Never Stop Learning: Free Embroidery Pattern

Today I've got a new embroidery project to share: a free pattern to remind to you to never stop learning.

This post is sponsored by Obby: a new site for discovering creative classes in London.

As people with crafty hobbies, we all know how great it feels to learn something new. To try new skills and techniques, to stretch yourself and have the satisfaction of that YESSSSSS moment when you get a technique just right or finish your first project. (I have been known to do little happy dances round the room in those moments).

Well, Obby want more people have have those moments! On their site you can find and book all kinds of creative classes and workshops in London. You can learn baking, sewing, flower-arranging, perfume-making, photography, wine-tasting, crochet, cooking, embroidery and much, much more.

 

Today's never stop learning embroidery pattern is inspired by these creative possibilities and the joy of learning new things. I hope you'll enjoy stitching it!

You'll find the free embroidery pattern at the bottom of this post. You can, of course, stitch it on anything you like but it's designed to be framed in a six inch embroidery hoop.

To get started, transfer the pattern to a piece of fabric using your preferred transfer method. I chose a white quilting cotton and used a window as a lightbox, holding the pattern and fabric in place with masking tape while I carefully traced the design with a sharp pencil.

Once you've transferred the design, lay the fabric on top of a piece of white felt and place them both in a seven inch embroidery hoop (I like to use a slightly larger hoop than the design will be framed in, to make it easier to stitch the edges of the design). The layer of felt adds sturdiness for stitching the design and will help prevent threads from showing through the white fabric. If you're using a darker and/or thicker fabric you could skip the felt, or add some iron-on interfacing if you prefer.

Time to start stitching!

Choose the shade of stranded embroidery thread (floss) you want for the lettering; I chose a bold turquoise blue. Using three strands only, backstitch the outlines of the letters then fill them in with more lines of backstitch. Don't pull your stitches too tight or you risk puckering the fabric.  

Here and throughout, avoid carrying your thread across the back of the work to keep the back neat and to help prevent threads showing at the front.

When you've stitched all the text, choose some co-ordinating embroidery thread colours for the wreath. You'll need green for the leaves and branches of the wreath but you can use any colours you like for the flowers. I chose a bright spring green for the leaves, pink and orange for the flowers and light turquoise for the flower centres.

Start by stitching the circular wreath shape, using backstitch and three strands of green thread.

Then switch to using just two strands and backstitch the leaves and branches.

 

 

Now it's time to add the flowers. Each flower is made using the Lazy Daisy stitch - if you've not sewn these before just search online for "Lazy Daisy tutorial" and you'll find lots of step by step tutorials and videos to help you.

Use three strands of thread for each flower, adding one flower to the end of each bare branch and switching between your chosen colours as you work around the wreath. If you're using two colours, you could use my photos as a guide.

 

 

The final bit of embroidery is to add the flower centres. With three strands of thread, sew two tiny stitches in the centre of each flower (like an X). 

Now remove your fabric (and felt, if you've used some) from the embroidery hoop and re-frame it in a six inch hoop. Take your time getting the design centred in the hoop then tighten the screw as much as you can to keep the fabric (and felt) secure.

Trim the fabric (and felt) roughly, as shown.

If you used a layer of felt to back your design, carefully trim it right down to the edge of the hoop. Take care not to snip the fabric in the process!

With a double thickness of white thread (or thread to match the fabric you've chosen) sew a line of running stitch around the edge of the fabric. Gently pull the thread so that the fabric gets pulled together as shown, then secure the thread with a few stitches.

You've finished! Hurrah! You can now add a loop of co-ordinating ribbon if you want, or hang your hoop directly from a hook or nail.

DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by Obby, your place to discover London's favourite classes and workshops.

Click here to open the pattern sheet in another tab or window. Make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100% - I've included a scale line so you can check if it's printed the correct size. 

This embroidery pattern is for non commercial use only: you can stitch it as many times as you like for yourself or as gifts, but please don't use it make anything for sale. You may borrow a photo or two if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire post or share the pattern itself on your site. Thanks! 

For more free embroidery patterns and other crafty tutorials check out my project archive.

 

Book Review: A World of Quilts

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I've been putting in lots of hours of work lately on the Christmas quilt I'm sewing for my sister. This seems like a good time to review one of the quilting books that's been on my "to review" pile for a while!

A few years ago I reviewed Quilt Love by Cassandra Ellis and adored it. Her aesthetic isn't my usual taste (I'm a sucker for really bright, bold colours) but Cassandra writes so passionately about quilt making and the joy of making special, meaningful quilts full of character, memories, history and emotion. The book was also really rather beautiful! I pretty much fell in love with it and the whole idea of making a quilt.

So, I was delighted when her publishers (Jacqui Small, who publish so many gorgeous titles) sent me a copy of the follow up - A World of Quilts - to review. Unfortunately they sent it at a time that I was feeling a little overwhelmed by work and it (and a few other titles) has sat on a shelf ever since. Hopefully this review will be worth the wait...

