Summer is over so time to get sewing!

Sadly this week our lovely weather has finally disappeared and it is definitely autumn. It has been fantastic to be able to enjoy the beach in warm sunshine for so long. Today is very windy and a little wet. We had a busy summer, especially with our daughter’s wedding in the very picturesque Lake District. Everything came together beautifully for her vintage and handmade style wedding in the gorgeous Cragwood Country House hotel on the side of Lake Windermere. (Highly recommended for anyone wanting a wedding venue up there!) A photo later. Now it is back to my daily sewing and beside the sea life.

The Embroidery Crazy website has been updated with six new designs this month plus two designs free to download as usual. We have three designs especially for dog lovers, a new snowman design, a cute little fox and a cupcake design for those making kitchen items.

I said I would post a photograph of the wedding venue, so here it is.

 

The stunning wedding venue

The next photo is one of my beautiful daughter in her vintage style lace wedding dress, accompanied down to the outdoor pagoda for the ceremony by my two very cute grandsons. The eldest one, who is only five, was very proud to walk his mum along. Two year old Ben was not so sure and started to cry!

The beautiful bride.

 

 

Time for a change as summer ends.

Well the changes to our website took far longer than expected so apologies for the big gap in blogging. The new shop software was so different it presented challenges to get it all working properly, but my lovely hubby has done an excellent job and the new site is finally up and running. It doesn’t look very different on the surface, but the shop format has lots of changes and we do hope customers will find it a lot more user friendly. We felt the site update was also time to increase our prices for the first time, so to compensate we will be having a launch sale, starting tomorrow, until the end of September.

The September free embroidery downloads reflect the arrival of Autumn and are our popular silver birch leaf, and a black bat. The new embroidery designs this month are aimed at children. There is a large design for young football fans.Any child who likes the circus will enjoy this colourful clown. This cute little starfish would look lovely on any make for a baby or toddler.

Finally a humorous design for the ‘little monkey’ in your life. I know who I am going to use this one for!I think his mum would agree with me!

We have had a really lovely summer here on the Essex sunshine coast. It has certainly lived up to it’s name! Our little town has been bursting at the seams every day for the last couple of months, which is great news for the local traders. We had our eldest two grandchildren to stay without parents for a week and had a lovely time taking them out and about. Of course we spent lots of time on the beach too. It all went far too quickly.

One of the highlights of the summer was the air show on Clacton seafront. As usual this was a fantastic show. My favourite is always The Red Arrows, photographed below.

I was also very impressed by the huge Vulcan bomber. This seagull must certainly have got a surprise!

We hope you like the new site software and changes. Do let us know what you think.

 

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.

 

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!!

 

What is your favourite colour?

Spring time is all about my favourite colour, green. I love watching the new green leaves start to appear on trees and bushes. Maybe it’s to do with my roots, (I was born in the ‘green’ island of Ireland), I just love green. Now spring is on the way I feel more energised. The new machine embroidery designs on my website this month are mostly linked to the spring and nature thoughts I have as I watch winter brown trees turning green. ‘Spring is in the air’ is this pretty bird design.   There is a bouquet of flowers that would brighten up any home items or look pretty on clothing.Girls will love this silver winged fairy sitting on a mushroom. I shall be using it on something pretty for my granddaughter.

I haven’t forgotten the boys either as there is also a new plane added to the transport designs.

Our free designs to download for March are a little daffodil and a colourful kite.

I have been trying out a new sewing skill and made a Victorian style rag doll this week. She is made from felt and I am quite pleased with how she has turned out. She has a lace trimmed petticoat and bloomers under her flowery dress. I will also make her some boots, and a wool coat and matching bonnet.

I’ve enjoyed making something different from my normal sewing. I thought the hardest part was getting the stuffing right, not floppy or lumpy!

Finally having started my post with the onset of spring, here are some spring photos taken in my garden this morning, which cheer me up. First some lovely bright yellow crocus, one of our first spring flowers here in England.

Next my favourite spring flower, the beautiful primrose.

Finally some of those new green leaves I mentioned that make me feel renewed by their colour.

 

My Top Helpful Machine Embroidery tips.

Today I thought I’d share some tips to help those of you who are not so confident using their embroidery machines or perhaps new to this addictive hobby. These are things I have found useful to know or have discovered through time and experience.

1. Your machine needles are your most important piece of your machine embroidery equipment. You need to change your needle regularly! If it is blunt it won’t give you a decent result and machine embroidering blunts your needles fast. I change my needle after about 10 hours of sewing or if I am having problems with thread breaking, stitches not looking right etc. Buy the best quality needles for your embroidery machine. Schmetz are excellent and are my recommended choice.
2. Stabiliser can be tricky to get right but as a basic rule of thumb the lighter your fabric the more you need to stabilise it, so for lighter fabrics like cottons use cutaway stabiliser as it is thicker than tearaway. If you are sewing on a heavy fabric such as denim or canvas you can use tearaway or may not even need stabiliser, but light fabrics always need stabilising. There are of course many other kinds of stabiliser for particular projects but I am just giving a basic rule here.
3. Sewing with metallic thread can be tricky if you are not used to it. Always use a special metallic needle as it has a bigger eye for the thread to go through, and turn your tension right down. I have mine on 1 when I sew with metallic thread. Also slow your machine down and sew on the slowest speed.
4. The tools I find the most useful are a pair of embroidery scissors with  very small, fine blades and also tweezers. These are used for trimming jump threads and any other bits of thread that are left poking out. By holding the end with tweezers you can cut very close. Decent lighting is also a must! If your eyesight is not great I would also invest in a large magnifier to hang round your neck too.
5. Cheap thread is NOT an economy. It will break easily and give you lots of problems. Buy a good quality machine embroidery thread such as Madeira, Janome, Guterman Sulky, or Robison Anton, to name a few reliable brands you could use.
6. Bobbin thread can be an issue as embroidery machines are temperamental and may not like every brand! For example my Janome 350e will not tolerate Madeira bobbin thread, although this is a perfectly reliable make!! It happily uses Janome or Brother bobbin thread. Although I now use so much of it I buy a very large cone of fine bobbin thread from an online supplier, which works out much cheaper.

