2024 Freebie Embroidery Starting and it's different

 

OK, here it is, the 2024 free embroidery. Over the year each month we'll fill in the design with different stitches. This is a good way to learn new stitches. You can always fill in the design with any stitches you like.

1. For January you need to copy the entire design on fabric of your choice. I used an 8" x 8" piece of white cotton fabric. 

This step in optional but I like the stability. I add a square of Pelon Shape Flex interfacing. This is my favorite to use for all my embroidery designs because it's not stiff and it's easy to embroider thru. I cut the square of it slightly smaller the the entire piece.

Most important!!  If you went ahead and traced the birdhouse do not use steam this can smear your tracing. I've used Pigma pens and had them smear slightly. Note: I never use steam to apply the interfacing and it sticks fine.

2.Using a permanent marker like a Pigma pen or a Pilot Frixon pen, trace the design.

Note that the Frixon pen will disappear when heat is applied. This is great if you made a mistake, just iron the fabric and start again.

3. To embroider the design use DMC 310 black floss. You can use 1 or 2 strands. It all depends on how thick you want the lines. I used 2 strands.

-The 2 circles are stem stitched but the short lines are back stitched.

-The flowers,stems, leaves, and butterfly wings are back stitched. Do not do the butterfly body, antennae.

- The dash lines are done with 1 strand of floss using a running stitch.

Print the pattern whatever size you like.

BTW, the free yearly TAST has started. Learn 2 embroidery stitches a week https://pintangle.com/  Great for beginners and those who already embroider.

©Billie Jo Heisler 2024

All rights reserved

 Disclaimer:

I found the pansy on a 'free to use' clipart site. I made changes like adding more of the flowers, leaves, the butterfly, and the circle using a software program to edit it.

Please consider the drawing copyrighted. You have my permission to print copies of the drawing in any size for your own use but not to share or sell. If you want to share the pattern please link to the blog pages.

Still doing TAST and other sewing

 

Here are my versions of Week 8 for TAST. Yes, they are from last year since I've been too busy this week to do new versions but now I can put them on the playing cards instead of having them paper clipped to the printed directions. I'm thinking I may continue to do this so I can get the embroidery done I really should be doing.

 These I did do last week. Sharron gave us 3 extras on her blog. The one to the left is called Ainu Running Stitch. The one on the right is Threaded back stitch which I love to use for my heart embroideries. The one in the center is called Laced Pekinese. I LOVE how it looks. It was kinda hard to do to keep the back stitches even on the cotton fabric I normally use so I made it on a scrap of 28 count cross stitch fabric. It came out great. Not sure what I would use it on except for a crazy quilt but I do want to make it again.

 This is a pic of a coat I'm making. I started it probably 5 years ago and had planned on sewing it right away since I love this pattern but life got in the way. I kept putting it off till I decided it was time to finish some of the many UFOs I have in plastic bins and boxes. I have a dark green version of this coat that I made 2 years before buying the supplies for this one. I did add a lining and this one will have one, too. My goal is to do 1 sewing step in the directions every 2-3 days. That way it can get done and I won't get over whelmed. I seldom sew clothing for myself any more so it's such a HUGE project to get myself "in gear" to actually make something. I'll keep posting pics as I work on it but there's a really good chance I'll sew for a while then hang it all in the closet for another time.

I have 2 free embroideries for March so come back!

Surprise! Another FREE Vote embroidery pattern!

 

Ok, you may think I'm going overboard with these VOTE embroideries but  I can't help it. I keep coming up with more ideas. I'll keep going until election day.

This one has 100 years on it in honor of the suffragettes who fought for women's right to vote. Sadly this didn't include black women who were sidelined from the mainstream suffrage movement. They were finally given the right to vote in 1920. Did you watch the PBS series called 'The Vote' on American Experience? If you get the chance I hope you will.

BTW. I already voted, did you?

I appliqued the star fabric with blanket stitch, then did a pink stem stitch followed by grey chain stitch around the outside of the heart.The text is backstitched with only 1 strand of floss. I used a variety of stitches to make the flower cluster. These are stitches I did for the embroidery group I belong to. Go to facebook and search for TAST or go to the web site, pintangle using this link.

Right click the pattern to save it to you hard drive. You'll need to print a pattern for tracing then you'll need to cut out the right side for the fabric pattern. You may want 2 patterns printed.

 

©Billie Jo Heisler 2020

All rights reserved

 Disclaimer:

I drew this design by hand then used a software program to edit it.

Please consider the drawing copyrighted. You have my permission to print copies of the drawing in any size for your own use but not to share or sell. If you want to share the pattern please link to the blog pages.

The embroidery design is my own. I have not knowingly copied anyone else's work.

TAST weeks 9 -12

These are the photos for my TAST results for weeks 9 - 12. I couldn't find time to take pics as I went so decided to just do a group photo. I may stop doing the small samples and just concentrate on the 2 crazy quilt wall hangings. That may mean not posting to the group facebook page. It seems posting the quilt, even with the text may be against the rules. Don't like that rule so will keep doing each week but not posting pics.

Week 8 TAST results

Week 8! I put the running stitch pic over the twisted lattice band pic. Next to the lattice is a starfish I embroiderd. I'll be cutting it out and sewing it over the lattice. The running stitches are meant to be the circles you see on water when things drop into it. In this case it's the beads representing drops of water. My other samples are on the right of the picture.