Like Quilt Love, A World of Quilts is a beautiful hardback. This time round the designs are inspired by quilting traditions around the world, with 25 contemporary quilt designs included in the book. The designs are inspired by styles such as Postage Stamp, Rail Fence, Kantha, Wild Goose Chase, Amish Sawtooth, Wholecloth, Utility, String, Welsh Bars, Log Cabin, Pojagi, Irish Chain and many more.

Then there's a "Quilt Masterclass" section, which covers everything from designing your quilt and choosing fabrics to binding the quilt and caring for the finished quilt. I found this section very useful when I came to start the actual quilting part of my Christmas quilt recently, it's filled with lots of helpful tips.

You can, of course, get a quilting how-to from lots of different books - so what makes this book special? For me, it's Cassandra's whole approach to quilting.

She writes in the book's introduction that she realised quilts were "the absolute summation of homes, families, communities and individuals. They were practical and very, very personal, which meant they became completely precious to the individual and family. Quilts represented both the maker's creativity and their family's history. As well as a means to provide warmth, quilts could be the ultimate storytellers."

Her writing is so encouraging and inspiring!

"Find a story and a quilt that moves you. Do not fret over your stitching skills or be anxious about your choice of fabric. Most of all, don't give a moment's thought to whether you feel you are creative. Just make."

She encourages you to work with fabrics that have real meaning to you, including recycling old shirts and dresses, and using luxurious fabrics like silk and velvet to create something really special. I'm so used to seeing quilts made with purpose-designed quilting cottons it makes a nice change seeing something like, for example, a quilt made from vintage saris.

Even the Masterclass section is inspiring. The advice isn't at all prescriptive, instead there's lots of emphasis on doing what works best for you and not worrying too much about small imperfections. "The Japanese have a philosophy of kaizen, which means continuous improvement while being happy with what you have created now - and I love this idea. Just remember, it is the making that is important, not the perfect triangle."

This is basically exactly what I needed to hear as I embarked on hand quilting my sister's quilt - it's being made with so much love, what does it matter if my stitching isn't quite straight and my stitches are a bit wonky?

Each of the 25 designs in the book is introduced with a page about the history of the traditional design or local quilting tradition which inspired it. Together these are like a mini history of quilt making, they're so interesting to read!

Then there's an in-situ photo of the quilt looking lovely and all the practical information needed to make the quilt. The projects are rated by difficulty: "easy", "a little more challenging" and "requires patience and concentration" so you can see which ones you feel up to tackling.

Each design is illustrated with a clear photo of the quilt laid out flat and (apart from the simplest designs in the book) also a diagram showing the arrangement of the pieces and the block sizes. Cassandra has also included a little "make it yours" section for each project, with suggestions for ways you could vary the design through your fabric choices, sizing, etc. Not much information is given about how she's chosen to actually quilt each design, though - the instructions focus mostly on making the quilt top then quilting and binding is covered in the Masterclass section.

All the designs in the book are inspired by traditional designs - these are Cassandra's interpretations of them, not a how to guide for sewing 25 different traditional quilts. For example, the English Paper Piecing quilt features just 66 pieced hexagons arranged in decorative rows across the quilt.

I love this idea of incorporating a time consuming, traditional technique in a contemporary quilt. The look is very fresh and - of course- the quilts will be much quicker to make!

All in all this is a really wonderful book and one I highly recommend if you're thinking about making a quilt, or even just curling up on the sofa reading about quilts and daydreaming about the one you'll make one day.

A World of Quilts: Designing and Making Contemporary Quilts Inspired by Traditional Patterns by Cassandra Ellis is published by Jacqui Small. RRP £25. It's available from Amazon UK, the Book Depository and many other bookshops. 

It's also been republished in the US as World of Quilts - 25 Modern Projects: Reinterpreting Quilting Heritage from Around the Globe, a paperback published by C&T Publishing, available on Amazon USA.

Please note: I was sent a free review copy of this book. The Amazon & Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links.

Christmas Presents To Myself

Did you get anything nice for Christmas? I got some lovely gifts, but I also decided to treat myself...

Most of the money I got paid to write Super-Cute Felt Animals is earmarked for boring but important stuff like paying bills (the joys of being a grown-up, eh?) but I wanted to buy myself something nice as a little celebration / pat on the back for getting all that work done this time last year.

I thought what could be more appropriate than using some of the money I earned writing a book to buy some books?

It was tricky deciding what to buy, but in the end I mostly plumped for books by makers, artists and bloggers whose whose work I've been admiring / blogs I've been reading for years and years.  

Decorate by Holly Becker & Joanna Copestick

Embroidery Companion by Alicia Paulson

Quilt Improv by Lucie Summers

Design Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney

Making an Impression by Geninne D. Zlatkis

Make Hey! While the Sun Shines by Pip Lincolne (regular readers may remember that I bought this a few months ago, but I've been saving it for the holidays!)

and Scandinavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman.

I also bought a copy of Homeward Bound by Emily Matchar. I've read soooo many blog posts and articles discussing this book since it came out in the spring, I thought it was high time I actually read it for myself!

