I wrote this tutorial for my bridal craft blog (which I have been sadly ignoring lately) but I wanted to share it with all of you here as well!
I used a heavy fabric mesh, buttons, yarn and thread to create a unique brooch that stays nice and firm as you wear it – no fabric stiffener needed here.
Here is part one (the materials)
Part two (the basic outline)
And last, but not least – part three, the finishing details.

My embroidered Easter eggs tutorial is one of my favorite machine embroidery tutorials that I’ve created
It’s a great way to play with the embroidery stitches on your sewing machine.  I’ve also made a variation that only uses plain old zig-zag stitches,  if your machine doesn’t do the “fancy stuff”.
The eggs can be used flat as decorations, stuffed and popped into Easter basket.  You could even make little mini eggs, stitch pins onto the back and wear them as Easter jewelry!

Check out Sharon Schamber’s “The Spirit of Mother Earth“, the best of show quilt at this year’s Houston Quilt Festival.
Seriously, click on the link!
Now look at the closeups.
Isn’t that the most spectacular free motion quilting you’ve seen!?
Back to practicing my free motion stitching…

Yes, I know that Halloween was just here, but I like to get an early start on my Christmas crafting!
I love making Christmas ornaments, and I ended up creating quite a few original Christmas ornament patterns last year.
Here are some of my favorite Christmas ornament tutorials and how-tos from last year.  As always, these are my own original patterns and are not to be copied or reposted elsewhere without my permission.
Dog paw-print ornament (part one and part two):

 Machine-embroidered Christmas tree ornament:

 Russian punch-needle or Igolochkoy ornament (part one, part two and part three):

 Yo-yo Christmas tree ornament:

 Happy Christmas crafting!
all images: © C …read more

I think this is such an amazing project – and a great way to try out some new fiber art techniques too!
“I am very pleased to announce the next project at hand for the 2008-2009 year for the International Fiber Collective.  The title of this sculpture is called Interdependence. We will create a full sized tree that will be on display in April 09′ at Big Springs International Park in Huntsville, AL.
Much like a live tree is interdependent on it’s leaves/roots for survival, like minded societies are interdependent on the greater whole, family units, communities, countries.
The collective is calling for …read more

This is one of my favorite tutorials – I actually wrote it a few years back, but the photos got eaten – ack!  I’ve re-written it and dug up all the photos from my old computer – boy, thank goodness for portable hard drives
Click the image for the complete tutorial:

Fiber fusion is a great way to use up little scraps of yarn, thread trimmings – or even scraps of fabric left over from fussy-cutting motifs.  You can make fiber art, wall hangings – even clothing or jewelry with it!
image: © C Findlay-Harder

I’m finally finished teaching art camps for the summer and that means I can get back into my studio and start making things!
Here’s my palette for my next machine-embroidered piece of fiber art:

That’s so yummy I think I could eat it with a spoon   I’ve got sari silk ends, raw mohair, carded mohair (from a farm just down the road from me) silk caps and silk roving.
I love the different textures and hands that you get from using different types of fibers in one piece.  The silk acts differently from the mohair, which has a different shine than …read more

Okay, so do you have everything I asked you for yesterday?
Good – let’s get sewing
To begin, we need to interface the back of the fabric with a heavy-weight interfacing.  I find it’s easiest to cut a square of fabric out with the motif in the center, rather than trying to fussy cut the fabric.

 Interface the backing fabric:

 Now fuse a lightweight fusible webbing (I’m using Heat N Bond Lite for this) onto the wrong side of the backing fabric, according to the webbing package directions.  Fuse the backing fabric and the front fabric motif together.
Let cool and then cut …read more

I’ve got this fabric sitting on my studio table right now:

I’m planning on sewing a hobo tote with it – but I was looking at the butterflies and got a brainstorm.
What if I made a 3-D pin or brooch from one of the butterflies that I could wear, or pin to the bag?  It would have to be stiffened somehow, which then of course means I want to embroider it…
Come back tomorrow and bring some heavy-weight interfacing, light-weight fusible webbing and a fabric with motifs that you’d like to turn into something three dimensional!
image: C Findlay-Harder

I thought it would be a good idea to post all the links for the silk paper how-to… after all, we’ve gone from this:

 To this:

In a few weeks!

Step one: making the silk paper.
Step two: adding layers of paint.
Step three: making cartoons to help visualize the completed work.
Step four: painting the canvas background.
Step five: embroidering the canvas.
Step six: attaching the silk paper to the canvas.
Step seven: free-motion embroidering the silk paper.
Step eight: playing with the background colors.
Step nine: quilting the fabric background.
The final step – gallery mounting the entire piece.

So there you go – all the links, now go and be …read more