TAST week 7, at least one of them

Here's what I did for week 7. On the quilt top I did the week's lazy daisy stitch. The sample shows the other stitch given, the barred chain stitch. I used it on the blue/green quilt but haven't taken the pic yet because I'm doing week 8 on it. I keep all the excess quilt rolled and tucked with safty pins so it's out of the road as I embroider. 

This is what I'm doing instead of what I should be doing, DESIGNING new patterns.  I am finally finishing the directions for a rabbit pincushion I actually made last fall. It would have been done but I got side tracked by another pattern idea. It's done but needs the directions written. Since it's a winter pattern there's no hurry.

BTW, I"m leaving Patternmart. I just don't sell enough there to cover the monthly rent. I'll be removing links by the weekend. You can still get my pattern at etsy. I should list them at ebay but they make selling PDFs harder. Dollmakers Journey carries most of my patterns as printed and PDFs.

I've had customers ask if I'm going to design some new tatting patterns. If you've been to my etsy store you know I don't even sell much for tatting any more. I've just lost interest. Embroidery has captured my mind right now so I don't know when or if I'll ever design for tatting again. I do have some simple patterns for jewelry I had planned on selling for a few dollars. Maybe I'll hunt for them and get them up sometime this year.

Still behind but here's week 6 for TAST

I hate that I have SOOOOOOOO much trouble making up my mind when it comes to deciding what to embroidery using the week's stitches. This week was herringbone and raised closed herringbone (which makes the padded leaf shape). For this quilt I did part of the heart with herringbone stitch. Below is the result of the raised close herringbone. I'm not done with that embroidery. I want to add more flowers and leaves to it.

This is my other crazy quilt I'm adding embroidery to. I used the herringbone stitch for the net over the fish and for some of the plant leaves.

This pic shows the leaves better.

I may end up combining a few weeks just to catch up. I need to do weeks 7 & 8. Tomorrow will be week 9, though here on the east coast of the US it shows up on Monday afternoon thanks to the time difference.

I may never have added embroidery to these 2 quilt tops if it wasn't for TAST. It may take a few years to fill in all the spaces and then do the seams but at least it's better than leaving them in the bottom of my large embroidery basket.

TAST week 5 - feather stitches

I decided to dig out 2 crazy quilt wall hangings I started a few years after joining a local quilting guild. My panic attacks kicked in so I left both the guild and working on the 2 wall hangings. Now that I'm doing TAST everyweek and designing patterns to share I thought it was about time to work on these instead of just making embroidered pieces I have no plans for using. This week is feather stitches. I used them for the jelly fish tendrils and for the bit of greenery on the left side. The tops of the jelly fish are pieces of gathered sheer ribbon. Beads were sewn to the tendrils and the plant. I used pearls and fly stitch to make tiny fish swimming aroind the jellys.

TAST weeks 3 & 4 results

Thought since I've posted the free pattern I'd finally get mt TAST results up, too. This one is week 3. It's for buttonhole stitch. I designed the pattern for this. The buttonhole flowers have fabric behind the stitching.

This is week 4's results. It stem stitch and Portuguese stem stitch. This week matches week 1's results. The pattern was a freebie from elfantz. Love her stuff. I just found another designer I'm taken with, Gail Pan. Need to buy some of her work.

week 2 TAST - Fly Stitch

I'm still having fun with embroidery. Here's my result for week 2 of the 2020 TAST group. It's using fly stitches. Of course I had to go over board and use more stitches so I could do this sunflower in a pot. The flower is based on a shisha pattern I found at needle n thread.

I'm late outting it up because I've also been finishing up the 2nd embroidery piece I'm sharing here for free. It will be up in the next few days so make sure to come back.

Found a Fun Embroidery group-

Recently while searching the web for crazy quilt ideas I came across a site and facebook group. Sharon at https://pintangle.com/ has free printouts for small blocks. LOVE them! But while I was clicking and reading I found she has a facebook group called TAST, take a stitch Tuesday. Every Tue. She puts up an embroidery stitch and members make something with it. Week one was the 7th and here's my result for the chain stitches.

  The hope design came from another blog I found last fall and LOVE! It's http://www.elefantz.com/. Jenny has free as well as for sell patterns. This is one of her freebies. I bought her Christmas scissor pattern and plan on working on it thru out the year. It was only $3.62 US dollars at etsy. She's in Australia. Most of her patterns have bible quotes but if that's not your thing substitute your fav quote.

Having way too much fun embroidering to sew but I did finish another pincushion pattern. Now I have 2 that need the directions finished with 2 more partly sewn. I'm burnt out on dolls and still need to finish the updated seahorse rider. She's been in a zip bag for, mmmm.... I think 3 years now, maybe even 4.

I used to fill (waste) my time playing games at Facebook but now I have little interest in them. In fact I'm getting another embroidery design ready for this month. That way I can start one in Jan not in April. I'll still finish out the 2019-20 series, too. Feb. design is alsmost done and March is waiting to be embroidered.

If I hadn't had to shop yesterday it would have been a great day to sit outside and embroider. It was 72 degrees! Crazy for Jan. in western PA. Today it's only 40. At least it's not raining. We've had 2 years of record breaking rain fall. Trees are rotting and falling over, mud makes walking on the grass slippery because the grass lets loose, and the dogs need dried every time they go out and then come back in.

Hope you'll have a look at the links I'm sharing :)