I assume you mean free standing is the actual lace which can then be sewn, attached to something or used alone vs no free standing extends from a solid piece of fabric.

ethods for making each are the same, using two layers of water soluble stabilizer. Or am thinking I in the wrong direction?

I am not sure what I mean. When I look on an embroidery site a lot of their designs say either standing or free standing lace. I thought that the free standing just got embroidered alone and then put on something, whereas the standing lace get embroidered right on the fabric of choice. Does that make sense?

if you embroidered the lace right on the fabric it wouldn't look like lace so I think it means edging along a piece of fabric vs trying to make lace which can be added later or appliqued. Am I making sense?

I think free standing is sections where you hand sew each finished section together to form an object, like a bowl/basket. Not free standing would be regular lace. I saw the instructions for free standing in the text file of a freebie I downloaded. I've not tried it because I don't need any dust collectors sitting around. I cannot remember if you used a stiffner on each section or not but I would think you would have to. Some was embroidered on water soluble stabilizers & some netting/tulle or organza. Most I've seen were bowls for trinkets, soaps & tiny items.

Thanks all! I think I am gaining a little ground here. There is just so much to learn about embroidery that I never realized.

I also quilt and I would love to make embroidery blocks for my next quilt project. Has anyone on this forum done that? I bet that would be gorgeous! Lucy

Check out Martha Pullen's website. She did a few PBS programs on lace shaping and lace quilts.

Also, Martha Pullen's machine embroidery forum (the link is on her website) has lots and lots of information on freestanding lace. You can do a search and find the posts on it.

Donna

Lucy - I'm new to this too and we know each other from quilting!
I made some free standing lace light shades this w/e. I sewed them onto avalon and rinsed for only a short time. This leaves the lace stiff enough to stand up on it's own.