Bloomers and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

Hi and welcome! 🎄🎅 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I'm thrilled that you've taken the time to drop by and read this post. Today is Christmas eve and I know that many people start their celebrations tonight. To my family in Denmark, Glaedelig Jul!

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

Christmas/Winter door hanging (2015)

Bloomers SAL

Today is the last day to share our progress on the Bloomers Sew Along. Thanks so much Denise for creating this fun event. It looks like even if we had two weeks to make each panel, it wasn't enough....I suspect that for me, it's never enough!😁

Here it is! I finished 7 panels.

Seven panels of the Bloomers Sew Along

These are the three panels that I finished last night. 

The fabric for these flowers were donated by my darling DIL. I once told her that when she was finished with her blouse, to please give it to me. I thought that I would get it in a couple of years, but last year, she gave it to me. 😍Isn't she a sweetheart? 

Made from darling DIL's blouse!

This panel was made with batik scraps but I had heard that you can use FMQ to zigzag. I can attest that it's doable, but I would need lots of practice. The stitching is not great, but it's fine when not examined too closely. 😁

Not so great FMQ zigzag experiment

I made the cute bird house panel. I'm hoping to add a bird or two in there. I embroidered it last night but I still have to stitch down the appliqué, with a regular zig zag.😉

Bird house panel

Plans, goals & dreams for 2026 linking party

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, there doesn't seem to be a linking party for 2026's plans - so I'll be hosting one. The party begins December 30th and ends January 10th. Hopefully that's enough time to figure something out! 😀 Check out yesterday's post for details.

Linking party

What I learned

• I enjoyed participating in the Bloomers Sew Along. I did try out a few techniques to make my flowers so I hope that it'll look cohesive enough.
• I will do one more panel and then figure out how I want to finish it. I really love the hexies so it will probably include those. 
• I suspect that more time for a Sew Along doesn't make much difference - I'm not likely to finish anything within the time limit!
• So, you can use the zigzag stitch while FMQ. The only reason that it might be worth getting good at this, is that you can see so much better when you're using the darning foot. I even tried to do a regular zigzag stitch but using the darning foot. It wasn't any better. I'll have to practice and figure something out so that I can do better appliqués. 
• Do you like the photo that I used for the button for the Plans, goals & dreams for 2026 linking party? I got to sit in a window seat on my way back from Copenhagen and saw the most amazing sun rise. I will eventually do some kind of art work from the photos. They are all amazing!

Related links

• Christmas/Winter door hanging (2015)
• Bloomers Sew Along
• Plans, goals & dreams for 2026 linking party, December 22, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to Denise's Bloomers Sew Along linking party as well as many others. You might want to check some of these out before linking up below! Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 563 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a VERY productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has another published quilt, this one in American Quilter. This lovely quilt is Trillium Trail. 

Preeti's lively Trillium Trail

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps had her 2025 Year in Quilts post. Here is one that I haven't featured.

One of Melva's finished quilts in 2025

Deb from A Scrappy Quilter had a lovely scrappy quilt, 8s and 10s that she gave at Christmas. 

Deb's scrappy 8s and 10s quilt

Gail of Quilting Gail has announced the 2026 Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR). Here is one of the quilts that she made during this challenge. 

One of Gail's SAHRR finished quilts

Here is the button - you'll want to add that to your blog!

Margo of MY Quilts and Crafts had a lovely baby girl quilt as her final finish for 2025.

Margo's baby girl quilt

Kate from Life in Pieces quilted two cat trivets that her daughter made. She used her walking foot. 

Kate quilted these two cat trivets!

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Plans, goals & dreams for 2026 linking party

Bonjour and welcome! I hope that you're enjoying the beginning of the holiday season. Are the kids or grandkids out of school yet? Do you have any plans for Christmas and the holidays? It's going to be relatively quiet here which is fine by me. We'll spend some quality time with our son and DIL New Year's Eve at a local Italian restaurant. Good food and company - there's nothing better!

Plans, goals & dreams for 2026 

Link up and help make 2026 a wonderful year!

I noticed as I've been getting ready to write my year end post that there doesn't seem to be a linking party for 2026. I thought that I would rectify that! Starting December 30th until January 15th, I'll be hosting a linking party: "Plans, goals & dreams for 2026". I really hope that you'll join me in planning and dreaming up some wonderful sewing, quilting and textile art goals for the upcoming year. I want 2026 to be really good and I'd like you to be part of that!

Let's keep it simple. Write a post about what you'd like to accomplish in 2026. It can include:

• Projects you plan to make or work on, 
• QAL (quilt-a-long), SAL (sew-a-long) or Challenges to participate in or organise,
• Techniques you'd like to learn this year,
• Plans for your blog,
• Upcoming events that you need a quilt for,
• UFOs (Un Finished Objects) that you'd like to finish,
• Special words or dreams for 2026

The linking party will open December 30th 2025 and close on January 10th, 2026.

Feel free to copy the button and let all your friends know that you'll be linking up to share your plans, goals & dreams for 2026.

See you soon and enjoy your Christmas and the holiday season!

