free motion embroidery cards

Christmas Thank You cards were a little overdue, so I spent last weekend making some.

I used free motion embroidery on card in a bird design.

For this you need a free motion foot for your sewing machine, which essentially allows you to sew in any direction, using the needle like a pen. You put the feed dogs on the machine down, which allows you to manually move the fabric around.

It works ok on card, obviously not as well as on fabric, but I think it makes a more unusual card.

Here they are:

House Door Stop no.2

Or should that be house door stop no. 34...?

So here is my second attempt, with a little more attention to detail than the first. It even has curtains.

This one went winging it's way down to Cornwall to Chels and Brad, to live in the house that it's modelled on.

 

Can you see the likeness?!

 

House Doorstop

Today was my first make of 2014, in an attempt to combat the post Christmas blues.

All my beautiful Christmas decorations are packed away and back in the loft, so I needed something new and pretty in the house.

The door of my craft room constantly swings closed, which is annoying because I like to gradually spread out and take over the landing too.... so I needed a doorstop. I liked the idea of making a little house, and after a mock up which turned out a little on the large side, I managed to make a more sensible sized pattern.

I started by putting the window and door on the front panel with applique, then joined all the pieces together, added the flowers and lace, stuffed with hollowfibre filling and 1kg of split peas at the base to weigh it down.

 

 

 

 

It even has a garden.

 

I think perhaps the shape of the roof could do with a little work, and I need to work out a way of keeping the house a bit squarer when it's stuffed - this one looks a little rounded at the edges... but for a first attempt I'm pretty pleased.

Vinyl Record Clocks

I made a couple of Vinyl clocks this year, pretty simple really, find a suitable vinyl for someone and add a clock mechanism (eBay was my good friend for this). I just had to use a craft knife to make the hole in the centre big enough.

 

I made a "Graduate" clock for Jimmy, using the Simon and Garfunkel Graduate soundtrack. I originally tried to cut the silhouette of THAT scene into the vinyl, thankfully I did a trial run on a different vinyl, as it didn't work out too well... I shan't post a picture of that attempt!

In the end a settled for printing out a photo of the scene, cutting it out and sticking it to the vinyl.

So  here's a finished product

Christmas Wrapping

This year I thought I would make a bit more effort with my gift wrap, with the added bonus that everyone's present comes with a personalised tree decoration.

So I made clips with wooden laundry pegs, painted and glittered, and stuck on Christmas cake toppers - which again I painted and glittered to make the trees look a little more snowy.

Then I made everyone a gift tag, using birch plywood tags, and then stamped, painted and sanded them, and added rhinestones and a snowflake charm.

 

Then clipped them onto my presents using the pegs - ta dah!

 

And there is it, on the tree

 

 

I even made a tag for Jimmy, that was slightly less sparkly

 

 

 

 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Ok so not something I made, but I couldn't resist putting up some pictures of my Christmas decorations...

 

Hand Warmers

I made pairs of microwavable hand warmers in different covers for my Dad, my Nan and my Grandad. They're made with rice bags inside that go in the microwave for about a minute to heat up.