Bats, Cats, and Ravens

My embroidery machine has been stitching up a storm - filling some customer orders and making more Halloween and autumn freestanding lace ornaments for my Etsy shop. I have replenished some of the sold out Halloween ornaments, as well as the autumn leaves...and I have been working on two brand new ornaments, as well - a handful of "Gothic Bats"...and several "Soaring Ravens". These two new ornament additions to my shop are digitized by Urban Threads (should you own an embroidery machine and want to make some for yourself)...and I just adore them! The bat has quickly become one of my favorite holiday ornaments and I have several hanging on my small Halloween tree...and the soaring raven is so wonderfully unique with it's moving parts. The raven is actually four individually embroidered pieces - the body/head, a tail feather, and two wings...then they are attached together using small brads, making the wings and tail feather movable...I was just tickled with how these stitched up!

For those of you who are not familiar with an embroidery machine or freestanding lace, here is a little idea of how these ornaments are made - using digitized designs, the machine embroiders the ornaments on water-soluble stabilizer...once the design is completely stitched, you put it in water and the stabilizer dissolves, leaving you with a beautiful piece of lace made completely of embroidery thread. I like to put a piece of ribbon through the hanger on ornament before placing it in a card or on a gift. Each large motif can take anywhere from 45 minutes to well over an hour to make...the larger and more detailed the design, the longer they take to embroider. They are quite sturdy and will stay looking great for years to come...and freestanding lace can be pressed with a hot iron at any time...and starched, if needed...

 

         

Also currently in the shop - more Mischief at Midnight Finishing Kits...and a limited number of Harvest Huswif Finishing Kits - these are the same finishing materials used for the model and original class kits...and all the supplies are pre-cut and ready for use (NOTE: these are finishing kits only - you will have to purchase the chart and the stitching supplies from your needlework shop of choice).

I am now headed to my sewing machine to work on a custom order...then I am off to my stitching nest to do some model work - I am knee deep in fast approaching deadline that I am hoping to finish up in the next day or two...I hope you are having a creative and productive day!

Autumn Leaf Ornaments

I managed to finish quite a few machine embroidered lace ornaments over the last couple weeks...if you have followed my blog for quite some time, then you know I make these to slip inside cards, tie on packages, and for seasonal decorations. These have been so popular, I decided to make even more to put in my Etsy shop...and not only did I make additional snowflakes (which are always in demand), but I made some autumn leaves...and a bunch of Halloween motifs. The autumn leaves and snowflakes are already listed in my Etsy shop and the Halloween ornaments will be posted very soon! These ornaments are made on my embroidery machine...and are technically called "free-standing lace"...they are made entirely of thread!

For those of you not familiar with an embroidery machine, here is a little idea of how these autumn leaves are made - using digitized designs, the machine embroiders the ornaments on water-soluble stabilizer...once the design is completely stitched, you put it in water and the stabilizer dissolves, leaving you with a beautiful piece of lace made completely of embroidery thread. I like to put a piece of ribbon through the hanger on each leaf or snowflake before placing it in a card or on a gift. Each large motif can take anywhere from 45 minutes to well over an hour to make, so I usually set up my machine and let them embroider while I am working on various other chores in my studio...the larger and more detailed the design, the longer they take to embroider. In the photos you can see a selection of my embroidered leaves...the size of the maple leaf is 3.91" x 3.93" and the size of the oak leaf is 2.82" x 3.94". Many digitizers offer freestanding lace designs for machine embroidery (just do a google search), but if you are interested in these particular leaf designs, they are designed by Criswell Embroidery & Design...you can purchase the digitized designs from this designer at your favorite quilt shop or download them from their website.

I will be back to post again soon with photos of the Halloween ornaments...they are truly spooktacular!