On New Year’s Day I decided to concentrate on my Spring Wreath quilt. This is a BOM from Andrea of Raggedy Ruff Designs. It’s a beautiful quilt of woodland animals, stitched with free motion machine embroidery. This is very new to me, which is one reason why I chose to do the BOM, apart from the fact that the quilt is just gorgeous!!
I made the first block in the autumn. I was really nervous about the embroidery bit but I was really pleased with how it came out…
With the run up to Christmas I then got a bit behind with another two waiting to be stitched. Just before Christmas I decided to make a start on the second one, a lovely block of a very pretty deer. The background went together pretty easily, though I did make one mistake which caused a moments panic, as I realised the green and purple diamonds should have been diagonally the other way. I sent a quick message to Andrea on facebook, she reassured me that they were just spots of colour, not linked to a pattern on another block.
With that reassurance I could cut out the various pieces and lay them in place. Andrea doesn’t use anything to keep them in place, she just holds them as she’s stitching. I’m not that brave, I used a tiny dab of fabric glue on each piece, this was also a good thing as it was another couple of weeks before I got round to the embroidery bit.
The free motion machine embroidery does still terrify me somewhat, though I was slightly less apprehensive as the rabbits had turned out pretty well. The first job is to go round the edge of every piece twice in a soft brown, get everything secure. I did have a little bit of puckering on the deer’s back but I managed to press it out. One thing Andrea does stress is the importance of pressing frequently to try and keep it flat. I did have a fair bit of wrinkling around the blossom branch at first but I seem to have managed to press most of it out. It doesn’t take as long as I thought it would either, I managed to embroider this one in an evening.
I’m really pleased with how these are turning out, they’re not perfect, but they are the type of embroidery that imperfections really don’t matter. As Andrea says, you really do just have to take a deep breath and go for it! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I’ll stitch the third block, two cute foxes.
thecraftycreek 
Pretty 🙂
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A very pretty deer. You seem to be getting the hang of the technique quite quickly!
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It’s looking lovely
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that’s gorgeous. Can’t wait to see you tackle the foxes next.
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I am not brave enough to simply hold the applique piece, either. I like my fusible products!
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I don’t know how she does it!
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So pretty and free machine embroidery terrifies me.
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It still terrifies me too 🙂
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Your freehand embroidery skills look pretty good to me!!
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Very sweet. Will look forward to seeing your progress!
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The deer are lovely, I applaud your bravery to try something so out of your comfort zone.:)
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I’m impressed with your progress! The deer is lovely.
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Amazing as usual! Impressive work on the bunnies and deer!
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Hello Margaret, well now I’m totally green. I had wanted to do a different block of the month with Andrea but similar animals and embroidery but eventually worked out that my budget just wouldn’t handle it at the moment, so sad. This is beautiful work. I’ve never tried free motion embroidery except for my originals lessons with my machine, so I would also be a bit nervous. I’m a hand embroiderer and I love it but was also willing to have a go. Maybe soon I’ll be able to. Well done to you with your free motion embroidery, I think you did just great. Kind regards Mandy xx
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Hi Mandy, it’s the most I’ve paid for a BOM but I chose the one which includes all the fabric, which I think for her designs is worth it, so it’s £25 a block, all I have to buy is thread, she includes stabilisers and freezer paper etc. I’m getting family to buy me them as presents for Christmas and birthdays, this one is a bit smaller too so I think it’s only 7 months.
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