Beginners will enjoy experimenting with thread colours, and the size and direction of the stitches and will have great fun building up a range of exciting effects.The more experienced will find satisfaction in recreating an original scene - a colourful summer garden, a field of poppies or a quiet landscape.

Combining her love of gardens and landscapes with her skills as an artist and a machine embroiderer, Alison Holt shows you how to create exquisite flower pictures using your sewing machine. Alison's interpretations of what she sees in nature are so detailed that many people at first mistake her embroideries for paintings or even photographs. Alison's technique is to use her sewing machine like a paintbrush to apply threads in a myriad of different colours on to a canvas of hand-painted silk. This comprehensive and colourful book covers everything from composing a picture and setting up the machine to choosing threads and silk paints and creating different effects in stitch. Each of the three step-by-step projects allow you to put all you have learnt into practice to make a stunningly effective embroidered picture.

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.

Pamela Watts explores all the techniques with infectious enthusiasm, showing how to work the stitches, adjust tension, layer fabrics, develop surfaces, build up texture, create lacy effects with water soluble fabric and more. Step-by-step photographs accompany a series of projects which are designed to improve skills and the book is packed with expert advice on all aspects of machine embroidery. A final section takes you beyond fabrics into using metal, mesh, handmade paper and more. Vibrant and exciting designs can be created easily using these materials. The effect is stunning when they are combined with soft and transparent fabrics, and lustrous threads.

When you use your sewing machine like a pencil to draw or paint with thread, you are entering a wondrous world where almost any effect is possible. This book provides the ideal jargon-free beginners guide for those who want to explore free-machine embroidery. With a collection of creative sewing projects and individual sections for mastering basic techniques, this book guides you, step-by-step, through the basics of free machine embroidery. -Find out if your sewing machine is capable of machine embroidery -Get familiar with your sewing machine and how it works -Discover the essential threads, needles, and fabrics you will need for free-machine embroidery -Learn by doing -Discover how to embellish your appliqué designs -Discover how to write with a needle -Learn how to do free-motion quilting -Learn how to draw pictures with your sewing machine -Learn how to use dissolvable fabrics

Machine embroidery is a versatile technique which offers a creative method of interpreting a design in colour, line, texture or all three. The sewing machine becomes, in effect, a paintbrush, and can produce a wealth of beautiful and striking effects. In creating pictures with thread, the worker mixes dots of pure colour in the same way as the pointillist and impressionist painters.

I do not know how long ago embroidery started, but I think through the centuries, women have turned to needlecraft and embroidery for pleasure. My grandmother told us that in her days, the young ladies did not work and was taught to do needlework and embroidery. Although times have changed and the love for embroidery still remains strong, women sadly neglect this art as they do not have time. The sewing machine is a quicker medium for embroidery and decorative stitching. You can make a room look homely, cozy, and beautiful with needlework and embroidery. It can be embroidered tablecloths, runners, cushions, table mats, wall hangings, pictures, bed linen, and many more. All these things can become possible to you by taking each page step by step and practicing the various stitches and methods. To those who are already experienced machinists, sewing machine embroidery will be much easier. Others may find it a little more difficult, but it can be overcome with a lot of practice and perseverance. This type of machine embroidery needs a lot of practice, but once you acquire control of the machine and embroidery hoop, there is no end to the possibilities of the work that can be done. I hope that the sewing machine no longer will be regarded as the machine for sewing hems, mending, curtains, and dressmaking but as the means for enjoyment in producing beautiful machine embroidery for the home and family.