We came across Cathy Emmott's work on Instagram and as soon as we saw it we just had to contact her! We thought you might be interested in learning more about Cathy and creating a piece like the one we saw. She has a strong 'signature' to her work; many of her fans can spot her pieces a mile away! The beautiful birds she creates are adorable and beloved by many for their cute appearance. Whether it's appreciating the intricacies of her beautiful designs or finding joy in the adorable nature of these wonderful little birds, these elements can add a touch of inspiration and delights to our lives. I do hope you will support Cathy's first ever Free Motion Embroidery class with CraftyMonkies: Blue Tit on a Milk Bottle!

 

Introduction by Cathy:-

From my garden workshop in the Yorkshire Dales, England, I dream up, design and stitch a small range of textile products, lovingly embellished with my unique raw edge applique designs. I turn my illustrative designs into intricate textile art using new and vintage snippets of fabric and bring them to life using free-motion machine embroidery. Inspired by my love of garden birds, insects and wild flowers, free-motion machine embroidery is the perfect technique to reflect nature. My business has been lovingly grown over a period of 15 years and I have taught for 8 years to established sewing groups and one-to one private lessons.

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What You Will Learn in this Online Interactive Workshop:-

I have designed a unique workshop for you which will give you a peek into how I construct, stitch and embellish my designs. I will explain what free-motion machine embroidery is and how I use it, what are the pitfalls and how best to practice this technique. I will demonstrate using my own sewing machine and talk about fabric tension, needle types and speed of sewing. You will learn about the most suitable fabrics to use and why I love to use old and worn fabrics to create my designs. I will also demonstrate how to make a card template for a bird and the steps needed to be turn this into fabric. I will show you how to build your design and use free-motion embroidery to add a free-flowing, sketched look to your work.

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Skill Level for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

This class is very much suited to anyone with an Intermediate skill level

 

Material requirements for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

• Sewing Machine capable of Free-Motion Machine Embroidery, including a darning foot compatible with your sewing machine and a suitable needle (number 90).

• 1 x Base fabric  - medium weight cotton/linen 30cm x 30cm i.e. pale blue.

• 1 x 20 cm x 20 cm Medium weight, iron-on interfacing.

• 1 x 8"/20cm  x 9mm wooden embroidery hoop.

• Templates - Provided with this workshop.

• Cotton fabric for the milk bottle - 15cm x 10cm. I like to use vintage tablecloths/napkins which have some hand embroidery already on but a plain piece is also fine.

• Cotton fabric for the bird and grasses. White, navy blue, mid blue, yellow and greens.

• Sewing machine thread. I use Gutermann (Navy blue,white,yellow, pale blue, pale grey, dark brown, greens and silver metallic for the milk bottle lid). All top thread except for the metallic will require a matching spool thread.

• Hand embroidery needle

• Hand embroidery thread - dark grey, black, white and red. I use DMC (2 strands).

• Bond-a web/Fuse-a web 20 cm x 30 cm piece.

• Fabric Scissors

• Iron away pen e.g Frixton

• Pencil

• Iron and ironing board or suitable surface.

• A protective cloth - eg, an old, clean, cotton handkerchief or tea towel! 

• Paper scissors

 

Additional Information relevant to this Online Interactive Workshop:-

In order to make good progress on this workshop, I recommend that every attendee prepares a 30cm x 30cm base fabric (with iron-on interfacing on rear) to use as a practice piece before starting proper on the final piece.

 

This is useful to check that your sewing machine is functioning well and if not, to make any adjustments!

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Tickets for this Online Demonstration (via the Zoom platform) will be limited and allocated on a first-come/first-served basis! 

The ticket price of £35.00 (approx $40.00) is based on ONE person attending this crafting class.

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This CraftyMonkies online interactive workshop is being broadcast from the United Kingdom and the class time given is based on Greenwich Meantimee (GMT). We advise you check via Google Search (or similar) to see corresponding start-time in YOUR location!

Here's a great world time zone reference:-

https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

 

Are you not able to attend this class due to living in a different time-zone? Are you otherwise engaged on the date of this workshop? Well, we have excellent news! This class is being recorded and a link will be sent to all classmates a few days after the class, so you can watch in your own time!

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