I'm late but I've got a really good reason...

 and here it is, the puppy ate the cord for my laptop. Sounds like the old school lie of the dog ate my homework doesn't it?  It was down to 35 percent before I realized that it wasn't charging. How the little guy didn't zap himself I don't know. I have an old Lenovo running win7, it was the DHs so he insisted on finding an original cord. I now know I should have bought one of those chargers I see on HSN all the time so I wouldn't have had to wait for the one I found on ebay to come.

I've had it for about 2 weeks but more stuff got in the way. The fridge broke and I couldn't find a repair person to come out for 3 weeks. I finally found a guy but he seems lost about fixing it. We are ready to give up and buy a new one. If he does fix it then we'll have a full size extra instead of the mini fridge I've been using.

Then there's the problem with the 1 year 2 months old  washer that has decided it will only work correctly in one setting. Of course it's not covered in the warranty so I'm making due. I hated the thing after we bought it but it was on floor model sale and not returnable. Get this, we paid $650 for it and now the repair guy wants $450 to repair/replace the computer board.

Oh, and I can't forget the UTI, though I wish I could. While dealing with all of this some friends went on vacation and I had agreed to watch their dogs before life decided to ____ on me. (You fill it in.)  Luc ky for me the meds worked so I could walk the dogs 6 times a day along with feeding them 2 times a day. Talk about extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

So anyway all of this is why I'm very late with July's free embroidery. I'll be posting it next. I thought I'd put it in another post so if you print the directions you don't have all this to deal with.

As always I have too many projects going and I'm taking too many art classes so of course not much gets finished. I do have the August freebie embroidered but have to do the pattern. Fingers and toes crossed nothing else goes wrong. Jeeze louise did I just jinx myself?

Some Free Classes You May Like

 

I'm always taking free art classes but never get around to posting my results. I used to take lots of photos of whatever I was making but now I find I just don't think about it. The above painting was from an Effy Wild class. Far from perfect but it was fun. She often is part of free art classes.

This is mixed media from a class by Christa Forrest. Her work is so amazing. I usually just watch and don't make anything. She joins in various art summits and also hosts free classes. Christa has Fantastic Faces 3 on June 25 and 26. 

This one is from a Jenny Manno Tuesday youtube video. She has a lot of fun ones and a facebook group I belong to. Sadly she won't be doing free videos soon. She's going to do them just for her Patreon site.

So you say, hey what about some free links? Here they are:

All you who embroidery there's a summit going on right now. I meant to post about this last week - Embroidery Summit 2022

Yay Kalidescope 2022 is starting on the 27th. This is the taster week. The full pay-for classes begin in August. These classes last year were responsible for me really getting into art and supplies.

On June 19 Another Women Unleashed Summit is starting. There are some art classes and some spiritual ones. 

I'll try to keep up with posting interesting links when I first find them. 

June's Free Embroidery Pattern

 I honestly plan on posting more often and then I get busy working thru all the email newsletters I get, all the online classes I try to take, and then there's the games. I can't help but wonder if I was the kind of person who once they started something they finish it, just how much would I have accomplished over the years since I began designing. Oh well, it's a case of coulda, woulda, shoulda, so why stress over it.

Enough of all that cause here's something I have finished, June's freebie!

We have so many dandelions that have gone to seed in the yard that when I mow all I do is sneeze and cough. That's why I chose this embroidery for June. It seemed so appropriate. 

BTW, I found some tiny bottles at Dollar Tree and I'm going to put some of the seed fluff in them. I have some charms with WISH that I'll tie around the top and probably add some beads and ribbon, too. Cute gifts for the little kids in my life. Maybe you'd like to make some for the kids in your life.

If you want to do other free embroidery designs you'll find one for each month.

Here are the directions for June's freebie. 

1. Cut a square of your background fabric 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". If you aren't adding borders like I did you should cut the fabric larger so it will fit in your embroidery hoop.

2. Using a permanent fine tip marker like a Pigma pen, trace the design. Don't draw the lines for the fluff, just make a dot for the french knots on the end. Same for the lazy daisy stitches. Only mark the tips. You can also skip the grass and just stitch them where you want them.

