My machine embroidery design website is now closed.

Sadly I have made the decision that due to new EU legislation which I can’t comply with, I will have to close Embroidery Crazy. So as this blog is linked very largely to my website I will not be posting here any more. I will be starting a new blog which will be about my sewing and craft hobbies, and my passion for vintage sewing machines. I have yet to create this but will add the blog name once I have. Thankyou to all my past followers.

 

Christmas is coming.

I can’t believe how quickly this year is disappearing and that it is almost Christmas! I am so behind with everything this year. Normally I have done most of my present shopping by now. This year I haven’t even started! With 4 grandchildren to buy for, not to mention anyone else, I really need to get my act together and get spending. The problem with living in this beautiful rural seaside area is we are a long way ( an hour’s drive) from any decent shopping centres, and I do not like buying everything online. So I think this week I need to take myself off in the car for a day. Being a crafter I am of course making some presents. I inherited a knitting machine this month to add to my growing collection of sewing machines! So some christmas jumpers will definitely be appearing. Yes my sewing machine collection has grown, adding an immaculate and pretty hand crank New Home machine that I ‘rescued’ from a local second hand shop. It is a solid metal beast and will sew through anything! It also has a lovely floral scrolled faceplate.

I will be sewing some gifts too of course.

The Embroidery Crazy website has been updated with some new designs this month, and the usual two free downloads. I was pleased with this pretty lace butterfly I have added.

There are also some musical note designs and this cute children’s reindeer design.

Today I have sixteen small Christmas cakes, that I am going to hopefully sell, to ice and decorate so I had better get busy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy Summer!

First of all I have to apologise yet again for not updating my blog for so long! This is due to a string of family happenings, including illnesses, and also the fast approaching wedding of our eldest daughter. As she is having a vintage/homemade themed wedding it has involved me in lots of sewing and kept me very busy! The wedding is now only a few weeks away so I am down to the final few things left to do. After the summer things should calm down a bit for me and I can get back into a routine.

We are very excited about the wedding, which is being held  next month in a beautiful country house hotel on the side of Lake Windermere. I can’t wait to see my daughter in the stunning vintage style dress she has chosen. She will look amazing, and, as it is second time around for her, she is being escorted in by her very handsome five year old son. There won’t be a dry eye around! I promise some photographs to follow.

I have just added some new designs for July to the website, including a cute children’s design aimed at twins, a rock and roll dance design, a rock music design and this summery beach hut design.The free designs to download for July are this lovely Campanula floral design and a cute little yacht.

 

Change is on the way.

We decided our website needs an update and so my other half has been working hard on using new software to run the site. It won’t look too different, but hopefully will be a lot more user friendly and more informative. The new site will be ready to publish very soon. Meanwhile I have added some new designs and will be adding more once the site is updated. We will also be having a sale to launch the new changes.

Our new designs this month are varied. This bright red dragon comes in two sizes so is suitable for a variety of projects.

It looks great with the gold parts done in metallic thread. I am going to put one on my jacket.

This floral design is pretty and would look lovely on a T-shirt. There is one for cat lovers in this little brown cat with lovely green eyes. Finally I have added a large flamingo as they are a current trend. I think it would look gorgeous stitched on to a cushion.

I have not been out with my camera very much recently as we have had so much happening so I am posting a few old favourites for my photos  this time.

First of all on our pier we have the oldest carousel in the country, and I love the colours in the horses, so here is my photo of one of them. The painted detail is so beautiful.

The next photo was taken on the backwaters. I just love the contrast in colour between the dark skies and the jumble of rowing boats on the quay.

 Finally I just like the reflections in this one. I have no idea what the old wreck is or if the man actually lives on it!

Happy summer days to all my readers.

 

Too many birthdays!

This time of year is such a busy one for birthdays in our family and this year we have several ending in a 0, so special occasions. Both my other half and I have a big one this year so our lovely daughters booked us a weekend away in Norfolk, which fell last weekend.

We stayed in a lovely Victorian guest house in the quaint fishing town of Blakeney. It was a really lovely weekend. Our room was fantastic and the house was set in beautiful gardens. we were right on the High Street, minutes walk from the quay. Blakeney is full of pretty flint cottages 

and the wildlife to be seen there is great. We had a long walk out on the salt marshes and saw lots of seabirds. I took loads of photos, my favourite one being the Redshank sitting on a post.

