Module One, Chapter Seven

Hi there, I know it's been ages since I've done anything but am catching up a bit now.  Have been on a couple of Urchfont courses and booked up 4 for next year.  Had a super weekend making felt recently and am looking forward to fabric fairies and willow christmas decorations in the next couple of weeks.  But now seriously here is the work I've done on free machine embroidery.  I have been looking forward to this and I think it is fair to say that some of the work I enjoyed more than others but I think that is usually par for the course.  Nevertheless I can understand why these exercises need to be done. 

So to begin:

The first sample is the free machine embroidery using a hoop or frame.  Material used is black felt with no stabiliser and the threads are just any bright threads that came to hand.  I machined at fast, medium and slow paces whilst pulling the felt through quickly then letting the machine take over a bit.  It is easy to see that bigger the stitches the slower the pace and the tighter the stitches the quicker the pace.  I like the little piece I've done and reminds me of firework traces left in the sky.  I probably should have done more stitching.  I liked the sense of freedom.

Sample No 1- Free stitching in frame and stitching doodles

Creating a Design

I sketched a design for the next sample based on a photo of an embroidery in September's Stitch Magazine.  This is based on a painting by Van Gogh.

Stitch magazine, embroidery inspired by Van Gogh


Design for Sample No 2



Sample 2 Stitched Design with Hoop



In this second stitched sample a hoop was used, the material is black felt backed with a nappy liner stabiliser.  Threads are reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens.  I used fast and slow speeds to create different length and intensity of stitches.  I loved just going round and round on the circles and building up colour.  It needs more cirlces and swirls but the hoop was a bit restrictive.  I could do this again without a hoop.


Free Embroidery Without Frame

Sample 3 - Having worked out a rough design as to where I was going to stitch I used black felt again with a vilene as a stabiliser.  Threads as before and tried to stick to the layout in the design.  This was a bit tricky as the lettering and stitching was difficult to keep to size.  Not as enjoyable as the hooped work above and I kep wanting to wander off with the needle. 


Design for Sample 3 Free Embroidery without Hoop


Sample 3 Free Embroidery without Hoop





Sample 4 - Material used was Razzle Dazzle, which was meant to be coloured wine red but turned out pink.  As I have said before my transfer paints are very unsuccessful.  Stabiliser is vilene and the threads are much as before but with some metallics.  I did find myself getting bored with this and tried to fill up the space with large lettering to get it covered quickly.  I like the large red and orange lettering in the middle best.  It could be neater but I found myself a little indifferent about it.


Final Sample 4 - Using Zig Zag Stitch and free embroidery