3. Add the borders following the directions in the freebie posted in February

4. Starting with the stems use 3 strands of floss (I used DMC 702) to stem stitch along each stem line.

5. Next I did the grass, though you can do it later. I used 3 strands of floss to do back stitches (I used DMC 704). Make as much grass as you want.

6. Fill in the flower circles with french knots make with 3 strands of floss (I used DMC 725) and did 3 wraps.

- Use 2 strands of floss (I used DMC 702) to make lazy daisy stitches at the bottom of the circles.

7. The fluff is made with 1 strand of floss (I used DMC 415) for long straight stitches and 2 strands for the french knots. For the knots I did some with 2 wrap and some with 3.

8. The laced border starts with a running stitch using 3 strands of floss (I used DMC 702).

-Working up and down lace 6 strands of floss thru the running stitches (I used DMC 598).

Right click the pattern to save it to your hard drive.

©Billie Jo Heisler 2022

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.

May's Free Embroidery and Jingles is a bit better

 

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. First it was Jingles getting sick and now it's the new puppy the DH went to Canada for.

First I'll talk about Jings. He's on 3 meds, one is to make sure he's eating. Well he is, way too much and is now over weight. He's also having trouble using his litterbox. He goes in but instead of turning around to pee, he's peeing out the front. I have a large tray with pee towel pads down to catch the overflow. I've pushed him in and turned him around but it's just not sinking in. It may be the other drugs he's on. They make him kinda dopey. He even left a stranger pet him yesterday which is VERY unusual for him.

Now the new puppy. He's 9 weeks old and is an English cocker spaniel like Micah but black with a white spot on his chest. The DH named him Tinker. It's a name he's been wanting to use since Dillon. I wanted to call him Cory because he's colored like our first cocker that was named Cory and I like that name. The DH didn't want to 're-use' a name so he finally got his Tinker who we all know will be called Tinker Bell. More about him later since I really need to get moving on posting this freebie while I can get some time.

Here's my favorite embroidery so far. I hope you'll like it, too. Oh, by the way, since May is my birthday month all the pdfs of my patterns are on sale at my Etsy store. They will be 20 % off all month long.

If you want to do the other free embroidery design you'll find one for each month. Check passed posts.

Here are the directions for May's freebie. 

1. Cut a square of your background fabric 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". If you aren't adding borders like I did you should cut the fabric larger so it will fit in your embroidery hoop.

2. Using a permanent fine tip marker like a Pigma pen, trace the design.

3. Pin the triangle pieces of fabric to the white background fabric following pattern for placement. I used my favorite Heat n Bond by Therm-o-web to attach the triangles. Then I did a blanket stitch with 3 strands of floss (I used DMC 598).

4. Add the borders following the directions in the freebie posted in February.

5. Cut out the heart wing and the bird's chest piece. Again I used Heat n Bond by Therm-o-web to attach them. Do a blanket stitch around them with 2 strands of floss (DMC 598).

- Next comes a running stitch just inside the blanket stitch using 3 strands of floss (DMC 3810).

-Use 3 strands of floss (DMC white) to backstitch next to the running stitch on the chest and heart.

- Use the same thread to make a long straight stitch and 3 french knots in both halves of the heart.

- Stem stitch the tail using 2 strands of floss (DMC 3810).

-Use the same thread to back stitch the bird's body.

- The beak is back stitch using 2 strands of floss (DMC 725).

- The eye is made with 4 strands of black floss to make a french knot.

6. The branch is couched. I used 12 strands of floss for the thick area and 6 for the thinner branches. I used 3 strands for the couching stitches (DMC 632).

7. The flowers are lazy daisy stitches made with 3 strands of floss (DMC 603).

- Leaves are also lazy daisy (DMC 704).  Follow the pattern for where to make them or add as many flowers and leaves as you want.

- The center are french knots or beads. I'm going to use beads. They will be added after sewing the quilt together.

Right click the pattern to save it to your hard drive. You'll need to print a pattern for tracing and one for cutting out the triangles, chest piece, and the heart.

©Billie Jo Heisler 2022

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.