We had a lovely meal in ‘The Moorings’ restaurant, all paid for by our daughters too. The food was of a very high quality, and delicious. On Sunday morning we were booked on a boat trip out to Blakeney Point to see the seals. The weather was perfect and it was a brilliant trip. There is a huge colony of common seals and also grey seals and the water was full of them. Lots were lying out on the beach so we could photograph them.

The island was full of nesting seabirds too, an amazing sight and sound!

Blakeney is very popular with sailors and I would recommend a trip to anyone who likes wildlife.

Due to our weekend away I was a bit late updating the website but this has been completed and this month my machine embroidery designs are all linked to cooking. This comical chef design is great for an apron.

Or how about this for a kitchen wall. It could easily be framed.

This design would look great on a teacosy or an apron.

 

Happy May Day

It’s a beautiful sunny day on the North Essex coast today. Perfect  May Day weather. It is also a special day in our family as it is my eldest daughter’s birthday. She is a supermum who juggles three (and some times four) small children and 7 miles of school run walking every weekday. I don’t know how she does it!

I have updated my machine embroidery design website for May with new free downloads and four new designs. This month I have added this colourful sailing design.   There is a fun, retro, liquorice allsorts design, which those with a sweet tooth, or of course children would like.

This new floral design is pretty for home accessories or clothing. Finally there is this rainbow added to the weather designs.

Seagulls are everywhere in our small coastal town . They are obvious subjects for photography but can be difficult to photograph while flying. However I had some success recently when coming across a huge flock on the seafront. They had been feeding, so did not fly off like they normally would. I really like this shot I managed to take of one in the air. I also got a dog walker framed nicely in this photo! It made me smile!

Have a lovely May Day whatever you are doing today. I am off for lunch with friends.

 

Good sewing weather!

I can’t believe it is April already. It is still so cold in the UK that it seems like summer will never arrive. Here we are a week in to April and we are still going out wrapped in scarves, hats and gloves. Last weekend we went on an Easter egg hunt with the grandchildren in the gardens of  beautiful  Chippenham Park, near Newmarket. It was dry but really cold. The grounds of this stately home are lovely and it was great fun trying to find hidden wooden rabbits, which are then swopped for a  chocolate egg. I even managed to find a golden rabbit, which gave my granddaughter a star prize of a large Lindt Golden Bunny. She was thrilled.   I love these bronze boxing hare sculptures by the side of the lake.

The Embroidery Crazy website has been updated with new machine embroidery designs for April and the  downloadable free designs for April are available. There is this spring flower trug design, perfect for home decor items.

There is a new butterfly design which would look pretty on both clothing and home makes.

There is also a castle in the fantasy section and some fish. The free designs are this pretty campanula flower design.

I love the blue bell shaped flowers. There is also a cute little duckling.

As it is still so cold of course I was busy sewing yesterday. I made this backpack for my pirate loving grandson, who will be four on Friday.

Although I make lots of bags, it was quite challenging as I have never sewn piping round a bag before and I also had to make the piping first. I am quite pleased with the end result though, as I like the red against the blue of the pirate fabric.

At least while it is freezing outside I have lots of time to sew!!

 

A craft and photography addict.

Our summer is nearly over here in East Anglia but we are having a late burst of sunshine, which is great news after the rather dismal summer we have had. I am pleased as I have a lovely new camera to try out. Unfortunately I was the victim of theft a few weeks ago when my family were down to stay with the grandchildren. I had my bag stolen on the beach, along with my everyday camera. I have a large Canon DSLR but it is too heavy to carry all the time, so as any photography addict does, I keep a smaller camera in my bag so that I don’t miss those unforeseen moments.

I chose the Canon SX40HS as my new portable camera because, living where we do, a superzoom camera is ideal. I take lots of nature shots, plus boats and beach shots, where a long lens helps get close to what I want to photograph. It is not a pocket camera, but it’s light enough and will fit in the large bags I tend to favour. I have been trying it out this week and I am very happy with the image quality, which I knew choosing Canon, would be good. The lens is great and I still get nice clear images even using the full 35x zoom. I think I have made a good choice.

