Machine Embroidered Seascapes

Show how to produce incredibly beautiful seascapes. Using threads as an artist would use paints to achieve stunningly realistic pictures full of mood and atmosphere - waves crashing onto a windswept beach, sunlight sparkling on a bright blue Mediterranean sea and dramatic sunset skies -- all created using just two simple machine stitches.--Cover.

A showcase for textile artist Alison Holt's exquisite machine embroideries, this book will teach you to 'paint' your surroundings with thread. Use thread to paint the world around you with free-motion embroidery. Alongside new examples of Alison Holt's exquisite and distinctive machine embroideries, this book collects together her teachings and techniques for machine-embroidering flowers, woodlands, landscapes and seascapes. A huge range of techniques and ideas are clearly explained using step-by-step photographs, and demonstrated through a selection of inspiring projects. Learn how to create landscapes and seascapes of your own, and find inspiration through numerous examples of Alison's original work.

The fiber artist and author of Crazy Quilting Odyssey shares her secrets for creating embroidered landscapes and seascapes in this illustrated guide. Beloved fiber artist and teacher Judith Baker Montano demonstrates how to beyond traditional embroidery in this new and comprehensive to free-form embroidery. In this book full of stunningly photographed examples and watercolor illustrations, she shows you how to apply the principles of fine art to various projects using fabrics, threads, and fibers. Judith explains how to use these materials with other embellishments to convey lifelike trees, flowers, ocean corals, and more with 60 stitches and 67 stitch combinations. She also demonstrates artistic embroidery techniques for building layers, creating dimension and perspective, and blending shapes. With techniques of free-form embroidery, you’ll be able to translate your favorite landscape or seascape photo into fiber art.

Explore the possibilities of freestyle machine embroidery and its applications for quilting and fiber art with this inspirational guidebook for all skill levels. This overview of all the basic methods and stitches for each technique includes step-by-step photographs and illustrations, diagrams, close-ups of sample swatches, troubleshooting tips, and design guidance, altogether elevating crafters' skills to an artistic level. Beginning with an introduction that includes a list of necessary supplies, chapters cover adjusting thread tension, understanding fabric distortion as it relates to stitching direction, and caring for a sewing machine. This comprehensive guide is sure to move crafters beyond the basics of the stitching process to using color and texture creatively in unique designs and professional-grade finishes.

Embroidering with a sewing machine is exciting, immediate and affordable; this practical book shows you how to do it. Packed with encouraging advice, it introduces the sewing machine before explaining how to design, plan and make your own embroideries and turn them into finished items to treasure. Topics covered include: learning how to set up the machine and carry out basic cleaning and maintenance; discovering which thread types, fabrics and mixed media elements are most suitable for machine embroideries; exploring how to use the pressure foot to turn functional utility stitches into exciting surface decoration; working freely with dropped feeder teeth and an embroidery foot, and learning how to alter the tension to create different effects and finally, using soluble film to enhance your pictures, and stitch realistic thread paintings of landscape, animal and bird embroideries. With over 900 colour photographs and illustrations, it is the perfect companion for both those new to machine embroidery and those looking for new ideas and inspiration.