Linking parties

I'm linking up to many fun linking parties to get the word out! You might want to check some out! Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, 

Christmas mat finish

Bonjour and welcome! 😃I hope that you've had a good week. Nope, I'm not ready, not at all!!!! I did however finish my second Christmas mat. 

Hand-stitched mats

For the November Table Scraps Challenge, I made two very scrappy Christmas mats. I had a wonderful time stitching them with a running stitch. I finished the second one this week.

Two Christmas mats with running stitches

For the first mat I used only a couple of yarns - green perle cotton and red linen. All of the stitches went in the same direction. For the second mat, I wanted to shake things up 😁. I used many different colours of both perle cotton and linen yarn. The stitches went in many different directions, including in a circle and diagonally!

Second mat with running stitches

First mat - in two colours and yarns

Hand-dyed silk thread

Last week I received this amazing hand-dyed silk thread. I ordered it from Karen Turner in the UK. I chose a package of  5 pink/purple silk thread. They are so pretty! I did start stitching with one of them.

Hand-dyed silk thread by Karen Turner

Stitching a leaf on my not-so-daily stitching project

My stitches are not very good - I'll need more practice, and possibly a finer needle, to get the hang of stitching with such fine thread. 

A Win!

I want to thank Gail of Quilting Gail and Sandra of mmm quilts for the lovely Arabesque quilt pattern. Gail made a sample for Sandra's new quilt pattern and I won the draw. You can see Sandra's quilt, "Happy Christmas" in FM Mavericks below 😊

What I learned

• I didn't even think of stitching the first mat in different directions, but when I got to the second mat, I just wanted to do something different! 
• I stitched with three colours of linen yarns. Even if it was tricky getting them into the needle, I love the heavier stitches.
• The Snowman in the photo was my mother's. We teased her about it because it had the same hat as she did 😀
• Stitching with the silk thread takes getting used to. I had forgotten how fine it is. It's lovely using it as a double strand but then you really have to watch the tension. No worries, it's well worth it and it will be fun playing with!
• There is a local yarn shop that is closing down next month, because the owner is retiring. I've been in there twice in the last few weeks. The green yarn that I used for the leaf above is a very fine cotton yarn from Japan. I love stitching with yarn that isn't necessarily intended for embroidery. It's so much fun experimenting!

Related links

• Updates and FM Mavericks, December 11, 2025
• December OMG and Table Scraps Challenge, December 03, 2025
• Karen Turner, Stitching Life

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out...and remember to link up below! Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Design Wall Monday, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 562 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts made a wall hanging and a runner using Angela Walter's panels. 

Kat's FMQ wall hanging panel

Kat's FMQ from the back

Runner panel FMQ by Kat

You can see the FMQ on the
back of Kat's runner panel

Sandra from mmm quilts has a new pattern, Arabesque, that she quilted up using lovely Christmas fabrics. Happy Christmas is a lovely wall hanging! Sandra stitched-in-the-ditch and then some meandering.

Sandra's Happy Christmas wall hanging

Details of Sandra's Happy Christmas

It's now your turn! 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Power of Print Exhibition in Copenhagen - Part 1

Hi and welcome 😊. I have a special treat for you! This fall, when I visited my brother and his family in Copenhagen, my lovely SIL took me to the Design Museum Danmark to see the Power of Print exhibition - Danish Textile Prints Through 100 Years. Here is a very quick overview.

If you're looking for the Free Motion Mavericks post, it's here.

Power of Print 

It was a large exhibition in two sections. The first featured works by eight contemporary fabric printing designers/artists in Denmark. These artists hand-printed textiles specifically for the exhibition. This is what I'll share with you in this post. The second part of the exhibit showcased textiles from the museum's archives. It was arranged to examine all aspects of textile printing, from various printing techniques, to colour, stripes and the design of repeats. This will make a good second post.

Here are some of my favourite pieces by contemporary Danish textile artists. What I loved most about these were the colours; sometimes rich and bright, others more whimsical and light, and often with colours that you wouldn't think played well together! I also love how many of the designers use space within their prints.

Bitten Hegelund and Lisbeth Friis offer vibrant and interesting colours and unexpected lines

Bitten Hegelund’s broken lines

Lisbeth Friis’ stripes, dots, and checks

The next two fabrics are floral motifs by Josefina Enevold, who worked with and was influenced by Swedish designers. 

Josefina Enevold's botanic motifs

One of my favourite - flower motif by Josefina Enevold

Next is the duo Tronhjem Rømer, which consists of artists Liv Marie Rømer and Trine Tronhjem, Their rich, flowing fabric requires a second look to see its complexity of both line and colour.

Flowing fabric by Tronhjem Rømer

A close up of the lines and colours at play

Janne Wendt's work was fascinating. In the display case below, we see how Janne used the hair of an ancient Greek and Roman statues as inspiration.     

Inspired by the hair of an ancient statue

Printing by Janne Wendt, inspired by sculptured hair

Another interesting artist is Anne Fabricius Møller. She loves to use everyday objects as printing tools. Once you see her work, you know that it's not the actual object but the way that it plays with all of the elements of the design that make them special!