I took this shot of a heron on the backwaters the other afternoon.

Heron on Walton-On-The-Naze backwaters.

It was quite far off so I used the zoom right out. I thought it worked well.

The backwaters is a boating haven.

Boats on Walton backwaters

There is a lovely old ruin of a boatshed on the Mere.

Boatshed ruin.

I quite like that it has been left as it adds character to the area.

I went on the pier to photograph the sunset last night and the sky was really quite unusual. There was what seemed to be a small piece of rrainbow in the sky, although it had been a very sunny sunny day with no rain at all. The clouds were also all kinds of shapes so it looked really pretty. This is one of my photos. The little piece of rainbow is on the left.

Unusual sunset

The seagulls were resting on the side of the pier and I liked this photo as the seagull is lit by the sunset so that he stands out from the background.

Seagull at sunset.

This morning I was up at sunrise. This is my favourite photograph from then.

Sunrise lighting breakwater

I have been busy updating my website too. http://www.embroiderycrazy.co.uk/shop/ This month we have an autumn leaf and a fox machine embroidery design free to download. I have also added several home designs, including this one which would be good for stitching on the back of a patchwork quilt. I added a blackberry and a falling leaves design for autumn and this pretty heart which would make a perfect addition to a Christmas make for a loved one. I will be very busy sewing for the next few months as, along with many craft addicts at this time of year, my husband and I have booked tables at a large Christmas craft fair. He will be selling his fabulous Photo Art and I am selling bags and other fabric gifts, many of them machine embroidered of course!

 

Machine Embroidery Addict back in business.

I didn’t realise how much I had missed my embroidery machine until I got it back. Now it is working as I want it to once again I have been busy stitching out the designs I had digitised, and planning new ones. The website is now updated with the latest new designs I have test stitched. I really like this Indian culture inspired Mehndi hand design.
The Little Garden design is very pretty and would look lovely on any home items or even stitched onto clothing.

This new home design would make a really nice present for a wedding if it was framed, or it would also make lovely cushion covers. There is also a flying goose design and one with a butterfly and moths. The new free machine embroidery downloads on the website for August are a dolphin and a pink rose.

Now August is sorted I need to start thinking about Autumn and even Christmas designs! I think I need more hours in my day.

 

Frustrations and natural beauty.

New additions to my website have been sadly lacking in July, but not through my lack of effort. I put my beloved embroidery machine in to a large sewing store in our nearest large town to be serviced over 3 weeks ago. It was working fine but I felt it was tempting fate to delay a service any longer. After quoting an astronomical amount to do this, they told me it would take 2-3 weeks! However I left it with them as it needed doing. I researched servicing costs when I got home and then complained to the store owner which got the cost halved! I then waited for a call to say it was done. And waited, and waited.

    After the 3 weeks had passed I telephoned the store, to be told it was ready and that they had left a message on ‘an answerphone‘ 9 days ago. Well we do have an answerphone, however there had definitely been no messages left as the phone tells us when there is, and of course it stores any messages that are left until they are physically deleted. As only myself and my lovely husband have been in the house over that time nobody else could have come along and deleted it either. Grinding my teeth in frustration we went to collect the machine.

On getting it home I eagerly set about test stitching the designs I had done ready for putting on my machine embroidery website. The store had given me a perfect test stitch sample back with the machine. Try as I might I could not get it to sew anything like properly!! I then spent a very frustrating 10 hours of making adjustments to finally get it to sew to my standards. I had just paid out more than it costs to service a car! Surely I could expect it to work? Well because I now badly needed it, and the store is an hours drive away, I persevered until it sewed perfectly again.

Needless to say I will never put a sewing machine in there again. I will be writing to them to say how disgusted I am by their work and lack of honesty. I have been testing my new designs today and they will be put on the website very soon.

We are finally getting some decent weather here, thankfully as the Olympics are in full swing. With the sunny days we are getting beautiful sunsets over our backwaters again so here are a couple of photographs I took last night. The sky  was really pretty.

This one was a little later.

Finally I liked this shot with the  branch silhouetted on the side.