Victoria Embankment Gardens & The National Galleries

For this week's nice day out, I went up to London again. I was a little tired & didn't quite feel up to exploring lots of new places, so I decided to revisit some places & galleries I've been to before. First stop, the Victoria Embankment & Cleopatra's Needle.

 

Then I had a relaxing walk through the Victoria Embankment Gardens...

... I've had a lot of impromptu picnic lunches here over the years on my way in or out of central London, but I've never walked the whole length of the gardens or paid much attention to the statues and memorials dotted throughout them. It was very nice to take the time to stop and look at everything closely, to read all the inscriptions...

 

... and discover things like the fact that this gate at the edge of the gardens marks where the bank of the Thames used to be before the Embankment was built.

Then I walked to Trafalgar Square - looking at Nelson's Column, of course, ...

... but also taking time to look at all the interesting architecture around the square...

 

... and cracking bits of street furniture, like these intricate street lamps:

I went to a little exhibition of contemporary Inuit art at the Canada House Gallery which was rather interesting (I loved the sculptures).

Then I got out of the rain & went to The National Gallery for lunch (they sell some amaaaazing cakes)...

 

... and for a look at some of my favourite paintings. I've been to the National Gallery a lot over the years - one of the great pleasures of free galleries/museums is being able to go back again and again to revisit your favourite displays. And, of course, discovering new favourites on each visit!

Finally I went to visit some more old favourites at the National Portrait Gallery - the Early Tudors & Elizabethans galleries - & to see the pictures in this year's BP Portrait Award exhibition.

Excellent stuff all round.

Kensington Gardens & Sensational Butterflies

After my trip to Birmingham last week to visit The Festival of Quilts I decided that my schedule needs to involve more fun days out! When you're self-employed it's just far too easy to look at your gigantic, never-ending To Do list & convince yourself that you don't have time to take proper days off, and to just end up working all the time.

So, I am declaring Thursday to be "get on a train and go somewhere" day, even if I just go as far as the next town and sit in cafes reading books all day. No excuses! (Except legit ones like being stuck in bed ill, or it snowing or something like that, and even then I hope I'll be able to make up for it by taking extra time off another week). And to make sure I stick to this plan each week, I'll be blogging about my trips... so you can all tell me off if I, er, slack off at slacking off! I hope you'll enjoy a peek at some of my travels :)

I've already been enjoying the magical power of A Proper Day Off.... I took a trip to London this Thursday,  getting out of the house much later than I'd planned, already sort-of regretting my decision to take a day off and feeling stressed about my To Do list... and had a lovely, relaxing day and came back feeling de-stressed and inspired and really very happy.

First up I went to Kensington Gardens, which is somewhere I'd never been before. I went up to London a lot in my teens but it was mostly to go shopping with friends and to hang out in places we thought were "cool", so we didn't go to a lot of parks!

I visited the Italian Gardens (very peaceful) ...

... and the Albert Memorial (very shiny) ...

 

... and the Serpentine Gallery. I'm not a big fan of contemporary art (& the main exhibition left me a bit cold) but the Pavillion (designed by Sou Fujimoto and on display until 20th October) outside the gallery is pretty darn awesome and an amazing space to sit in. 

I also loved this huge (5 metre high) sculpture: Rock on Top of Another Rock.
 

Then I had a quick look round the Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society which was really interesting, and a lovely oasis of calm on busy Exhibition Road. (The last day for this exhibition is tomorrow, but I guess it's an annual thing?)
 

Next up: the Natural History Museum which is such a fab building.

We went here on a school trip when I was a kid and I remember being totally obsessed with the bits in my souvenir guide book that showed details of the architecture.

I'd planned to spend the whole afternoon at the NHM (I visited briefly last year to see the Captain Scott exhibition but didn't get a chance to look at more than a few dinosaurs)... but it being mid-August the queues to get in the museum itself were pretty crazy. So I just went to the Sensational Butterflies exhibition instead- a tropical butterfly house on the museum's front lawn (open until 15th September). 

 

I ummed and ahhed about whether it was worth paying to have a look at this but I'm so glad I did, there were so many large and beautiful butterflies, it was quite magical.

 

 

The whole place was full of kids with their mouths wide open in amazement and adults grinning from ear to ear at how lovely it was. In terms of happiness per minute, my ticket for this may have been the best value thing I've bought in years!

Then I popped to the V&A ...

 

... and had a cuppa in their magnificent cafe. It is impossible to not feel super-fancy sitting in a space like this, or to not spend half the time staring at all that decorative detail!

Everything in the V&A is great, but one of my favourite bits is the ceramics galleries which I just had time to wander round before starting my journey home. I always enjoy the ceramics rooms in museums - there is so much colour and pattern and shape to look at (always inspiring!) and they're not usually very popular so you get this wonderful peace and quiet that you rarely get in tourist-filled places. The ones at the V&A are, of course, the best. Cabinets that seem to go on for days! Just wonderful.

I've got no idea where I'll be going next Thursday, but I'll let you know what I get up to...