I hope you find these tips useful. Most of all have fun with your machine exploring all the possibilities. It can quickly become an addictive hobby once you get to know your machine and how it works.

Finally, because I don’t like to post without adding a photograph, here is the sunset I took the other night. Isn’t it beautiful!

 

Learning a new skill.

My embroidery machine is away being serviced, which as we live in a remote area could take up to three weeks. This means I can’t test stitch any designs so I am having a holiday from digitising. It would be bad news but I decided to use the time profitably. I have just bought a lovely new sewing machine, the Janome Horizon 7700. It is aimed at the patchwork and quilting market and, as I am really hopeless at patchwork, I decided to use it to learn how to do it properly. The machine has lots of excellent features to help, including a built in walking foot, and a quarter inch guide sewing foot. So having cut out squares using my rotary cutter I have been making patchwork ipad cases. This is my first one The middle two sections are my pieced squares and I then quilted it using a built in stitch from my lovely machine. I was pleased with the result.

I then made a blue version of the above and also this little patchwork purse.

Little patchwork purse

I need to work on lining the squares up perfectly, but it’s quite pretty.

I also love making bags so I’ve also made a few, some with panels I’d embroidered earlier. I really like these embroidered hobo bags. I love this Mandarin duck design, not mine but from Embroidery Library, and this one with a colourful parrot.I made a little shoulder bag with bright fiery fabric. Hmmm, not my best sewing on that one! But I love the fabric.I love purple so made this in lilac and purple hues. The next one has a Dresden flap, which was quite tricky to do with my mediocre patchworking skills. I really like making personalised bags for children too, so this is one I made just before my embroidery machine went off, for a little girl called Sophie.

She loves it! I can be contacted via my website if you would like a quote for a personalised child’s bag.

Today I am making a dinosaur backpack for my grandson. I think I will then further my patchworking skills by making a lap quilt.

 

Happy Springtime – machine embroidery for March

We have had some lovely weather in East Anglia this week and it is starting to feel like Spring is well on the way. Many of the spring flowers are appearing early so I have posted the lovely spring picture above to wish everyone Happy Springtime. We have just made the free machine embroidery designs for March available for dowmload on the website. There is a pretty bluebell design and this cherries design  which would brighten up any kitchen or other home items. There are also four more new designs. This Easter one  is perfect for making a card. I also like this Spring design which would also make a pretty card or look really good on home decor items.

A new addition to our ‘crazy’ range is this very cute turtle.  He would be a hit with any child.

There is also a lizard which would look good on clothing. It is a single colour so quick to stitch.

This week I have been learning how to do free motion quilting on the old Bernina I got as a bargain at a car boot sale. It is really easy to do using the Bernina and I made a pretty tea cosy for our teapot. Today I shall be using my new skill to make a present for my youngest daughter who has a birthday very soon. I’m looking forward to our family get together next weekend.

 

Autumn has arrived.

I have had a busy week creating some Autumn designs. The rest of the new Christmas designs are now online, including this cute snowman. He would be a hit on any child’s clothing, hat, or scarf. The autumn designs are being test stitched and will be appearing on the website soon.

It has been  mostly sunny  on the North Essex coast this week. I have been enjoying the sunshine with walks on the Naze, which is covered in blackberry bushes laden at the moment with ripe berries. I have made lots of jars of blackberry jam and have also made blackberry gin for Christmas. This involves putting the berries and a good helping of sugar into a largish kilner jar (about half full) then topping with alcohol. As we got given a bottle of gin I used that but you can use vodka also. You then put it in a dark cupboard for 3 months. You need to shake the jar every few days for the first month, then just leave it. It turns into a delicious liqeur like drink just in time for the festive season!! I’ve also made blackberry crumbles and blackberry charlotte. There are still loads of berries to pick so I dare say I shall be making a few more delights!

 

End of summer holidays

We have had a lovely week with the grandchildren here doing all the classic beach  holiday stuff. The weather was mostly kind to us. I took loads of photographs of course! I love this one of my grandson ‘posing’ in a fairground ride bus. I know I’m biased, but he is so cute!!! He’s going to be a heartbreaker when he’s older.

We went to our local airshow which is held on the beach at Clacton. I love the wing walkers and took this photo of one going upside down while standing on the plane. Personally I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars!

I have been stitching out the new Christmas designs today. So far I have a Christmas pudding, bells, holly and a cute snowman. They should be available in the website shop by the end of this week. I have also been ordering new supplies as I was running low on everything. Now I have to wait for all the parcels to arrive. Don’t you just love the anticipation of waiting for parcels?!