Free Motion Stitching

Have always wanted to do this but my attempts were very poor. Anyway, it turns out that in our circle of friends is a lovely, generous and multi-talented lady by the name of Julia Martin who is City and Guilds qualified. She very kindly offered to teach me and this is my second piece which I am so chuffed with I decided to mount on a canvas.

Squares of shiny fabric have been secured to felt with the slightest touch of a fine point on a soldering iron. Black organza has been laid over the top and then free machine stitched with a gorgeous variegated metallic thread. Now my first piece didn't quite go to plan as I went a bit off piste from the instructions but it was a valuable lesson learnt.

A bit of tarting up

Had an extremely sad looking downstairs loo (even though it's in a bungalow.  Lol) and it's been like that forever.

Decided that it may benefit from the odd square or 200 of decopatch paper so got going with the old

pva and water mix.  The flush button was coloured with alcohol inks and sealed with an a spray sealant.

Have to confess though that I did break the mirror when trying to reassemble it.  It's not a good idea to use a stapler on the cardboard backing.  Ooops!

A lick of paint on the walls and it's spruced it up enough until Ernie sends me a big fat cheque.  Lol!

Nick's Birthday Adam & Eve

Canvases (14"x10") covred with suedette & black chiffon which had then been machine embroidered with metallic threads.  The remaining chiffon that hadn't been stitched was burnt back with a heat gun to that the suedy material shows through.

Figures cut from 1/2 inch thick foam.  Eve covered in lace, two seed pods (not sure from what though) and then tissue paper pva over the top  Coloured with Cosmic Shimmer mica pigments.

Adam basically made the same way.  Each with an ivy leaf to preserve modesty though I may have got one the wrong way round?   Lol!

A Canvas for Sparkles

No, this isn't the third in my trilogy.  That is still pending...................................................Lol.


This is a canvas painted and stamped round the outside with words.  Then a layer made up of chiffon stitched to silver metal and melted.  With the odd blob of pearly glue.  The next layer was metal, angelina fibres and chiffon but that all went a bit Pete Tong (and very black!) for some reason so the old silver embossing powder came to the rescue.


Then some stampboard tiles stamped and etched a little bit.  Smaller stampboard tiles embellished with bits from my Mum's hoard of costume jewellery and Bob's your Uncle.  (Where on earth does that saying originate from?)

Part Two

Yes, it's taken a while and seeing as though Sparkles and Nicks have finished their frames that I made for them, I thought I'd best pull my finger out!

The central image has been printed onto Decal Waterslide paper and attached to copper shim.  Then highlighted with some machine stitiching.

The main frame is made by stitching string through plastic canvas.  This was then glued to an artists canvas board and the whole lot covered in tissue paper.  Originally painted black and then used copper acrylic paint, cranberry alcolhol inks and various metallic rub-ons.

Don't hold your breath for number 3, it may be some time.  Lol!

Part one

of a planned 3.  I'm not religious but really like images of Madonna & Child and saw an article in a book which inspired me to have a go with my version. 

The base is a piece of board (21cm x 26cm) which has been covered in black velvet and painted.

The image was printed onto Decal Waterslide paper and transferred to copper sheet.  This was supposed to be stitched using the free motion stitching on my sewing machine but the guage of the copper was too thick really so I only ended up doing a small amount on the image by hand but did stitch the border on the machine.

The celtic knot and roundels are made out of copper and embossed.  Coloured with alcohol inks and glass paint.

The copper borders have been inked, machine stitched and a string of beads added.  Right, off to look for some thinner copper sheet and practise my free motion stitching as it isn't as easy as it looks on Youtube! Lol!

A gift for

Nicks birthday. Both are projects that I found in a book called "The Art of Stitching on Metal". Thankfully, I confessed this to Nicks as it turns out she has the same book! Lol! The dish is 3 different types of copper that have been heat treated and woven together. The woven piece is then placed on Kunin felt with a piece of chiffon over the top.

The whole lot is stitched together on a sewing machine and then heat distressed with a heat gun. The felt melts to give a lacy pattern and the chiffon melts away. You can distress as much or as little as you like. Whilst the metal is still warm, you bend and pinch the sides to give the dish its shape.

This may look easy but it was an absolute nightmare trying to hold it all together whilst getting an old temperamental sewing machine to do it's stuff! I did have plastic pegs holding the weave in place but decided to try and change the colour of the copper with my heat gun. That didn't work and it bonded the plastic peg with the silk and copper mesh. Blood, sweat and tears this project cost me! Lol!

The seed pod gift bag is a piece of thick silk edged with a decorative fibre with copper mesh on top. There are two larger outer pieces and two smaller inner pieces. Shaped and tied with the decorative fibre.