One of Anne Fabricius Møller's
prints

Details of Anne Fabricius Møller's print

Two prints by 
Anne Fabricius Møller

Details of another print by Anne Fabricius Møller

Else Borup Kallesøe's work is geometric. It goes from light, such as the Flying Palette on silk organza below, to intricate stripes.

Else Borup Kallesøe's Flying Palette

Details of Flying Palette

The geometric work of Else Borup Kallesøe

What I learned

• The Power of Print is a large exhibition and I'm sure that I could have discovered new things if I had a chance to go again. 
• The printed textiles were amazing, a real treat for the eyes! 
• As I mentioned, one of the things that I noticed in many of the textiles was the interesting use of colour. Many of the colours I wouldn't expect to play nice but I think that value probably plays a large part in that.
• As I toured the exhibition, I knew that I wanted to write a post on this. So I ended up taking a lot more photos of the explanations, rather than reading it all there. 
• In this instance, this worked well for me. I easily get overwhelmed by everything. This way, I examined and took pictures of what I liked but then when I wrote the post, I read all of the information and looked at the textiles.
• I was also lucky that there are a few good articles about the exhibition so I was able to match the images to the artist. In most instances the textiles were placed together, but that's not necessarily how I took my pictures. 😵‍💫 
• I was also surprised that many of the artists' don't have websites.
• I had a really hard time finding the Design Museum. I tried the day before my visit, but managed to go the opposite way. When I figured this out, I was so tired that I took a lovely boat tour on the canals of Copenhagen. It was all good 👍, actually great!!

Related links

• Design Museum Danmark, The Power of Print
• A cabinet of textile wonders - a wonderful article in Form Kraft magazine
• The Power of Print - A Celebration of Danish Textile Printing
• Adventures in Denmark, Part 1, Amanda Rataj Studio Newsletter

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out. Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

Updates and FM Mavericks

Hi and welcome! 😊 I'm so glad that you're here. It's snowing In Ottawa, but it's not the heavy wet snow, so that's a relief! I have some updates and progress to share with you today. 

Christmas Panel - a flimsy

Christmas Panel, ready to be sandwiched!

I really, really hope that my DIL will love it as much as I do! It was so much fun to make. Yesterday I checked the backing fabric and yes, I have enough. I cut it up to fit on the back. It'll be tight but fine. Now to take out the batting and take everything to the dining room to pin it together. 

Christmas Mat

I finished stitching the first Christmas mat - and had a photo shoot with my mother's Christmas teddy bear. I used green perle cotton and a red linen yarn that is thicker than perle cotton but still fits in the eye of my needle!

Christmas mat stitched with cotton and linen yarns

More poses!

Desert Landscape

Finally, I have also finished and given the Desert Landscape to hubby. It's now in his home office.

Finished Desert Landscape

In case you're wondering, here are a couple of photos of how I finished the piece in the hoop. I didn't mention the details of finishing Sunset Over Water but I remembered that I hadn't cut the excess fabric well around the hoop, so I made sure to measure before cutting it. That did help in the finishing.

Cutting the excess fabric evenly

After that, I added fabric glue (Aleene's Tacky Glue) on the top of the inner wooden hoop and pressed the fabric down. The next step was to add a piece of felt or flannel inside the finished hoop. I also wrote an inscription but managed to glue it upside down! 😂

Bunching up the fabric before covering it up

What I learned

• Measuring the excess fabric around the hoop, before cutting it, made a difference to the finishing of the piece.
• Next time though, I should check that the backing inscription is positioned correctly! 
  
• There are many different ways of finishing a hoop. So far, I think that this is my favourite - fast and easy!
• I'm really looking forward to FMQ the Christmas Panel. I'm not sure what I'll do, but it will be simple! I do enjoy stitching around elements of a panel or fabric, so that's probably what I'll do for the inside.
• This mat was stitched with running stitches going in the same direction. I'm having fun switching that around for the second mat!😄

Related links

• December OMG and Table Scraps Challenge, December 03, 2025
• Desert Landscape in progress, November 14, 2025
• Sunset over water, November 06, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties - you may want to check some out, after linking below! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your food down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 561 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished up this beauty, Crimson Christmas. She did learn that matchstick quilting takes a long time and can result in a stiff quilt. It's still a gorgeous quilt and will make a lovely wall hanging!

Crimson Christmas made by Kat

Melva, from Melva Loves Scraps, finished Memory Keeper III. 

Melva's Memory Keeper III

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter finished her first Hip Hop Hopscotch quilt. She FMQ each whirly gig block with a stylized swirl surrounded by flower petals. What a sweet quilt!

Hip Hop Hopscotch quilt by Deb

Deb FMQ a stylized flower over each whirly gig

Sandra Walker of mmm quilts finished a UFO last week. Kindred Spirit was a quilt along hosted in 2017. You'll want to read more about it in Sandra's post!

Sandra's Kindred Spirit, a gorgeous UFO finish!

Details of the FMQ on Kindred Spirit by Sandra

It's now your turn!😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter