Big Embroidery Book news

Want a FREE copy of my Fish Tag pattern?

(Offer valid until October 30, 2018)

If you preorder my book on Amazon, it’s yours with my thanks! Here’s how to get it:

1) Preorder ‘Big Embroidery’ on Amazon by clicking here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Embroidery-crewel-embroidery-designs/dp/1446307131/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539942474&sr=1-1&keywords=big+embroidery

2) After you have placed your order, click here: https://ideas.sewandso.co.uk/big-embroidery-bonus-project/ to receive your free bonus project (you’ll need to input your Amazon order number, so have that handy).

3) Enjoy your free pattern!

Also if you would like to have a look inside the book click on here BIG EMBROIDERY

Here is also a blog post I have done for SEW AND SEW

The idea for using wool instead of embroidery thread to create fast and easy projects came about by trying out some of my designs using hand embroidery on some upholstery fabric, and drawing the design onto the fabric with a heat erasable pen. The resulting cushion made up so fast, (one evening) as the stitches work up so much bigger so cover a lot of ground. Upscaling the designs means you can work larger projects in no time! As I also love to crochet, I always have a lot of scraps and oddments of wool left over from making blankets, don’t we all!

Before I started my business designing kits I made one off embroideries using a machine and appliqué technique. It occurred to me that it would be great to use some of the images of birds and and flowers to create kits which people could embroider themselves. So I began with just four kits … Now I have lost count of the range but probably there are over 30 in total including download patterns. The designs are printed onto linen, and have all the stranded embroidery cotton needed to complete the project, with full instructions too of course. 

My design work is very influenced by my own childhood and my mothers quirky folk style, I always loved her funny little drawings of dolls, animals and flora. It must have sunk very deep down! As an old lady she kept on working and designing, and I would often go over to her cottage for a cup of tea and we would invariably get out paper and pencils and excitedly discuss ideas for making things. 

When I teach embroidery these days I always encourage students to take their time to learn a stitch, practicing it until it is an easy pleasure, then they are ready to happily advance to other stitches, and even creating their own. There are many stitches but they all fall into only a few families. Learn the basic stitches first, the rest are all relatives of those basic family members. And have fun, even make up your own. Hand embroidery is very effective to add richness to many projects.