D
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Wow! @justpottering that's brilliant, relly well done <3 :)
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Wow Justpottering, that is quite beautiful - if you can get hold of the book I mentioned yesterday you will enjoy experimenting even more. You have got further than I have - this is something I have wanted to do for years, but never had the time to try it out for real. By the way did you know that you can get a sprung loaded hoop - I think mine are by Madeira and come in two sizes so if you need to reposition you just press the two butterfly clips together and move the fabric a little and let go - this is all done whilst the fabric is under the needle. I shall look forward to seeing what else you can do - now just enjoy the process and have fun.
By the way another book for you to look out for is The Art of Embroidery by Julia Barton. Julia did her City and Guilds a good few years ago now and she then decided to hold a few classes on a Saturday for machine embroidery and I must say she made it look so easy, my efforts were nothing compared to hers. She did say however that it had taken hours upon hours of practice to run the machine at a speed she could handle and move the fabric in the hoop. At this time I suppose this must have been back around the early 80's and these Saturdays were connected with Missenden Abbey and their Summer School although the classes I attended were held in another school across the road from the Abbey. At that time Julia lived in Amersham. At one time her book was considered very rare and was fetching extraordinary high prices second hand, they have dropped in price considerably now thank goodness.
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I think that is really good!
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Thanks everyone for your kind comments and encouragement I m looking forward to getting to grips with this so watch this space 0_0
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@justpottering I will look forward to seeing your work. I am hoping to be a bad influence on one of the ladies in my sewing class, who wants to learn more about it.
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I just finished another wall-hanging this morning. This one is for Thanksgiving. I’m pretty happy with it.
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My latest work is embellishing my quilt guild apron. I had trouble keeping it taut in the hoop, despite my best efforts. It’s polyester and I usually work in cotton. I don’t know if that matters. The bottom part puckered a bit, but I still like it.
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My latest was done on thick black wool felt. I’ve never worked with that before, but it worked pretty well. It was then appliqué onto a tote bag.
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Looks great I like embroidering on felt I have used it to make bookmarks in the past
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Looks great I like embroidering on felt I have used it to make bookmarks in the past
Have you done hand or machine embroidery on felt @Celia ?
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Both more machine embroidery lately, I have tried free motion but am still a beginner but I am used to using the embroidery machines
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Sounds neat. I’d love to see some pics.
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I love embroidery but I’m terrible at hand stitching so I decided to have a go at free motion embroidery. I love it. My hand to eye co-ordination could be better, so I often end up with a very wonky bit of stitching!! But by embroidering onto some calico first and then using appliqué to attach it to the garment, I have been very happy with the result. During this practise period I’m searching the house for things to embellish :)
I decided towels were a good place to start. I did one for Christmas.
(https://i.imgur.com/a7ERi0ll.jpg)
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Well done the towel looks good
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Well done the towel looks good
Thank you Celia. What is your most recent creation?
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I have two FME's on the go at the moment, one small and one large, both 'flower' based because I love that. I am using them for practice more than anything because what I want to build up to is a seascape, I had a book for Christmas with some amazing ones in and so that is my aim :)
I don't seem to have time to start and finish something quickly, life gets in the way, but I will get there and when I do I will post the results :)
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@justpottering did you ever finish those FME’s?
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@Sara-S The bigger one is coming along nicely but not finished yet I bought some new hoops because the one I was using is scratching my machine, it's finding the time there's been a lot going on here! But I did some today :)
I drew (copied) the picture it will be daffodils and irises
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I’m impressed. That is far more elaborate than anything I have done.
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My latest is a wall-hanging for Easter.
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Cute and silly. Perfect this year. ;)
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Thanks @Renegade Sewist Here is the one I just finished for Passover.
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I’m starting work on one for Independence Day. It’s a bit of a challenge on my smaller machine, but still doable. I have to use a smaller hoop and reposition the fabric at some point,
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Hi Sara. I was watching some free motion quilting tutorials today. It's something I would like to try in the future, but I am far from that stage at the moment. I have a lot to learn.
I really wanted to say how lovely your designs are and I can definitely see your progression.
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@Penabby thank you. It does take some practice as well as some trial-and-error. Of course it’s best to experiment on scrap fabric ALOT before doing work you care about. A great way to try free-motion quilting is to make some little mug rugs as starter projects.
Here is my latest design.
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