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.

Wednesday catch up...

Spring arrived early in the UK and the bluebells are starting to flower in our back garden. But this week Spring temporarily swopped over to Winter again and we have blustery cold weather and snow in parts of the UK this week. I really feel for the people living farther North than we do, as there was a report on the news that thousands of homes are without electricity today as a result of the high winds bringing down power lines.


 On to other news...
I'd recently been avidly checking websites for the arrival of the new Singer 160 anniversary sewing machine in the UK. I'd seen it on someone's Flickr photo stream originally and instantly wanted it, it was so shiny and looked amazing.

Ideal World, one of our UK shopping channels, had a feature on the 160 last Saturday so I patiently waited all week to see what it was like.

But a couple of days before the 160 was on sale, I channel hopped and came across another sewing machine they were selling on Ideal World, it was the Silver Viscount 1040. The pick of the day machine (another Silver) had already sold out, so this was a replacement machine they had on offer.
After watching the demonstrations, comparing the price and reading reviews of the 160, I decided to buy the Silver instead. It does 80 stitches compared to the Singer's 24 and has foot free controls and a needle threader. After discovering the Silver could also do blanket and cross stitch, amongst lots of other stitches, I was sold on it (an added incentive was that it was half the price of the singer, which Ideal World were selling at £399!)

At the moment I'm waiting for delivery of my new sewing machine, I'm stocked up on fabric and I bought some invisible (nylon) thread to try with the machine (it does a hand sewn style running stitch that uses clear thread at the top and coloured thread in the bobbin) so I'm all set for it to arrive.

I'm thinking of doing a review of the Silver when I've tried it out, mainly  because there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the Internet about this particular model - possibly due to Silver only selling in the UK, so it's not a widely known make.