Christmas CRAFTfest is on the way!

Just a quick post to mention that the Christmas CRAFTfest will soon be with us. It's another week long online craft event, where you can browse and buy to your heart's content from the comfort of your Mac, laptop or PC (and probably any other Internet based device you care to mention!).

I'll be there as usual, together with a (growing) number of my online crafter friends. 

It's a great way to buy your Christmas presents and without fighting through the heaving crowds in overheated shops, something I always dread! I'll certainly be browsing for handmade things I can buy for the husband, not to mention my family and friends. If you want non mass produced, unique, unusual, beautiful, handmade, then it's a really good place to start.

If you are interested in getting a stall, the link to Creative Connections (the host site) is here. A stall for the whole week is priced at an excellently reasonable £5.00 and it's really good promotion for your Etsy. Folksy or any other online shop you have. 

The Creative Connections community is really nice too - so even if you don't want a stall it's worth joining and it's free too.  


And a bit more about what else I'm up to this week. I've been super busy with a new batch of freemotion felt tattoos and other freemotion embroidered designs. Which I've been making for The funky Aardvark shop, in Chester. 

A couple of designs haven't worked out as well as I'd hoped, in fact I might have to scrap one piece altogether. But out of the 23 individual pieces I've been working on, I'm really pleased with most of them. 
I still have quite a bit of work to do 'colouring in' the designs and have been experimenting more with machine shading and also some more solid freemotion machine embroidery.  I don't have any pictures to share yet and I keep telling myself that I really should remember to take before and after photos - I like to see how I've progressed with a piece but I get so engrossed in sewing that I always forget.
I will remember to take photos of the finished pieces though. 

Have a good Friday everyone and happy crafting!

My name is Katie and I'm addicted to freehand machine embroidery!

Kirsty Allsopp was heard to say on one of her 'handmade' programs that freehand machine embroidery was the crack cocaine of the craft world and boy she wasn't wrong! Once I tried embroidering on felt I was hooked.
It's so relaxing and absorbing. An hour can go by like it's 10 minutes and as a result I've been late cooking our evening meal more than once this week (oops!)

Here are a few of the felt applique patches I've made this week, all were designed using my own sketches and traced onto quilters freezer paper (all except the bee, which I did without a sketch). I hope you like them.


Blythe doll inspired applique patch.

Skull applique patch and a couple of craft inspired ones.

Although I did the freehand embroidery on my new Silver 1040, the sewing machine patch was taken from a quick sketch I did of my faithful Toyota. I couldn't resist including a knitting theme patch too!

A camera design patch, taken from another of my quick sketches.

And finally, my skull and crossbones on silver grey felt. I also made a life sized English bee, which I didn't base on a sketch, I just had a bash at it with my machine and did one by memory - I think it came out OK.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how the freehand embroidery has turned out. When I get around to writing and posting my new machine review, I'll also put some hints and tips up for doing freehand machine embroidery.